Mr. Kunal Singhal, Md of Eazy ERP in conversation with Faiz Askari for BWDisrupt talking about how IT enablement is happening at the SMEsFaiz: How SMEs are transforming the adoption of business automation?Kunal: Thank you first for having me here. Business automation is the most vital thing these days. You cannot imagine a world where you start keep doing things mannually everywhere. There was a time when someone used to imagine a business within a small community or a small society but today everyone is visioning a national level or a global level presence. So for that having things automated, which could be as simple as interacting with your customers or getting your data on time, is required. Without business automation you cannot achieve growth.
Faiz: What are the drivers, which you experience,that are driving the IT enablement in the SMEs?
Kunal: I would say trends have changed with time. If you talk 10-15 years back, simply getting accounts automated was the trend. That time tally or busy solutions like these were the drivers of the growth. Today if we talk about, the trend is all about analytics, its about business intelligence, its about customer engagement. A simple example, you go on to Flipkart, Flipkart already knows what you are going to search. You go on google, it already predicts the answer that you are looking for, or you type one word and probably it is already answered what you are looking for. So its all about analysing what the customer is looking for and giving him before even he thinks about it.
Faiz: You interact with SMEs when they actually come up to you before getting on to building systems or processes. What is the basic remedy or the usual remedy that you offer to them?Kunal: We deal majorly with SMEs. Majority of the customers who come to us are those who have not even adopted IT to a very good level. They usually come from traditional business houses who have taken their business to a certain level but now feeling the pinch of it that it is not being managable without the correct systems. So we are usually a role player and helping them establish their first systems, which could be as simple as accounting or as complex as an ERP or a CRM. So we have been a participant to companies who have started from zero and grown to a very good level or who have already achieved a certain level but now want to expand large. And we help them manage their core level systems and get the things done.
Faiz: At Eazy Erp, how do you foresee next two years for your business growth?Kunal: See the next two years, or rather the next one year is going to be very crucial. We are already doing work with a lot of businesses at every level. But the next outcome of GST will change things. Now, even smaller SMEs, who have not thought of IT, will be mandated to think of IT. And that’s where players like us will come into the picture. Now these can be large players, who have grown exponentially but still maintained very traditional systems and now they need the systems to be automated completely or could be even smallest players like a retailer who would want a system to be done. So as being in the Eazy ERP segment, we foresee the next one year to be very very eventful. We are targetting to achieve global presence within this financial year itself. So the regions within middle east, Africa, the entire EMEA region is our target market and we are working towards that.
Faiz: You interact with SMEs when they actually come up to you before getting on to building systems or processes. What is the basic remedy or the usual remedy that you offer to them?Kunal: The first thing we do is just to understand what they are currently doing. Where are the pain in areas that they are failing and which they are not able to track. Because at the fundamental level, our first solution is to help them track their existing inventory and which 90% of the times the customers are not aware of what is lying where with them. That’s where we start with. Once they have hold of their basic inventory, then the solution can escalate to probably advanced production, advanced supply chain, advanced vendor management and customer engagement. But at the core level they first need to have track of their existing things which most of the times they don’t have.
Faiz: Thank you very much Kunal. I am sure these inputs are very vital and very important for every SME to consider while going for IT automation.It was a pleasure being here.
BW Reporters
Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
