Global IT firms are taking a cue from consumer firms, which revolutionised marketing tactics in the FMCG segment with the shampoo-in-a-sachet concept by appealing to semi-urban as well as rural consumers.
IT firms, in the same vein, are looking to cater to small-and medium enterprises in India, most of which are located in semi-urban areas and can't afford expensive software.
They are packaging their software products in such a manner that they are affordable, easy to deploy and require minimal IT expertise to manage - all of which reduce the total cost of ownership. These companies are also hiring marketing heads from FMCG firms to make up for their lack of understanding of the Indian semi-urban and rural markets.
Microsoft, for example, has launched Project Vikash, which is aimed at building solutions for companies in a particular cluster and then taking it to other clusters. This is akin to consumer care firms test-launching the product in one region or state, before launching it across the country, based on its success.
"India is not a uniform market like the US, in terms of spending. So, when most global IT firms came to India, they were comfortable doing business in urban India. But when they started focussing on SMEs, which are mostly located in the semi-urban areas, they faced a culture shock. We are seeing many of them adopting the FMCG strategy," Bnotes Pari Natarajan, CEO of management consulting firm Zinnov.
IBM, on its part, is packaging its software solutions for SMEs under the IBM Express Portfolio brand. These products are specifically designed and priced based on the requirements of the market.
"For us, creating and packaging the software products hold value when the target customer is in the SMB segment. We know these are customers who don't make huge investments in technology but want something that can address their specific problems and can be scalable if required. FMCGs understood customer requirements in these regions and offered easily affordable packages," says Pradeep Nair, director- software group, IBM.
Networking solutions provider Cisco has taken the lead in breaking the tech lingo by taking its solutions on its 'network on wheels' to semi-urban and even rural areas. SAP, which has tastedwith SMEs, on the other hand, has come out with vertical solutions rather than cluster solutions.
The companies are packaging their solutions, services and pricing in a manner similar to that of FMCG majors.
Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and SAP are hiring marketing heads with non-technical backgrounds but with experience in diverse sectors.
"We do hire many of our sales people with some experience in the FMCG sector as a part of our SME focus because they are the ones who understand the local market much better than anybody else. We have a whole lot of people who have worked in the FMCG sector in the past and also in the retail, banking and insurance sectors. We know we are not selling very complex technologies but technologies that have been specifically designed for the SMEs," says Nair.
Concurs G B Kumar, senior vice-president, customer advocacy, Cisco India & Saarc: "There is a view that catering to the SME segment needs a high-risk appetite. So, from the services perspective, there is definitely a need for us to go deeper and wider."
Cisco has many people who belong to the non-technical background with experience from different sectors.