Automation for SME

If I look around I see lot of SME. I mean SME as grocery shop,medical shop, cloth shop, electronics shop. We can also add schools, small hospitals to this list. They all need to store information and that typically goes in books by manual writing. Is there is a value in automation for all these enterprises. The challenges are that automation for SME is still a costly proposition. The cost of software development for firms doing it will be as much as it for export. This means that unless supported by huge volumes there is no business model. Can mobiles help as mobile penetration is high ?