Under the aegis of Project Vikas, the Tirupur Exporters? Association (TEA) through its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), G-Tech Info Solutoins (Intl.) Pvt. Limited (GTISPL) and Microsoft India today launched online solutions for the textile manufacturing SMEs in Tirupur. The solutions include an Online Desktop by Airtel, Hosted Email by Global Outlook and Unified Communications by WIPRO: these comprehensive and affordable enterprise solutions aim at enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the cluster. The availability of the online solutions also means that the manufacturers now have the option of selecting the relevant hosted solution/s and take advantage of the ?pay as you go? model, rather than installing an on-premise solution.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. A. Shaktivel, President, Tirupur Exporters? Association, said, ?Over the last 19 years, TEA has been working closely with the government, industry and solution partners to help the textile exporters and manufacturers in Tirupur grow their businesses through technology adoption. We are proud of our partnership with Microsoft India through Project Vikas which has been instrumental in the cluster?s development through ICT inclusion. Further, the introduction of these new hosted online solutions will accelerate the IT adoption for the textile manufacturers in Tirupur and give them the advantage of deploying the right solutions to enhance their business productivity at affordable pricing through a ?pay as you go? model.?
Recognizing the huge potential of the SMEs and their set of challenges for IT adoption, Microsoft India launched Project Vikas in partnership with the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) in the year 2007. Under Project Vikas, Microsoft brings a plethora of relevant and affordable IT solutions in order to create a sustainable mechanism for IT adoption for SMEs. Further, Project Vikas focuses on making the IT adoption flexible by introducing hosted and online solutions that do not require any specific IT infrastructure and give an affordable option to SMEs via the pay-as-you go model. In order to Realizing the potential of the textile cluster in Tirupur, Microsoft collaborated with TEA to introduce Project Vikas in the cluster in 2008 which aimed at driving IT adoption for the SMEs in the cluster by facilitating them with affordable IT solutions.
Congratulating the team on the launch, Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, said ?There is no denying that the Indian SME sector has the potential for immense growth ? but the challenges faced by it are equally a fact of life today. At Microsoft India, we believe that relevant technology, at an affordable price, can go a long way in alleviating the threat these challenges pose. We are glad to partner with the leaders in the IT industry to bring these relevant and cost-effective online solutions which would go a long way in helping the manufacturers of Tirupur implement IT, and compete with the rest of the world.?
The textile manufacturers of Tirupur can choose from the following online solutions unveiled by Airtel, Wipro and Global Outlook:
— The Online desktop by Airtel – Nivio will offer the flexibility of accessing and sharing data from anywhere, anytime – along with secure and latest software to its users. This is available to them on ?pay as you go? basis. A 10 GB space will be provided online to users to store documents, photos, music and presentations. This solution also allows users to obtain managed PC environment, portable desktop, virtually unlimited storage and on-demand desktop applications.
— The Hosted e-mail by Global Outlook offers users enterprise class e-mail/collaboration solutions along with enterprise class security; without any pre-requisites of technical expertise of the customer. This will provide a centralized control for managing corporate-wide email threats, protection and security along with filtering the content and attachments from virus and spam at a zero up-front investment for customers. Further, the users will be able to enjoy uninterrupted service experience with a dedicated Exchange Services and 24x7x365 customer support.
— The Unified Communications by Wipro will help streamlining communications with easy flexibility in a single interface and by enabling easy connectivity with others in different locations for customers. The solution will also provide software-powered voice capabilities, enterprise-class instant messaging and multi-party audio and video conferencing.
Today, the SME sector serves as one of the largest employing sectors of the economy and also one of the key drivers of economic growth. In India, there are more than 8 million SMEs, and the sector has 40% share in industrial output, producing over 8,000 value-added products, contributing nearly 35% in direct export and 45% in the overall exports from our country. In Tirupur alone, there are about 5000 SMEs contributing towards the growth of the textile industry.