- Businesses, entrepreneurs and education institutions can experience modern technologies first-hand at the experiential center
- Rolls out “I am Vadodara, I am Digital’ initiative to help Vadodara move towards becoming a digital city
Microsoft, in collaboration with Vadodara Chamber of Commerce & Industry (VCCI), announced the opening of a Digital Experience Center in the city. Managed by Microsoft’s distributor Ingram Micro, the center will help businesses, institutions, partners and individuals gain a first-hand experience of modern technologies on devices running Microsoft software, including Windows apps and Office 365. Microsoft and VCCI also launched the “I am Vadodara, I am Digital” initiative. Today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world is continuously driving digital work & life experiences. The aim with this center is to bring to life these experiences for SMBs, entrepreneurs and educational institutions and help them leverage contemporary cloud technology to drive business growth as well as enhance skills and promote learning.
This initiative will help SMBs understand the value of IT and make it easier for them to adopt cloud solutions. The adoption of IT across verticals will improve their productivity by collaborating, communicating and connecting better in their ecosystem to reach out to more customers across locations and unlock newer business opportunities. With this initiative Microsoft and VCCI will together help SMBs, entrepreneurs and institutions in Vadodara adopt the latest Microsoft technologies and help the city realize its vision of becoming digitally and technologically advanced.
In additions to SMBs, Microsoft and VCCI will also help educational 
institutions to adopt technology that will prepare future generations for the mobile-first, cloud- first world. As a part of this initiative, Microsoft’s latest innovative cloud- computing based offering Edu-Cloud, will help education institutions enhance digital learning and teaching by providing them with access to digital content and free access to Office 365 on Windows-powered tablets. This initiative will add momentum to the ongoing efforts to help the country make brisk progress on its ‘Digital India’ vision that aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society.
Nilesh Shukla, President, Vadodara Chamber of Commerce & Industry said, “Today, businesses, entrepreneurs and education institutions need to embrace technology if they are to transform and scale up their businesses at a minimum cost and accelerate growth. VCCI believes that technology will drive the next wave of growth for organizations in Vadodara. To this end, it is crucial to make technology more accessible for faster adoption, and our association with Microsoft is the first major step in this direction. The need for this transformation has prompted us to work closely with Microsoft. This initiative is also well in line with the government’s ‘Digital India’ campaign, and we hope to see Vadodara as a digital city in the coming months. “
Microsoft is also readying its partners to serve as trusted advisors for SMBs looking to adopt cloud services. Bitscape Infotech, a Microsoft Gold Competency Partner, has registered a 140% growth in business in the last 12 months, riding on high adoption of Microsoft Office 365 and Azure among customers. The company aims to extend this success to SMBs and other organizations in Vadodara.
Speaking at the event, Kartik Shah, MD & CEO, Bitscape Infotech said, “Vadodara is a growing city, and with the right technology solutions in place, has the potential to see a definite growth. It is heartening to see prominent industry bodies, such as VCCI, understand the power of modern technologies and encourage their adoption. We look forward to working closely with them, helping drive more efficiency with Microsoft Office 365.”
Vikas Rajgharia, Director, Finecure Pharmaceuticals Ltd., said, “By adopting Microsoft Office 365, we have successfully solved our business issues in an affordable manner, taking advantage of a per-user model. Our concerns over reliability, security and availability of our IT needs are a thing of the past. This new approach allows us to focus resources on our core competencies and service our customers better.”
Manohar Hotchandani, Director, Business Development, Microsoft India, said, “Technology provides significant opportunities for SMBs to achieve their business goals and make use of self-provisioned cloud solutions to meet their IT needs. As per a recent study by Boston Consulting Group, SMBs that adopted IT have created more new jobs and more revenue growth over the past three years compared to SMBs that trailed in this regard.
Our engagement with VCCI and our partners is aimed at educating a large base of customers about the benefits of using cloud technology. Further, setting up of the Digital Experience Centre in Vadodara will help provide much-needed counsel and address the specific business needs of SMBs, institutions and entrepreneurs across sectors.”
The study by Boston Consulting Group, Ahead of the Curve: Lessons on Technology and Growth from Small Business Leaders, found that if more SMBs in India adopted the latest IT tools, there is potential for SMBs to grow their revenues by $56 billion and create 1.1 million new jobs.
