The Internet has come a long way from the days of ‘brochure sites’ & the initial uses for email. Web presence is of prime importance in this hightech era. A website is a powerful marketing tool that can help boost business. It can help you to communicate useful information to the clients and also the vendors. A carefully planned and fully optimized website can provide your business with repeat visitors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ‘always on’ requirements of the current business scenario can be satisfied with mobile applications even in remote locations.

1. Web & Mobility – SME’s in Focus
The Internet has made a significant impact on our personal and professional lives over the past
10 years ago. There was approximate 3 million websites worldwide in 1998, a fraction of today’s
number. An SME with a website in 1998 would certainly be ahead of the curve. However, the site
would likely be a digital brochure at best and most likely contained the infamous words, ‘under
construction’, somewhere on the site. Many small businesses were not yet using email in 1998
and although email actually predates the internet, it was the introduction of the internet that
email began to gain wide spread adoption. The Internet has come a long way from the days of
‘brochure sites’ and the initial uses for email. Web presence is of prime importance in this high-
tech era. A website is a powerful marketing tool that can help boost business. It can help you to
communicate useful information to the clients and also the vendors. A carefully planned and
fully optimized website can provide your business with repeat visitors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. The ‘always on’ requirements of the current business scenario can be satisfied with mobile
applications even in remote locations.
SMEs: The need for websites and Mobile Applications:

2. Porter’s Value Chain: Web and Mobile applications for SMEs
Potential gains from conducting e-business environment: Website and Mobile
applications
The adoption of Internet and e-commerce technologies can provide a SME’s a better chance to
gain both strategic and operational benefits as follows:
1. Cost Reduction Benefits:
➢ Reduced travel costs: by using a mobile phone, email and other ICTs to substitute for
journeys.

3. ➢ Reduced cost of materials: more information means better choice of suppliers and more
competitive prices.
➢ Reduced marketing and distribution costs: for example, publishing a brochure online can
reach an unlimited number of potential export customers and allow regular update.
➢ More efficient supply chain management: can eliminate the need for middlemen leading to
lower transaction costs (including marketing, sales, transaction processing), reduced
overhead, and reduced inventory and labor costs.
➢ Improved internal functions: cutting down on meetings, improving the exchange of critical
knowledge, eliminating red tape, and streamlining communications.
2. Market Benefits:
➢ Greater reach: a web presence can allow entrepreneurs to reach out to customers far
beyond their immediate location.
➢ More brand awareness: offering new avenues of promotion for products and services.
➢ Improved customer service: providing more responsive order taking and after-sales service
to customers; this, in turn, can lead to increased customer loyalty.
➢ Increased market awareness: entrepreneurs can become more aware of competition
within their market and more aware of market changes, which can lead to product/service
innovation or quality improvement. critical knowledge, eliminating red tape, and
streamlining communications.
3. Other Competitiveness Benefits:
➢ Increased efficiency: eCommerce not only reduces costs but it can also increase the speed
of transactions; both buying and selling.
➢ Continuous trading: suppliers and customers, if they wish, can access a 24-hour/7-day
sales service – particularly important when trading through time zones.
➢ Specialization: eCommerce can help entrepreneurs focus their activities – making it easier
to build relationships with other enterprises and communicate their needs to support
agencies.

4. Mobile Applications
➢ Better decisions. To many field employees, the value of information is situational. Having
the right materials in front of a sales prospect, knowing what parts will be needed to fix a
remote problem, figuring out which products to cross sell based on what the customer is
using.
➢ Faster decisions. Not having information in the field can impede responsiveness to
customer needs. Insurance adjusters can’t adjudicate claims in the field, brokers can’t
provide "instant" price quotes based on credit scores, and financial planners can’t view a
customer’s portfolio in real time.
➢ Shortened cycles. Bridging the gap between the field and the office can shorten core
process cycles. Remote reporting of retail inventory can shorten replenishment, the ability
to customize contracts in the field can shorten the sales cycle, and the ability to track
logistics in real time enables manufacturers to shift their production plans more quickly.
Conclusion
The key to a successful marketing for a SME is creating an environment of interaction and
engagement between the business and the consumer. Mobile and web services provide a
unique and affordable opportunity for businesses to establish and enhance these relationships
with their consumers like never before, making it an ideal medium for SME marketers to
leverage.The value proposition for industry-specific mobile and web-applications is their ability
to enable the fundamental transformation of the business processes relying on them. According
to one research study, the online sales are expected to grow to US$144 billion in 2010. The
online merchants will face a new challenge of the growth coming from the existing customers
rather than new shoppers. This should mean the customers are becoming more experienced,
and are technology savvy. Moreover, it is also forecasted that in 2010, 71% of online users will
use Internet for a shopping’s purpose. Hence, SMEs should look at these technologies as
indispensible tools for a strong and profitable business.

5. About vEmployee
vEmployee is a leading IT Service provider based out of India. With services spanning over the
technology value chain, vEmployee is a one stop shop for enterprise wide IT needs. With over
a decade long experience in the industry, vEmployee has established itself as a trusted partner
to various companies by providing timely project delivery coupled with high quality. Our
parent organization Clarion Technologies is a SEI CMMI 3 level assessed company whose
singular focus is on 'client satisfaction'.
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