India’s first chain of eBusiness centres launched

indiamarkets.com announced the launch of a nationwide network of indiamarkets e-business centres, aimed at e-enabling operations of businesses, across geographical boundaries and industry segments. Speaking to the media at the launch, Rohan Ajila, Managing Director, IMO Communications Pvt Ltd (IMO) said, “… given the current low penetration of Internet delivery channels, indiamarkets.com felt the need to proactively drive the e-business revolution in the country’s industrial hubs. The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector would be among the main beneficiaries of the indiamarkets e-business centres, since they will now have access to e-business at their doorstep, without even owing a computer.”

IMO has strategically identified industrially rich locations in the country to set up these e-business centres. The centres are already in operation at Ahmedabad, Bangalore (2), Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Mumbai (2), NOIDA, and Pune. The e-business center network would be spread across seventy locations by the end of the year. These would act as a platform for training and familiarizing industrial units with e-business.

At the indiamarkets e-business centres, users would be provided the ideal platform to e-enable their businesses, which would include sourcing suppliers, identifying alliance partners, and finding new business opportunities. In addition to providing the users with access to the virtual marketplace, the e-business centres will also provide all necessary physical infrastructure to make e-business into a reality. This unique combination of physical and virtual benefits would promote the rapid adoption of the best trade practices by the SME sector. Office automation services such as photocopying, fax, printing, teleconferencing and video-conferencing facilities would be an integral feature of these centres.

The brick and mortar benefits offered by the e-business centres would be leveraged upon in a multi-faceted manner, to provide the best in class services to the business community. The centres would also provide an ideal location for holding conferences and seminars, making presentations, hosting seminars and road shows, etc. The high-visibility afforded by the e-business centres, in industrially rich location, also makes them an ideal platform for corporates with products and services targeting the SME segment.

“The opportunities offered by such an extensive and strategically placed brick and mortar network are limitless. Ultimately, the idea is to combine the benefits of the physical and virtual workplace, to enable and empower the SME,” Ajila added.