Most MSMEs aren’t aware of DPDP Rules compliance yet, says Tally Solutions MD Tejas Goenka

Tejas Goenka, MD, Tally Solutions

Tally Solutions managing director Tejas Goenka said most of his Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) customers in India are not aware of the recently released DPDP Rules (Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025) and their implementation timelines.

Given India’s advancing digital landscape, many MSMEs in India have integrated enterprise workloads on cloud and data infrastructure. Most of them rely on digital customer acquisition, third-party tech tools, and low-cost data infrastructure.

The DPDP Rules, released on November 14, requires several key implementations to be done within an 18-month window. These applies to rules governing cross-border data transfers, research and statistical exemptions.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Goenka said, “There's a lot of effort that's going to be needed. I don't think that people are even aware in the conversations that I have, DPDP is not even a subject. If I do bring it up, it's almost as if I'm spending a lot of time just sharing views. There's a lot that the government will have to do, private bodies, associations, agencies will have to do to try and spread this knowledge of DPDP compliance.”

“But the impact on MSMEs, even if they are aware, it's probably not going to be as much given the nature of many of their businesses…The compliance burden that may arise a few years down the line, we'll have to wait and watch. I feel the government is also in the mood to reduce the compliance burden overall,” he added.

Started nearly 40 years ago, Tally’s business automation software products have over 2.7 million SME and MSME customers, giving the company an edge having built their own business databases through decades of work within the industry.

Beyond India, Tally has expanded to the Middle East, United Kingdom, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Global markets account for nearly 12 per cent of the company’s revenue while the rest comes from India.

These data bases come in handy as the company prepares to launch a slew of software features and AI-based solutions in the coming quarter.

Goenka shared that Tally is building AI solutions for customers that will provide value addition to existing software platforms. Some of the simple use cases they are building include enabling conversing with its AI assistant My Tally over phone to access data quickly without manually skimming through reports.

“I can take my phone and start conversing with My Tally. So, I wouldn’t need to look at reports, but I can ask sales, stock, and other information using voice and text rather than needing my system. All of these features will evolve with the whole agentic system developing. But again, there is a sense of reliability, trust, that is still lacking (among MSMEs). We have to be careful in what we give,” he explained.

“The AI landscape is moving so quickly, it's hard to make a long term commitment to any of the ideas,” he added.

In August 2024, speaking at Moneycontrol Startup Conclave, Tally Solutions chief of engineering Nabendu Das had given a glimpse of these developments.

“At Tally, we are working on a solution to automatically create invoice and … to have intelligent conversation with Tally data, using NLP (natural language processing) and Conversational AI,” he had said.

Tally is currently testing out these AI solutions through closed user group sessions. Over the next few weeks, the Bengaluru-headquartered software firm will take these solutions to larger groups for further testing and customer training.

The company launched the latest version of its business management platform TallyPrime Release 7.0 last week. With features like Connected Banking and TallyPrime Cloud Access, businesses have enjoyed the flexibility to work from anywhere, transact securely, and engage with external systems effortlessly.

Along with connected banking and TallyPrime Cloud Access, Release 7.0 brings in SBI and Axis Bank integrations to enable MSMEs to manage payments, fetch balances and statements in real time, and reconcile instantly through a single platform window.

Tally has existing partnership with Bharat Connect for Business, built with NPCI Bharat BillPay. This allows automated invoice exchange and payment linkage between buyers and sellers, letting MSMEs accurately tab their receivables and payables cycles.