Seeing the capability of SME in executing projects, the Union ministry is considering reserving 10 percent of IT enabled projects for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The proposal is being circulated among the state governments to get a better response and to receive recommendations from stake holders. It is expected that the companies will get direct orders and even if the projects are given to big companies there will be provision for outsourcing 10 percent of the orders to SMEs.

The focus of the IT policy 2010-15 is on start up companies, IT products, SMEs and women entrepreneurs. Promoting women’s participation in the ICT sector is also its objective. More e-governance projects in local languages are also on its agenda.

At present there are 1,200-odd IT and IT-enabled Service (ITeS) companies. Out of these, 70-75 percent belongs to the SME category earning annual revenues not exceeding Rs 100 crores. A company is considered a start up if its annual return is between 50 lakh and 10 crore, with 50 employees and operating for less than five years.

The government has made provisions to grant incentives in the form of 25 per cent power subsidy to start-up companies, 25 percent reimbursement for premises rental expenses and recruitment assistance of 2.5 lakh per 50 persons recruited.

L Suresh, president IT and IT-enabled Service Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITsAP) says, “Usually, SMEs are good at executing projects. But because of their size, they are disqualified from participating in large projects. Earmarking about 10 per cent of e-governance tenders for SMEs will ensure that companies will have a level playing field.”

To market intelligence, prepare research reports & analysis for SMEs, understand new trends in technology, the Andhra Pradesh government will create libraries with support from NASSCOM, IT Exporters Association, Software Technology Parks of India, ITsAP and Institute of Electronic Governance. For the libraries, Rs 10 lakh fund will be facilitated so that the SME sector can grow. In order to evaluate the strengths of SMEs, the government shall tie up with business analyst firms. This will enable smaller ICTs to establish linkages with bigger firms and help SMEs to find international markets.

Andhra Pradesh has set a target to raise its export value to Rs 70,000 crore by 2015. The current value is 32,000 crore. The state provided 2.51 lakh employment in 2009. New employment for 125,000 people is being targeted. IT sector’s export is 50 percent of the total exports from other sectors in the state.

Tags: e-governance, ITsAP, NASSCOM, SMEs, stake holders, start up companies, state governments, Union ministry, women entrepreneurs
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In a recent move Verizon, the telecom giant, has launched a new security assessment and certification program for Small- and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 1000 employees are the target market for a new security assessment and certification program .

The company has had a similar offering for larger companies for more than a decade as stated by , Verizon Director of Medium Business Marketing Patrick Sullivan.

Verizon’s offering, dubbed Verizon Security Management Program, is aimed at SMBs not having extensive IT resources. It will advise companies about the steps they should take to secure their data. The carrier might recommend, for example, that the organization purchase a security suite, such as the McAfee suite offered by Verizon to provide anti-virus and spam protection.

Participants can choose either SMP Business Remote, with prices starting at $12,000 a year, or SMP Business On-Site, which starts at $22,000 a year. With the remote offering, Verizon puts a security management expert at the customer’s site to do a physical inspection and internal scanning.

Companies that opt for the on-site offering may be able to obtain an SMP Certification from Verizon to indicate that the organization’s information security controls and procedures have been examined, verified and validated against ISO 27002, a security standard of the International Standards Organization.

Tags: certification program, internal scanning, McAfee suite, physical inspection, security assessment, security management, SMP Business Remote, telecom giant
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Small and medium enterprises in various sectors are moving towards a new model of information technology to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Deploying software-as-a-service (SaaS), software hosted over the Internet and leased out as a subscription, avoids the upfront costs of on-premise software and server infrastructure needed to host the solutions. Minimizing operational and capital expenditure, SaaS gives business owners the flexibility to scale up the business while scaling down the investment.

Tags: small and medium enterprises, software-as-a-service (SaaS)
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