People who are trying to scare customers from using this new paradigm are the people who want to maintain the old order.

• 
   What is it that has made ERP vendors look at net as a
  deployment vehicle?
  
  There are several things like cost of hardware upgrades. In other words cost of hardware obsolescence is the major driver–putting up networks, trying to upgrade your server and your PCs all the time. When you look at the old client-server model, if a company went up from one server and 20 terminals to 3 servers and 200 terminals, it meant that every time there is an applications upgrade, you had to go to each terminal and upgrade the application, whereas if you look at the net, or the three tier architecture, which is the backbone of the net, you only have to upgrade the entire application once. It does not really matter whether you have 500 terminals or 5,000 terminals and this is the main reason for the large companies to move on. 
  
  
  
  The other reason is that communication was an expensive aspect of business, say, five years ago. The internet has brought the cost down in India to about Rs40-45 an hour. This is another huge saving that people look at. 

• 
  Other than the cost, what are the main drivers behind a web-enabled ERP?
  
  Instant online availability of data. Today, if you buy SAP or something at your Delhi office, to connect to your Bombay office or Calcutta office you would either get a leased line or buy a VSAT, and that is an expensive way to connect offices. Whereas on the net, whether you are here or in New York, everyone is using the same data. Sharing of information within your company can only be provided on the net, there is no other way. Similarly, if you go for VSAT connectivity at every point you cannot have VSATs as it means investing lakhs of rupees. So with the internet everyone has the same information and it is up to the company to decide who it wants to give access to.

• 
  What about security concerns?
  
  Security is a scare tactic which has been used by large vendors, because they are the ones who are bound to get most shaken up by going to the web. And to be honest how many people today think of security? You go to any office, how much security do they use with their own employees? I am not saying it is not an issue, it is just one of the issues. Like when you have your own machine installed, you do not take backups everyday. But to create a hype that without security you cannot move on the net, is not correct. Is anyone wanting to know what my salary is, is anyone bothered?

• 
  But then what about some sensitive information?
  
  If 5% or 2% of your information is sensitive, which you feel should not be leaked in any way, you can go for encryption on the net. There are three flavors that you can get–one is plain vanilla, like your hotmail.com, it is free. Similarly, you can have the vanilla offering at a small price. In the first offering your database is intermingled with other companies. Second you have an offering where a server is dedicated to you, and in this case the monthly cost too is higher. And if you are more paranoid about security, then you have a VTN going with the encryption. Again, the cost rises further. In VTN you can have 128 bit or 256 bit or whatever you want. For example, companies like Citibank who do money transactions on the net, and so are more concerned about security issues, have this encrypted software, but this costs them money. 

• 
  l Who owns this web-enabled ERP, the vendor or the company?
  
  It is the vendor. He just rents it out. 

• 
  But would big companies not like to have their own ERP set up?
  
  Those days are gone. Let us look at our Indian evolution in the last 50 years. All these people who wanted to own companies, this was good in the socialist environment or in the license raj. Now who owns the company? Today, all these Birlas and Tatas may say that they own the company, but they own just 14%-15%. So the ownership concept too has changed.

• 
  But is it not good to go for a one-time investment?
  
  Actually it is not a one-time investment. It is not like a cement plant that you buy for $100 million and it runs for the next 10 years. Here, you buy a server for Rs2 lakh, but in three months it becomes obsolete. After you have used it for six months you run out off hard disks, or you need to upgrade your RAM. Especially, the companies who are not in the metros, what do they do? Like in Indore, can you hope to get a service to upgrade your hard disk, you will not get? So all these hassles are thrown out of the window and a company which is in Delhi and a company which is in Dharuhera they can have the same advantage from day one. 

• 
  What about the installment time?
  
  With the net, the advantage is that you need to install it once. In the client-server environment, if you go to multiple clients you are doing the same thing again and again. So when you go to a client and install your ERP, it may be Oracle, SAP or anything, and you generally need to get your hardware up. While on the net, you can buy it now and start working from the next minute. As you do not need to do installation for multiple terminals. 

• 
  However, your brochure puts the installation time at two months.
  
  Those two months are for implementation. We give the software to the organization and then they start thinking about what to do with it. It can take two months or ten months depending on the speed of the organization. Today, organizations are still taking time, then they use our software and say that from now I have to do my chartered accountancy on the new software so I might as well take 15 days and see how to improve on it. But this delay cannot be attributed to the ERP vendor. 

• 
  What clients do you have for your web-enabled version?
  
  Most of our clients today, since the product was launched only few months ago, are on the client-server model. On the web, currently we have four to five clients like Deluxe Bearing, BV Net (Pune) and Intel. 

• 
  What is the ESS roadmap with respect to other SME vendors?
  
  Today, everyone has realized that business on the net is one where you will make your money. We have tied up with the major ISPs, like BhartiBT, Dishnet and WiproNet, in the country. The way we want to maintain distance between ourselves and our competitors is by saying that it is not just ERP that we are providing, but also a framework for enabling any company to do business on the net. So, we are basically becoming an e-enabling agency. 
  
  
  
  Then we are also tying up with various vendors who can bundle their software with MakESS. Today, we have 50 business partners selling MakESS. In the next few months, I hope to see 50 developers who can hook on to their products with MakESS. And all these will be available as value-added services. That is, somebody who buys MakESS can also buy 20 other services on the net. Like a CRM module, or a product management module. But I am sure my competitors too must be trying to add some value to their ebusiness solution. But that is not going to happen fast. Time is of essence here. And by the time they do it, I will do something else. We are involved in various kinds of R&D, like we will try to give you inventory on the
  cellphone. 

• 
  What kind of a tie-up do you have with these ISPs? Is it related to providing a backbone infrastructure or something else ?
  
  Basically, we are an application service provider, that is, we know how to build an application. I
  did not want to get into the business of managing hardware and software. All these companies have already invested huge amounts of money in building data centers and huge 2Mb pipes and all that. 
  
  
  
  So these guys provide me the hardware and the  bandwidth to run my applications and we split the revenue. 

• 
  Are there any infrastructure requirements for installing MakESS on the net? 
  
  None. See, that is the joy of putting up your solution on the net. Other than a browser and a PC, a company does not need to use anything. Tomorrow, if a cellphone is bought and a facility is built-in, it does not have to load any software, it is just the password that is required. If he is paying my money he will get the password. That is really the beauty of the net. 

• 
  What according to you are the disadvantages of this new technology?
  
  At least, I do not see any. People who are trying to scare customers from using this new paradigm are the people who want to maintain the old order. Like when the electronic typewriter came, the manual type writer people said that it can blow up your office. Same paranoia. So I do not see any disadvantage. The world has to move that way–either you are on the net or you are nowhere. 
  
  
  
  The other thing that you see is that you will end up setting up communities of users, for example, auto manufacturers will have their own community.
  
  
  
  Similarly, we are working closely with some dairies and they will have their own community. Users will visit a site not to have ERP but to gather information, like the dairy people will get information on what is the right feed for the animals and where is the closest veterinary doctor available. We will just be the backbone, the guys in the backroom. Till now, what happened is that ERP itself was driving everything and they had to maintain the domain knowledge. Today, that huge merger of domain knowledge and software is happening with all this scare that technology spread will go down. Each community will have lot of data available on a site, and ERP will be just one of the buttons, they will just be a bypass to the lead product. 
  
  
  
  So the world is moving from monolithic software and monolithic hardware to thinner and thinner devices. For example, we worked really hard from 1995 to today, to build our software which has gone from 50Mb to 200-300Mb or whatever, now we have to come back and on the telephone you will not be able to load that much. So the world will buy thinner and thinner appliances. Some guy would say I only want to see my inventory, I will only pay you Rs400 a month and I only want to manage my inventory on the net. Similarly, someone else will say I only want to manage my user information and that is where the world will go in a two year time-frame. Someone will say, you show me my inventory in German, so what if I am in India, your software should be available in all the major languages. So you will satisfy more and more people, but each time user needs will be more and more individualized to a large extent.
  
  
  
  That is, if today MakESS on the net is available in one flavor, it will be available in 1,000 flavors in five years time. There will be another huge community that will be built around large companies. Those are two to three things that are going to happen in the future. Among the Indian companies, I think we are furthest down the road, but then everyone has to come on this road and I am convinced. 

Manisha Singh


in New Delhi