Offline-First, Voice-Enabled Mobile ERP for Rural and Semi-Urban MSMEs: A Survey of Literature, Trends, and Research Gaps

Author

Vedika Bane, Om Chavan and Swapnil Dhivare, Prof. Jaspreet Kaur


Abstract

 Rural and semi-urban micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India often keep inventory, billing and credit records on paper registers or messaging apps, while mainstream ERP and accounting software is commonly designed around stable internet, English-language menus and moderate digital literacy. This narrative literature survey reviews 38 journal and review papers in seven themes: MSME digitalisation, ERP adoption in small firms, mobile inventory and billing systems, offline-first design and synchronisation, cross-platform and on-device security, voice and low-literacy interfaces, and payments, credit and forecasting. The reviewed literature supports the need for lightweight, offline-capable tools and indicates that synchronisation, text-free interface and security building blocks exist, while Indian-language speech recognition remains uneven. None of the reviewed studies combines ERP-lite scope, offline-first operation, regional-language voice entry and a rural Indian MSME focus. Six research gaps are identified and used to outline GRAMIK, a proposed offline-first, voice-enabled mobile ERP that has not been implemented or evaluated. Sources were assessed from abstracts and record pages, so the findings are indicative.



Keywords

ERP, MSME, offline-first, data synchronisation, voice user interface, Indian languages, mobile applications, literature survey.



Full Text:

Download Paper PDF


References


[1] Buteau, “Roadmap for digital technology to foster India’s MSME ecosystem: Opportunities and challenges,” CSI Transactions on ICT, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://ifmrlead.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Roadmap-for-Digital-Technology-to-Foster-India%E2%80%99s-Msme-Ecosystem%E2%80%94Opportunities-and-Challenges.pdf

[2] Mittal, Sheetal and Soriya, “Fostering competitiveness of Indian MSMEs through IT and digitalization,” Information Technology for Development, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 1066-1089, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2025.2453211

[3] Hasheela et al., “Reluctance to adopt SaaS ERP among Namibian SMEs,” African Journal of Information Systems, vol. 8, no. 4, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/ajis/vol8/iss4/1

[4]Hooda and Santpal, “Digital technology in MSMEs: Opportunities and challenges,” Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 1-16, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://xime.org/uploads/manuscripts/Digital%20Technology%20in%20MSMEs%20Opportunities%20and %20Chal254861108.pdf

[5] Hatvalne and Dahivale, “A study of technology adoption drivers and barriers in Indian MSMEs with respect to m-CRM,” The Management Accountant Journal, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://icmai-rnj.in/index.php/maj/article/view/173296

[6] Jannah, “Systematic review of ERP adoption in SMEs in developing countries,” Jurnal Teknologi Informasi Mura, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://garuda.kemdiktisaintek.go.id/documents/detail/5926811

[7] Reddy and Krishna, “A mobile approach to effective inventory and billing administration,” Int. J. Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT), vol. 10, no. 6, 2025, doi: 10.38124/ijisrt/25jun369. [Online]. Available: https://ijisrt.com/a-mobile-approach-to-effective-inventory-and-billing-administration

[8] Isitan and Koklu, “Comparison and evaluation of cross platform mobile application development tools,” Int. J. Applied Mathematics, Electronics and Computers, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 273-281, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.18100/ijamec.832673

[9] Kumar, Singh and Sharma, “Evolving affordances and constraints in mobile payment use: A study of Indian micro-enterprises’ UPI adoption process,” Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 2025, doi: 10.1108/JEIM-09-2023-0455. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-09-2023-0455

[10] Singh, Narain and Yadav, “Adoption of information technology tools in micro, small and medium enterprises of India,” Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 528-551, 2013. [Online]. Available: https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijicbm/v7y2013i4p528-551.html

[11] Kumar and Nanda, “Determinants of the success of MSMEs in India: A policy vs. technology perspective,” Int. J. Technology, Policy and Management, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=129471

[12] Agrawal and Yadav, “Enablers for usage of the mobile wallet by MSMEs in rural India: Interpretive structural modelling approach,” Financial Internet Quarterly, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.2478/fiqf-2024-0010

[13] Verma and Shome, “An empirical investigation on the relationship between digital finance adoption and financial inclusion of micro businesses in India,” Journal of Small Business Strategy, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 58-73, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.53703/001c.124474

[14] Perez-Estebanez et al., “Technological and economic factors determining ICT level: Evidence from rural micro-businesses in Democratic Republic of Congo,” Journal of International Development, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 118-133, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/57770

[15] Al-Shboul, “Determinants of cloud ERP adoption in SMEs in developing economies,” Business Process Management Journal, vol. 25, no. 5, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-01-2018-0004

[16] Barbieri, Sott and Monticelli, “Critical success factors for implementing cloud ERP in SMEs: A systematic review,” Int. J. Innovation and Technology Management, vol. 21, no. 2, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijitmx/v21y2024i02ns0219877024300039.html

[17] Kleppmann and Beresford, “A conflict-free replicated JSON datatype,” IEEE Trans. Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 2733-2746, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPDS.2017.2697382

[18] Lee, Ko and Pack, “An efficient delta synchronization algorithm for mobile cloud storage applications,” IEEE Trans. Services Computing, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 341-351, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/83532

[19] Lee, Ko, Pack, Pacifici and Dan, “Fog-assisted aggregated synchronization scheme for mobile cloud storage applications,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 56852-56863, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2914450

[20] Cui, Lai, Wang and Dai, “QuickSync: Improving synchronization efficiency for mobile cloud storage services,” IEEE Trans. Mobile Computing, pp. 3513-3526, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://researchconnect.stonybrook.edu/en/publications/quicksync-improving-synchronization-efficiency-for-mobile-cloud-s-2/

[21] Pugoy, Habito and Figueroa, “Hybrid online/offline mobile solutions for accessing open educational resources in areas with poor internet connectivity,” Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 182-196, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-09-2016-0030

[22] Wang and Wang, “Optimizing offline mode and data synchronization techniques for literature translation applications on mobile devices,” Int. J. Interactive Mobile Technologies, vol. 18, no. 22, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jim/article/view/52451

[23] Biørn-Hansen, Grønli and Ghinea, “A survey and taxonomy of core concepts and research challenges in cross-platform mobile development,” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 51, no. 5, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16569

[24] Altuwaijri and Ghouzali, “Android data storage security: A review,” J. King Saud Univ. - Computer and Information Sciences, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 543-552, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doaj.org/article/e443c7537cf248038ba3c46f9db964da

[25] Park et al., “Security architecture for a secure database on Android,” IEEE Access, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://doaj.org/article/f55902a5f11742fa971dfe30f1cfecce

[26] Medhi, Sagar and Toyama, “Text-free user interfaces for illiterate and semiliterate users,” Information Technologies and International Development, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 37-50, 2007. [Online]. Available: https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/itintd/v4y2007i1p37-50.html

[27] Medhi Thies et al., “Designing mobile interfaces for novice and low-literacy users,” ACM Trans. Computer-Human Interaction, 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ToCHI2711_Medhi.pdf

[28] Islam et al., “Designing user interfaces for illiterate and semi-literate users: A systematic review and future research agenda,” SAGE Open, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://doaj.org/article/866ba87bcd9843c382fde01f3b27b605

[29] Deshmukh and Chalmeta, “User experience and usability of voice user interfaces: A systematic literature review,” Information, vol. 15, no. 9, art. 579, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/info15090579

[30] Singh, Kadyan, Kumar and Bassan, “ASRoIL: A comprehensive survey for automatic speech recognition of Indian languages,” Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 53, pp. 3673-3704, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-019-09775-8

[31] Dey et al., “An overview of Indian spoken language recognition from machine learning perspective,” ACM Trans. Asian and Low-Resource Language Information Processing, vol. 21, no. 6, art. 128, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03812

[32] Palivela et al., “Code-switching ASR for low-resource Indic languages: A Hindi-Marathi case study,” IEEE Access, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3527745

[33] Ravikumar and Prakash, “Determinants of adoption of digital payment services among small fixed retail stores in Bangalore, India,” Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, vol. 28, no. 3, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://inderscience.com/filter.php?aid=124123

[34] Berg, Burg, Gombović and Puri, “On the rise of FinTechs: Credit scoring using digital footprints,” Review of Financial Studies, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 2845-2897, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhz099

[35] Fildes, Ma and Kolassa, “Retail forecasting: Research and practice,” Int. J. Forecasting, vol. 38, pp. 1283-1318, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/retail-forecasting(1e3b100d-653a-48aa-9028-613432770560).html

[36] Eglite and Birzniece, “Retail sales forecasting using deep learning: Systematic literature review,” Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly, vol. 30, pp. 53-62, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.7250/csimq.2022-30.03

[37] Douaioui, Oucheikh, Benmoussa and Mabrouki, “Machine learning and deep learning models for demand forecasting in supply chain management: A critical review,” Applied System Innovation, vol. 7, no. 5, art. 93, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/asi7050093

[38] Todd and Javalgi, “Internationalization of SMEs in India: Fostering entrepreneurship by leveraging information technology,” Int. J. Emerging Markets, 2007. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1108/17468800710739234

 

 

Share your valuable work from Social Media Buttons