{"id":161,"date":"2021-01-05T07:18:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T07:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/sritnetechtalks\/?p=161"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:46:21","slug":"digify-digital-transformation-for-msme-and-platform-play-for-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/sritnetechtalks\/2021\/01\/05\/digify-digital-transformation-for-msme-and-platform-play-for-start-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"Digify! &#8211; #Digital Transformation for MSME and Platform Play for #Start-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a digital platform opportunity in MSME for every vertical. The Shopify kind. Shopify helped MSMEs build an online presence. But why stop there?<\/p>\n<p>Why not &#8216;digify&#8217; the whole value chain? Pick up a vertical and offer end to end (raw material to sales) digital platform to MSMEs in each vertical:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strategic direction: Forecasting trend opportunities through big data analytics,<\/li>\n<li>Digital mapping and integration of processes of supply and demand,<\/li>\n<li>Collating all above info to source Just-In-Time Supply,<\/li>\n<li>Smart Factory<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Benefits:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduced inventory<\/li>\n<li>Significant cut in lead time to hit the market<\/li>\n<li>Faster decision-making to capture market share<\/li>\n<li>Improved bottom line<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Apparel Business | Alibaba&#8217;s Xunxi<\/h2>\n<p>Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sight on a new target: the country\u2019s outdated factories. Alibaba\u2019s path to smart manufacturing starts with garments, a market worth 2.2 trillion yuan ($328 billion) in China last year based on Euromonitor International\u2019s estimates. Alibaba has said that one in four clothes purchases in the country was shipped via its e-commerce platforms, granting it access to an ocean of data that it is now deploying to assist domestic garment makers in design and production planning.<\/p>\n<p>It is also centralizing the material procurement process to help reduce costs. Artificial intelligence, robotic arms, as well as many other in-house technologies have also been put into use at the Xunxi factory prototype. It usually takes months for apparel companies to bring a new design from runway to stores, but Alibaba claims it can cut order lead times by 75% with its solutions. This would address the growing demand for instant gratification among China\u2019s Gen-Z consumers. For instance, with the help of AI, designers can review simulated rendering effects on so-called digital fabrics on their computer screens, rather than going through a time-consuming process to dye the fabric. Needless to say, all the robotics and IoT will be in place.<\/p>\n<h2><u>Auto-repair Business | Tencent<\/u><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Problem statement: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The company provides 3-year warranty, and the company dealers\/service centres take care of the car during that time. The independent garages handle most jobs thereafter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Demand Aggregation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Urban Clap of Auto-repair<\/li>\n<li>Mobile-based pick up and drop<\/li>\n<li>Quality guaranteed by the app<\/li>\n<li>Consumers do not need to interface with small mechanic shops<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Supply Aggregation: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get Uber driver-type supply aggregation of the small mechanics shops<\/li>\n<li>After critical mass is built the app starts backward integrating and digitizes those processes for the mechanic shop. Plus, open own garages\/franchise<\/li>\n<li>Develop Swiggy-like digital backend for your suppliers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Target:\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 1rem\">Young car owners.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Besides, China\u2019s big tech companies are circling the auto-repair business in a bid to capture the boom in vehicle maintenance as the country\u2019s vast car fleet begins to age.<\/p>\n<p>Tencent and Alibaba are trying to make the unorganized repair shops with the choice of joining one of their new smartphone-based networks.<\/p>\n<p>Alibaba\u2019s strategy is to link its popular Tmall e-commerce platform with a new physical chain of Tmall-branded garages to create a maintenance service that starts on a smartphone and ends in a bricks-and-mortar store. Tencent has two affiliates that are both building new garages and joining with existing ones to provide physical endpoints for online auto-part sales.<\/p>\n<h2>Opportunities for\/in India:<\/h2>\n<p>Indian start-ups, MSMEs have an opportunity to make billion-dollar businesses with such platforms in industries like bulk drugs, chemicals, auto repair, textile, etc. An MSME in this industry can create one for itself and then make a business out of it. India has some unique challenges such as contract workers in these industries. Such platforms can provide a win-win model for workers and employers by eliminating the intermediaries.<\/p>\n<p>Guest Author: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sameersankhe\/\">Sameer Sankhe<\/a>\u00a0(Head, Digital Transformation &#8211; Tata Projects)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a digital platform opportunity in MSME for every vertical. The Shopify kind. Shopify helped MSMEs build an online presence. But why stop there? Why not &#8216;digify&#8217; the whole value chain? Pick up a vertical and offer end to end (raw material to sales) digital platform to MSMEs in each vertical: Strategic direction: Forecasting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[5,6,9,10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Digify! - #Digital Transformation for MSME and Platform Play for #Start-ups - Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy (SRITNE)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/sritnetechtalks\/2021\/01\/05\/digify-digital-transformation-for-msme-and-platform-play-for-start-ups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digify! - #Digital Transformation for MSME and Platform Play for #Start-ups - Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy (SRITNE)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a digital platform opportunity in MSME for every vertical. 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