Large businesses (LBS) in India spent nearly $2.3 billion on IT and telecom solutions last year. IT products and services contributed a majority of this spending—more than two thirds—according to a new study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners. A glance at the vertical profile of this LB segment shows that manufacturing dominates the LB pie in business numbers, followed by the service sector.

“In terms of business universe, large businesses are quite miniscule, comprising just about 0.3% of the entire PC-owning business universe,” says Swati Sasmal, senior research manager at AMI-Partners. “Yet, they make up a sizable proportion (almost one sixth) of IT spending by Indian businesses. Hence, they provide a considerable opportunity and are much sought-after by IT vendors, who can earn huge returns on investment through minimal marketing. LBs possess a high level of knowledge and expertise regarding IT solutions and a well-structured and systematic purchase process. They are also the front runners in trying out newer technology solutions. These factors make it easier for IT vendors to approach them for prospective sales.”

A vital strategic focus area for India LBs in the next 12 months is the extension of network connectivity to branch offices and other remote locations—cited by three quarters of respondents. This has become almost imperative in view of the rapid expansion of these enterprises. Two other strategic focus areas are security and storage, indicated by two thirds of LBs. Within the security arena, basic technologies like anti-spam and anti-spyware show significantly high penetration, at approximately 55-65 percent of businesses. It is interesting to note that even advanced technologies like security management, web filtering, intrusion detection/ prevention, disaster recovery, encryption and identity and access management display healthy usage levels—by approximately 30-40 percent of businesses.

India LBs are on their way towards complete automation of their business processes; to facilitate this they are making efforts to fully integrate information technology into every aspect of their business transactions. AMI’s survey showed that all businesses in this segment enjoyed revenue growth; a typical LB experienced a healthy 20 percent rise in turnover in the last financial year. Similar trends are expected to continue in the next 12 months.

Large enterprises have also developed awareness about the intrinsic advantages of enterprise software, such as complete business integration, increased efficiency, higher quality, and lower error rates. Consequently, a key feature of India LBs has been the high usage levels of enterprise software applications like ERP. A majority of India enterprises (two thirds) currently own and use some form of ERP with a significant proportion planning to adopt the same newly in the next 12 months.