THE 'RIGHT' FIT...

India has finally fallen into the groove as far as globalization is

concerned. One of the prime reasons behind this is the proliferation of global

companies in the Indian market. This has led to the domestic large and medium

sized companies embrace standards and processes that measure upto global

standards. It has become more the reason for IT solutions vendors to cheer up

looking at the requirements of the Indian market. Statistics reveal that there

has been a significant increase in the IT spends of Indian companies in the last

few years. ERP was one of the first IT concepts to hit the Indian market,

although with meager success. But today, ERP players in India have a good reason

to smile. Companies have understood that to tackle competition, it is imperative

for them to improvise on their products and services. And this would be possible

through the use of IT enabled technology to make the customers, suppliers and

employees part of an integrated information system. Besides, global expansion

plans are another reason for domestic companies to take to organizational

overhauls. A lot many companies especially in the SME segment are gearing up to

embrace IT solutions and the primary implementation being in the ERP space.

Therefore a big opportunity lies for the ERP players to play a role in a

growing market. In order to be successful today, it has become a must for the

ERP providers to stand apart and take a look at the scenario. What is the true

requirement of the industry? Are the solutions suitable for Indian business

environment? How do they ensure ROI? To find the answers the companies should

address certain key factors.

To begin with the solutions should enable the alignment of Business Strategy

to IT. Baan has enabled this with Dynamic Enterprise Modelling (DEM). To suit

the business-operating environment in India, localization of products is another

important aspect of all ERP applications. Baan took advantage of its world class

development facilities in India to incorporate requirements such as Excise,

Sales Tax, Octroi, TDS and Modvat in a comprehensive manner. Further, IT

solutions vendor organizations need to cater to various verticals with tailor

made solutions that meet the specific requirements of each industry.

Baan has stood out as a major player in the ERP segment due to this strategy.

While many of the IT solutions vendors were targeting only the large

enterprises, we had our focus permeating to the growing SME segment that held a

lot of promise. Our headstart approach towards the SME segment placed us at a

high pedestal as far as the ERP market is concerned. This strategy has made us

the only player to find a sweet spot with SMEs amongst large ERP vendors. This

is because when the total cost of ownership and the expected returns are

compared, we are able to compete against both small as well as large players.

Our technology provides rich features, knowledge service, strong support and

rapid returns at a very low cost. Apart from providing solutions that make the

right fit, R & D and Customer Support are also areas where ERP players must

invest in order to remain in the industry. Therefore the highly competitive ERP

market needs players who can provide solutions that would kick start ROI as

quickly as possible coupled with just the required functionality for that

industry’s operational dynamics. Too much functionality causes "bloatware"

and too little causes operational inefficiencies while running a business. It is

the balance that creates value.

The author is country manager, Baan India