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Anil Bakht, Managing Director, ESS on current ERP market scenarioPosted Friday, May 08, 2009 By Pragya GuptaADVERTISEMENT
Acquiring new customers in this downturn has become a challenge" A recent IDC study on ERP states that the future of ERP market consolidations will revolve around the small to medium-sized business market segment and certain verticals such as manufacturing, retail and wholesale and distribution that are more susceptible to structural changes, including user willingness to replace legacy systems to boost competitiveness in an age of globalization. With growing businesses clearly seeking tools to make themselves more productive the need for cost effective ERP solutions can never be over emphasized. Eastern Software System (ESS), Indian ERP company offers its products and services in over 25 countries including India, S.E. Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. Anil Bakht, Managing Director, ESS talks to IT VAR NEWS on current ERP market scenario and companys plans and strategies to tap ERP market. ITVN: How do you find ERP market at this economic downturn scenario? Anil Bakht: Acquiring new customers in this downturn has become a challenge. Most companies are not investing in IT at the moment, they are all conserving their cash. ITVN: Have you planned or offer any new ERPs keeping downturn in mind? AB: ESS has been concentrating on improving its package ebizframe for a number of years. We continue to invest in building enhancements and adding new features at all times. Keeping the downturn in mind we are advising our customers/ prospects to hold off on additional customization for as long as possible. ITVN: Most of the vendors have changed their strategies in major or minor way tapping the market in current scenario. What have been your strategies? AB:As mentioned earlier we have taken our customers in confidence and asked for their views. If they want to slow down the customization or stop it all together for a period of time we are supporting them. With prospects we keep on reiterating that if they implement the package without customization that would be a very cost effective of implementing an ERP in the current scenario. We can always take up customization at a later date. ITVN: How these strategies make you different from competitors? AB: I think all IT vendors are trying hard to survive the current downturn. I am not sure if there exists a strategy which would enable one vendor to make sales and the others struggle. I think all of us (in the ERP space) are struggling to make new sales and supporting our current customers in whatever way we can. ITVN: What are the verticals fueling growth of the company at this crunch? AB:Most high growth verticals of yester years are all in trouble, manufacturing, distribution and retail. These were the main spenders on IT and all of them currently are not investing IT given the uncertain nature of the economy. ITVN:What are the new development and changes do you foresee in ERP system in coming years? AB: I think ERP software will evolve to a completely portal based software. Lot more self service options and user definable options will become available. Users will start using more handheld devices. Over a period of time ERP software has been written primarily for the PC, this will change completely. Users will be able to use them on smartphones, netbooks etc. this will force the ERP options to become simpler so that the user can get to use an ERP even more effectively. ITVN: Give brief on your clientele and partners? AB:We have customers in the SMB space and even some of the large companies are our customers. Our partner mainly consist of people who are in the hardware space or the system integration space. ITVN: How ERP implementations at these challenging economic times can help businesses? AB: It is known facts that companies who invest in a downturn emerge much stronger than their competitors when the economy recovers. However we have to understand that in a downturn the most precious asset a company has is cash. Therefore to spend cash has to be a very considered decision. Having said that given the fact there is a slowdown companies do have the time to manage change required due to the implementation of an ERP. However it is a very fine balance that needs to be achieved for success. ITVN:Education and training is key for ERPs. How do you ensure that your partners give right solutions to consumers and the right implementation of the solutions? AB: I think more than education, handholding is thekey to success of an ERP implementation. ESS is very closely involved with all customer implementations. We have very well defined processes to ensure there are no gaps in an ERP implementation. Our processes ensure that any problem is discovered much before it becomes a big problem. ITVN: What are the challenges do you find while implementing the solutions to Retail, SMBs and Corporate? AB: The challenges of implementing are similar but not the same in the above segments. For example most SMBs do not have well defined processes so it may be easier to implement an ERP however a lot of SMBs like to just automate their current operations which can result in a lot of customization which can be costly. Large corporates have well defined processes and do understand that customization can cost a lot of money. The implementation speed maybe slower for large corporates but they like to make sure that the implementation of an ERP is done correctly. ITVN: How do you ensure the right usage of the solution by the customers? Do you provide any counseling to them as well? AB:Even at the stage of selling ebizframe we are giving suggestions to our prospects as to what is the best way of implementing an ERP. We want all our customers to have a cost effective ERP implementation. As I said earlier we have defined processes during implementation which enables our staff to get involved with customer and give him the correct advice at the right time. ITVN: How do you ensure the security of data? AB:we use and implement industry standard data security solutions for our customers. It also depends on how much does a customer wants to invest in security. ITVN: Do you agree that there should be loan or subsidized loans from bank facilities from bank for IT infrastructure? Give you viewpoint? How will it help IT industry and economy? AB: I think there are already things like this in place. There is a technology upgradation fund for SMBs and also preferential working capital norms for SMBs. As the world becomes a smaller place even SMBs are exporting a large part of their turnover. For any company to compete in an international environment the use of technology is a must. Like all investments, IT is an investment that pays off over a period of time. I think individual corporates must take a long term view of their business and invest in technology. I am not in favor of any subsidies as the potential of misuse is high. ITVN:Multiple taxation issue has eroded software sales in the country. What do you think is the solution of this problem? What would be the strategies to tackle this problem? AB: I do not agree that taxation issues have resulted in lower software sales. Everybody wants taxation to be simplified but to blame it for erosion of software sales is not correct. The issue is whether the end users feel that software is a good investment for their business. I think Indian businesses are still not convinced about the use of technology as a competitive tool. This is a cultural change and will require a long time. Most buyers of technology spend money reluctantly on technology. Comment & Contribute
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