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The Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) form a large chunk of India’s business sphere. And, SAP has been actively contributing to boost the MSME sector with its innovative programmes. Underlining SAP’s programmes favouring MSMEs, Subramanian Ananthapadmanabhan (Subbu), Vice President and Head of General Business (GB), SAP India interacted with Elets News Network (ENN) in an exclusive interview.

We hear SAP focusses a lot on the MSME sector. Why is this sector important to you?

Over 80 percent of our customers in India are MSMEs. MSMEs and their growth potential have always been of interest to SAP. Today, the MSME sector accounts for 29 percent of the GDP and 50 percent of India’s exports. With over 110 million people employed, this is a massive ecosystem that needs support and collaboration. It is anticipated that by the time India reaches a GDP of USD 5 trillion, MSME’s contribution to exports would potentially be at 70 percent.

Given the current backdrop, what is the need of the hour for this sector?

A lot of initiatives have been taken to improve liquidity and enhance supply-side capabilities of this sector. So additionally, the areas of importance would be to create new demand from domestic and global sources and also provide support with affordable and accessible technology to build on competitiveness and differentiate.

Enhanced labour productivity should be another area of focus that can make a difference. Currently, there exists a high demand against limited capacity in certain sectors like Education and Healthcare. With the explosion of E-Commerce and digital wallets, new types of jobs will arise. Then the urgency will be on creating a digitally literate workforce.

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SAP believes everyone can participate to support MSME’s growth in the country. We have the capability to extend support through the sheer diversity of our network and technological offerings and we are committed to doing our bit as well.

What is SAP India doing to help MSME’s get back to a growth trajectory?

SAP recently announced the ‘Global Bharat’ program that aims to help Indian MSMEs to become globally competitive. We are addressing three areas of opportunities.

Enabling Global Market Access: We have invited MSMEs to register on the SAP Ariba Discovery platform where they can enrol as suppliers and access a global customer market. This is the world’s largest B2B commerce platform representing transactions worth $3.3 Trillion annually.

Also Read: ‘Work From Home’ to be new normal in post COVID era: Sindhu Gangadharan

Upskilling through Code Unnati: Code Unnati, is a digital skilling initiative of SAP India’s CSR arm. It was awarded the most coveted Golden Peacock Award, a prestigious benchmark of corporate excellence. Through this program, SAP has trained two million Indian youth across 1500 physical training centres. SAP will now extend this platform on digital channels for MSMEs to upskill their workforce. The curated courses are available to consume through a mobile application on Android Smart Phones. SAP in collaboration with NASSCOM Foundation & Pratham aims to take this program across India.

Also Read: SAP Augmenting Authorities’ Response to Economic Recovery: Mukesh Kumar

Affordable Technology for Digital transformation: In association with the SAP partner ecosystem, SAP Business One Starter Pack will now be made available on Cloud for MSME’s to take initial steps on their digital journey. SAP is democratizing the accessibility of technology that can help companies begin from one up to five users. Our partners are offering these packages under Rs. 4000 per user per month.

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