India’s micro, small, and medium businesses (MSMBs) sector accounts for around 40% of the country’s total economy. In recent years, amid a slump in overall economic growth, they’ve been doing it tough. To navigate these challenging waters, many of them are turning to digital transformation as the solution.
A recent study by Vi Business revealed that 60% of these businesses plan to digitise their operations by 2025. Cloud computing, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the typical end goals of these transformation initiatives for their potential to be drivers of efficiency, productivity, and market reach.
While MSMBs have a vision forward, many struggle to understand how to adopt these innovations. Limited budgets and technical resources further complicate any ambition to embrace digitalization.
Understanding these challenges, AeonX Digital focuses on delivering cost-effective and scalable solutions. Its goal? To help MSMBs navigate the complexities of digital transformation to ensure technology works for them and not against them.
The push for digital transformation
Technology does mean a competitive opportunity, and India’s business leaders are keenly aware of that. According to the Salesforce SMB Trends Report, almost every MSMB that has used AI has experienced revenue growth (93%).
However, this opportunity is only sustainable in the long term if the technology has been properly architected and deployed. Globally, Gartner expects that almost one in three AI projects will be abandoned. Many of those will come from smaller businesses that have invested in AI without having the budgets and technical backing to truly capitalize on the potential.
For those businesses that do want to map a pathway forward with AI, the first step should be to consider the strategic implications, and this can be broken down into four areas:
1. Cost Efficiency: Budget constraints mean that every rupee spent on technology must be spent well. The right cloud-based solutions, such as SAP on AWS, allow businesses to start modestly without making up-front investments beyond their needs.
2. Scalability: A business’s needs evolve and technology must keep up. Cloud platforms provide the flexibility to expand or contract services as required, ensuring companies only pay for what they use.
3. Security and Compliance: Cyber threats are a growing concern, particularly for smaller businesses with limited resources for cybersecurity. In India, small businesses are one of the more popular targets for criminals. A robust digital strategy must include protection against cyberattacks and compliance with industry regulations.
4. Ease of Use: Many MSMBs lack in-house IT teams, making complex deployments a risk. The most effective digital solutions should be simple to implement and manage, reducing the burden on internal staff. It’s a good idea to start with basic, low-hanging fruit applications, have them demonstrate value, and then use that as a foundation to further transform systems.
To address these four objectives when internal resources are minimal, MSMBs benefit from finding a strategic partner that can provide ongoing guidance and execution to a proven high standard such as AeonX Digital.
How AeonX Digital helps MSMBs bridge the gap
As an AWS Partner, AeonX Digital provides end-to-end enterprise-grade solutions tailored to the specific needs of smaller companies, ensuring they can modernize operations without unnecessary complexity or cost.
For example, AeonX Digital leverages AWS-powered cloud solutions to offer seamless cloud migration, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and data analytics. MSMBs adopting SAP on AWS gain access to real-time analytics, enhanced data management, and process automation—key drivers of business efficiency.
AeonX Digital also approaches its partnerships as long-term engagements. It understands that digital transformation is not a one-off project and supports businesses at every stage— from strategy and implementation to optimization and scaling—and boasts diverse capabilities such as website hosting, backup and data security, cost optimization, and AI deployments. This offers business owners access to the technical skills needed to execute a transformation agenda, allowing them to focus on more strategic business initiatives.
Its commitment to delivering innovative solutions that address the unique needs of MSMBs didn’t go unnoticed. In 2022, AeonX Digital was named AWS Partner of the Year and more recently was named Finalist for AWS Industry Partner of the Year Award – Mining at AWS re:Invent.
Despite some slowing in the national economy, India remains a vibrant and growth-orientated place to do business. It is becoming more competitive, however, so MSMBs do need to start digitally transforming to find and maintain an edge. With the right strategy and a trusted partner like AeonX Digital, MSMBs can harness the power of cloud computing and AI to achieve long-term growth and success. Ultimately, this will ensure that the business is sustainable in the long term.
AeonX Digital – Cloud Solutions for SMBs, Powered by AWS:
AeonX Digital is an AWS Advanced Tier Partner dedicated to helping Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) scale with secure, cost-effective, and flexible cloud solutions.
From cloud migration and hosting to AI-driven insights and disaster recovery, our solutions empower businesses to grow without IT complexities.
