2017 Might Be A Game Changer For MSME And SME Companies In India

2016 has been the year of speculation. The who's who and the analysts have been speculating on how things are going to shape up in the next couple of years in India for IT companies. The common perception is that there will be a decrease in recruitment as the focus will be shifting to research and development and automation of support work.

I had mentioned earlier (in one of my articles) that the focus will shift towards recruiting people who are experts in niche products and research and development. And that will be the area of focus as far as recruitment is concerned. I don't see any major deviations as the end goal is to get the kind of people who can develop new products rather than work on enhancement of the products that are already available in the market.

But the main question that needs to be answered is whether the big guns are ready for the transition. Have they done the required ground work for the most needed change. Are they ready for the transition. It is not as easy as it seems to be. It is not a plug that can be switched on and off as and when required. A lot of ground work is needed behind this change.

What I feel is that SME and MSME companies can play a big role in this. It will be easier for them to make the change from support function to research and product development. The process of transitioning and time taken will be much lesser than the big giant. But they need to do a proper ground work as to what is the need of the hour. They need to understand the pain areas and see how they can contribute in solving a part of the pain areas if not the whole of it.

Cost wise it will be a better option for the bigger companies to tie up with the MSME and SME companies so they will be more than willing to add them as their extended arms. Also this will give the big giant the time they need to do the transition from support to pure development function.

So the year 2017 can be a game changing year for MSME and SME companies if planned properly and the proper ground work is done from their side. This is the right time for them to ride the tide of change and extract maximum mileage out of it. I see this as a life time opportunity for MSME and SME companies to be a part of this change and be a major contributor.