IT integration - a smart tool for SMEs

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Bikky Khosla | 20 Sep, 2011
In present day business world, it's hard to imagine life without information technology (IT). The stunning speed of developments in the IT sector in the past few decades has changed the world of commerce so much that we can hardly think now how we managed our businesses just 20 years ago.

But while we all are well aware of the progress in the field of IT, most of us fail to see the fact that changes are still continuing and it is as important as it has always been to keep pace with them. If you are operating a business and you are lagging behind in race while your competition is not, it could be a real problem.

Historically, Indian businesses are not much willing to invest on IT. This tendency, more dominant among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has changed to some extent in the recent years and today's small and big firms are increasingly using IT solutions like ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), SCM (supply chain management), and BPR (business process re-engineering). But still it is far from being true that Indian SMEs are using IT to its true potential.

IT integration is one of the areas where, I feel, Indian SMEs lag behind. What does IT integration refer to? In terms of computer terminology, it means any software that joins together two or more already existing information systems and thus integrates the diverse information sources into a single framework. For example, instead of running ERP, CRM, SCM and BPR on separate software, which takes your productive time and hence affects your business productivity, you can use an integrated software so that information can then be shared by all the separate applications simultaneously.

Let's see a simple example to have a clear idea. Suppose one of your clients wants to place an online order; when you have integrated software solution, the software can not only take, shift and allocate the order to the manufacturing unit but also place an order for raw materials on the basis of the available stock, and update your financial position accordingly. It is how an integrated software works and enables a firm to keep a tab on every information pertaining to the business - materials, machines, men and money - in an efficient and cost-effective way.

These days, the number of Indian SMEs with online presence is not small. But most of them hardly go beyond putting a website on the Internet and availing an online e-commerce shop for their customers. Thus they restrict the scope and benefits of IT. In contrast, here they can use an integrated software, combined with the web, and joining together CRM and SCM to connect with the customers and suppliers, and a web-based ERP for the entire company operations.

The nature of information type and flow may vary from firm to firm but, whatever they are, integrating the existing information systems in a clever way will certainly help any business to cut down a good deal of non-value added processes and paperwork. For a small business, it could also be a key to overcome the resource constraints, and change the business for better.