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| Chowdhury
says the reason for the company’s bullishness, is the
lack of established players |
With
traditional ERP applications paving the way for component-based
ERP applications namely ERP II (term coined by Gartner), companies
are increasingly looking to make the most of this opportunity.
Industrial and Financial Systems (IFS) Asia-Pacific has been
one of the first movers in this space and has chalked out
a detailed agenda to make the most of this market. Operating
in India in partnership with New Delhi-based Escosoft Technologies,
the company plans to aggressively market the ASP model in
order to increase knowledge of the concept and subsequently
business volumes. Also on the cards are plans to gradually
upgrade the IFS competency centre (based at Escosoft) to a
full-fledged R&D centre in the next couple of years as
the company gains a foothold in Indian market. The company
is also believed to be formulating plans to double its workforce
in the country every two years for the next three years.
Undeterred
by the slowdown and a sluggish market, the company has set
itself a target of 100 percent growth over the next 1-2 years.
According to Chandan Chowdhury, director-business development,
India, IFS Solutions Asia Pacific, the reason for this optimistic
target is the fact that the market is now moving towards ERP
II and there are hardly any players to cater to this emerging
market. “Apart from IFS, the only other player to launch
this component-based application is J D Edwards. This again
is a first generation application, while ours is a fifth generation
one,” he explains.
Apart from this competitive advantage, the company is also
looking at a well-defined strategy in terms of business models
and target market segments to achieve positive growth rates.
As part of this strategy, the company will be leveraging the
ASP business to get maximum volumes and also direct licenses
for more value. The company currently operates in the ASP
market through a strategic partnership with Antarix. “Antarix
is planning to scale up its infrastructure facilities from
2 data centres to 31 in the next three years, targeting around
1,000 business enterprise application customers. These customers
will all be our clients due to the strategic partnership,”
he adds. On the other hand, to strengthen the base of its
direct license business, the company will be spearheading
direct one-to-one marketing activities. In terms of target
market, the company will be specifically focusing on manufacturing,
telecom, pharmaceutical and utility verticals across both
large and SME segments.
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