Schneider Electric IT business, an arm of France-based Schneider Electric, has launched IT infrastructure solutions for small and medium businesses in India.
This will include computer servers, storage and other software that goes into technology data centres that processes back-end work for banks, retailers, financial institutions and others. While the combination of hardware and software solutions have been offered by IBM, HCL and others, for the first time Schneider Electric is trying to make technology implementation easier.
“In the past, technology implementation was very complex and with our solutions we are trying to address this issue,” Shrinivas Chebbi, Vice-President - India and SAARC, IT Business for Schneider Electric.
The company reasons that since small and medium businesses do not have large resources –both in terms of capital expenditure and technology manpower, they have been hesitant in adopting technologies.
“It is wrong to assume that small businesses do not want to use IT, said Jayessh Mehta, Managing Director, Future Businesstech India, a distributor of Schneider’s products.
Another problem that is hampering businesses is the constant change in technology. If companies can assure them of a tech roadmap and make it affordable, there will be more takers, according to Sundararaman Viswanathan, Manager-consulting, Zinnov.
According to the Zinnov, there are 48.8 million small and medium-size businesses in India and 45 per cent of them are located in rural India.
Schneider officials added that the company is eying a market worth Rs 1,000 crore this year. The company is making its solutions affordable by reducing ownership costs by 20 per cent, energy by another 20 per cent and real estate space by 30 per cent when compared to competitors. venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in