Bangalore, India — Intel India on Monday introduced an online storefront and business solution Web portal (http://bxindia.intel.com), designed to cater the needs for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
According to the company, The Intel Business Exchange (Intel BX) collectively provide resources and platform solutions built on Intel technology, such as bundled software and hardware, stand-alone business applications and services to create a one-stop shopping experience for SMB customers.
The new online initiative enables SMBs to research the products and services, request quotes, and connect with solution providers to speed the identification, selection and implementation of the technology they need to run their businesses.
The community-enabled Web site comprises of resources such as product descriptions, interactive demonstrations, whitepapers, case studies, blog entries and user-submitted product ratings and reviews, in order to help SMB professionals find answers to their toughest business challenges, says the company.
The Intel Business Exchange for India is the third one worldwide, said Peter D. Elmgren, managing director worldwide of Intel Business Exchange, in Bangalore on Monday.
The company has previously set up a similar online marketplace in China in December and in North America in May, with exchanges planned for other countries including Brazil and Russia, Elmgren said. “We will set up exchanges wherever there is a large SMB market,” he added.
The India marketplace lists products from Indian ISVs (independent software vendors) with plans to incorporate products from multinational vendors as well, said Narendra Bhandari, director of Intel’s Software and Solutions Group for the Asia-Pacific region.
Intel does not expect software purchases to be completed online in the initial phase since customers are still more comfortable speaking with the vendor first, Bhandari said.
Elmgren said, “The Indian SMB market is yet to be fully tapped and there is enough scope for technology players to offer integrated and customized solutions. The time is right to provide a single window platform that will address all the needs and issues faced by SMBs and transform the market into an organized set-up, the very idea underlying the genesis of Intel Business Exchange.”
He added that about 13,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) and channel partners were involved in the online initiative, thereby giving a broad rage of products/solutions for SMBs to choose from. The ISVs currently participating in the Intel Business Exchange include Tally, TidaData, Planvisage, Reach Technologies, Think3, Yukti, Infospectrum, Instacol, iWeb Technology and Kaspersky.
Bhandari added that Indian SMBs had a faster growth rate than any other BRIC nation. With the local economy growing robustly over a period of time, Indian SMBs are fast adopting IT. The Intel business solution Web portal will help SMBs to choose appropriate solutions in a quicker way.
Product categories currently featured on Intel Business Exchange include storage, security, office productivity and collaboration, ERP, CAD/CAM, HRM, and other on-premise business applications.
The exchange will more likely be primarily used by SMBs to search and evaluate software and service providers, Bhandari said. Purchases will more likely be completed offline, he added.
The exchange will help ISVs increase their geographical reach into smaller markets. Some of them will work concurrently with Intel’s own channel partners to deliver their software to customers, Bhandari said.
A number of companies are targeting India’s large SMB market. Cisco Capital announced earlier this month an interest-free financing scheme for SMBs buying services from the company.