Telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Friday said it aims to onboard about 250,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) soon with digital offerings such as Vi Business plus postpaid plans, device security, email security, and Ads solutions.The company is first offering free services to MSMEs to assess their digital readiness through its ReadyForNext tool. Once an MSME completes its assessment and gets its digital readiness score, the company pitches its Vi Business solutions based on the requirements.
“We launched this programme (ReadyForNext) last year and have reached 100,000 MSMEs so far. The ambition is to soon reach 250,000 MSMEs with our digital assessment tool and offer them our solutions,” Arvind Nevatia, chief enterprise business officer of Vodafone Idea, told FE. The company has now revamped the tool with an upgraded digital self-evaluation tool for MSMEs. “As the popularity and the usefulness of the tool increases, the adoption and the penetration will improve automatically,” Nevatia added.
He did not, however, share details about the overall enterprise clients of the company and their actual contribution. In the enterprise segment, the company counts three core customer segments: large accounts,SMEs, and government accounts.“The SME segment is one of our higher potential and high growth segments. So, to that extent this initiative is a very central strategic pillar,” Nevatia said.When asked about the average ticket size or average amount paid by small companies to Vodafone Idea for its solutions, Nevatia said it varies based on solutions.
For example, mobile plans of Vi Business start from Rs 299. So, an enterprise with 20 employees may pay around Rs 6,000 a month. However, small enterprises with more employees and choosing solutions like fixed data, business communications, pay in crores.In its MSME growth insights study 2023, Vodafone Idea said average digital maturity of MSMEs in India is between 55-60%. The company said, one-third of the 100,000 MSMEs participated in the study, are ‘moderate to high’ on digital maturity and operating in an environment where their customers are digital.Media & entertainment, logistics, and manufacturing are sectors highest on the digital maturity scale, according to the study.
“Implementation of security solutions, IoT and cloud solutions are key for a company transforming itself digitally. For the next phase of growth, digital transformation will be critical for MSMEs to evaluate a need for security and IoT solutions,” Nevatia said. About 45% of MSMEs are yet to adopt digital marketing solutions to reach and engage with their customers, Vodafone Idea said.