As I got us this morning a thought occurred to me, that the whole concept of Business network transformation will not work without the enablement of the SME/SMB s to participate on the network electronically. Therefore the SME/SMB initiatives by most software vendors goes beyond just them trying to go after the next profit pool since the large enterprise pool has dried up. They really need to get this done to make the future vision of the enterprise real.

In addition, I think its important that SME/SMB 's be on the look out on one critical aspect while buying software, go to the future not to the past don't let cost be your driving factor. If the SMB's buy /believe the that SOA is the enabler for the BNT model of business than they need to make sure that the invest in the right software upfront and not end up just buying the low end product and then having to undergo multiple product upgrades and re implementation cycles to get to the present.

Case in point B1, SAP s magic pill for the small businesses, I would really like to understand how this product fits into / enables their BNT concept. First its on on different platform and for lack of a better word on legacy technology. But since its priced aggressively and discounted even more, you see a growing adoption atleast in a country like India. But does B1 help or prepare the business to interact with their B2B customers electronically ? Basically it will move SME / SMB s to where the large enterprises were in 1995-8.

What do you think ?

Tags: bnt - sap - future - sme - smb - automation - erp

Prashanth Rai