Open Source, the magic term surely brings a smile on the face of people throughout the world. This is because, people/ large organizations have successfully used the platform to innovate and find new initiatives. But one aspect about the Open Source platform is that it can even be used by SMB/SME users throughout the world.
Various leading IT companies are today into the development of Open Source initiatives that are targeted exclusively at SMB/SME owners. SUSE is one such organization which has developed its own Linux platform called SUSE Linux which today is seeing increased adoption among SMB/SME segments.
We, at CIOL echoed certain queries regarding the various open source initiatives of SUSE to which Venkatesh Swaminathan, Country Head – SUSE India threw some light on SUSE's SMB/SME specific initiatives.
CIOL: What are the initiatives that SUSE/Novell has taken up targeting SMB/ Small enterprise owners?
Mr Venkatesh Swaminathan: As per industry estimates as of 2011, there are more than 100 lakh SME units in India with an investment of above Rs.. 1 lakh crore. This sector has recorded double digit growth during last four years. The SMB segment contributes 40 % to industrial production and 6% to GDP. According data available, SMEs are currently spending about USD 12 billion on IT and this is expected to go to about USD 24 billion in the future. Today SME’s are actively turning to IT to scale their businesses to the next level. With the market looking up, this segment cannot be ignored by virtue of the scale of business opportunities it provides for one; the other being the strong potential for growth it provides.
For us as an organization, we classify SME/Bs also on the basis of the user base. For us a user base between 500 to 2000 users will constitute SMBs for the sheer convenience of classification and not just turnover/size of the organization
For the SMB segment we have specific solutions designed to the needs of the customers. However, needs are quite individualistic to every organization depending on growth cycle as well as in terms of the IT roadmap the organization has set going forward.
We have also developed a compelling robust, flexible & cost effective solution called the Novell Open Workgroup Suite or NOWS, with a key focus for the SMB segment (http://www.novell.com/products/openworkgroupsuite/). This provides essential components like Libre office (open office), e-directory services, mailing & collaboration solutions etc which is a robust package to take care of all basic IT needs of the SME & stacks up as a strong alternative (Alternate Complete Stack) against other proprietary vendors whose prohibitive high licensing costs put an enormous burden on one’s IT budget. All this comes with the promise of improving workforce productivity and cutting costs upto 70% as compared to proprietary software products. It gives the customers a choice - and that's worth a lot. Especially when they can save so much.
CIOL: Kindly list some of the important customers that you have catered to?
Mr Venkatesh Swaminathan: ELCOT (ELCOT migrated from Microsoft Windows to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Desktop, and is putting it on 30,000 desktops and 1,880 servers in Tamil Nadu's schools) , Cafe Coffee Day( Café Coffee Day uses SLES Priority Support for SAP Applications to protect its ERP environment, ensuring that order management and logistics systems are always available), Mahindra Retail ( SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server running on HP blade servers was selected as the platform for its SAP ERP environment. The Novell® operating system combines high availability with low total cost of ownership, giving Mahindra Retail a solid foundation for its fast-growth business) , Usha Martin( Usha Martin Group selected SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to increase system uptime, with Novell ZENworks Desktop Management to simplify support and software)
Apart from this, Our open source based SUSE Linux platform is trusted by over 14000 enterprises worldwide & certified for over 135000 h/w platforms & over 8500 s/w applications. This in particular serves as an advantage as this eliminates dependencies on proprietary platforms which could adversely affect long term IT strategies.
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