'Blundering e-tailers nearly killed the market'

He’s

practising what he preaches. Ever since 1996, when he set up the liaison office

for QAD India in the country, he has been responsible for managing the business

cycle in India–forecasting, planning and evaluating e-needs for the new

economy enterprises. And he sells products that help companies do exactly the

same through a suite of e-commerce, SCM, CRM, ERP and business intelligence

applications. Last but not least on the list is the aspect of collaborative

application tools. He is also responsible for developing alliances and channel

strategies of the company for India and the subcontinent. In an interview with

DATAQUEST, Arjun Erry, country manager, India and subcontinent, QAD India Inc,

talks about QAD, where it fits in today’s e-economy and its strategy for

India. Excerpts:

How do you define QAD in this e-economy era?

If you look at QAD, it has been a provider of business applications and

software to large and mid-size enterprises across the world, primarily in

manufacturing. Hence the shift that is happening is sort of complementary. The

big advantage and the opportunity that such companies can have through the use

of the Internet are clearly defined by QAD products. This essentially means that

we take into consideration inputs of the tools based on a bunch of rules. If

these tools are provided to sales staff, which is a nomadic traveling work

force, then the company is transferring vital information out into the field.

It means cutting down the lead time in terms of the salesman going out in the

field, understanding the need, coming back to office, sitting with the product

guys, configuring and again going back. Using QAD tools and by making them

web-enabled means that a salesman can access information from anywhere and

anytime. Similarly, a company can benefit by sharing information of a major deal

signed or quantity and type of product the company intends to produce in a time

frame with sub-contractors, vendors and suppliers. This would help the partners

speed up the entire process of managing people, inventory and down time with a

focussed approach to meet the company’s requirements.

Opportunities like these are fast emerging for manufacturing companies. That’s

the big shift in the way companies are working today and therefore in the

approach of software companies like us.

Are you trying to address it from an integrated approach, where there

could be a single product that includes the ERPs, CRMs and SCMs of this world?

There is no single real answer for that as businesses and their models vary

across industries and even within a particular sector. Every business faces its

peculiar set of challenges. If the main challenge is logistics, one has to look

at supply chain and optimization. If there is a business, where the model needs

better understanding of what is getting lifted and forecasting, the need is for

demand forecasting solution. On the other hand, if the business model mandates a

better hold and understanding of the supply side, the need is for a procurement

solution.

So a company may need all of these or only a few of these. There may be many

different combinations, which can be figured out only by understanding what the

company wants to achieve in a given time frame and the challenges to it.

How do you look at the present e-business scenario, with everyone

clambering on to the bus? Does everybody need every new system?

I can’t make a sweeping comment on it, but this is a valid point. Maybe

everybody needs it, maybe everybody doesn’t need it, The way to go about it is

to understand what the company wants to do today, and what sort of market,

products, business model the company is planning. These need to be considered to

determine the kind of organizational structure, processes, type of human

resources and systems that would be required to make the transition. Like they

say, you cannot put the cart before the horse. One needs to first determine the

requirements and then deploy resources accordingly. However, there is no doubt

that sooner or later companies would require e-business applications; what form,

shape, color it takes is a different issue and would vary from case to case.

What market size are you looking at in India?

Market estimation at this stage is very difficult as these are early days.

These products are still being talked about at a conceptual level. What is of

interest are the changes that are happening in the e-business space triggered by

the 1991 liberalization process, the formulation of cyber laws, WTO and other

such issues. Also, I believe that integration between companies that operate in

optical supply chain is going to become crucial. This would include all those

involved in the single business process of convergence of raw material into a

finished product and making it available to the end user. This also means that a

huge amount of exchange of information is involved. This is critical information

and integrating it is the only way a company can become more competitive.

Integration is going to be the key to business and hence the potential is

immense.

How do you propose to work out a plan for India, particularly when you do

not have market projections?

We don’t plan for a particular market. We plan for the global industry. It’s

a question of which market moves in what particular direction. But then, if you

follow the market you are always left behind. One should know what is coming

down the pipe 2-3 years in advance. That is how we started developing

collaborative applications in 1998, while consultants and enterprise have just

started talking about it. The potential is huge and we are ready to offer

applications that bring information, commerce and people together so that the

industry can streamline its business functions.

Then, what has been the basis of QAD’s India strategy?

Our strategy in this country is based on two key factors. One, we have a base

of more than 750 customers using our enterprise applications in India. All these

companies will, at some point of time, begin to e-enable–some earlier, some

later. That’s a standard cycle that any new thing goes through. So we are

talking individually with our customers and helping them, working with them,

understanding with them the direction they intend to move towards. Our advantage

is that, being a leader in this space, we saw it coming two years ago. Today we

have all products to meet emerging demands. On the other hand, we are also

suggesting that even if a company does not have an enterprise application, it

can still implement the complete system at one go by bypassing the earlier

phases.

In fact, there are a lot of benefits in implementing it in a single phase as

all the change management–both within the physical boundary of the enterprise

and its external operations–happens at the same time. This saves a lot of

money



and time needed to marry a new system with a legacy system. The key here is
integration–for a given set of requirement and processes. Unless there is

integration, things will continue to fall apart in this e-era.

Shubhendu Parth in New Delhi