EAI to be thrust area for Microsoft

For Microsoft, 2002 is going to be interesting because it has launched several new product lines in the country. The company’s offering for Web services Visual Studio.Net has been rolled out in India and getting applications developed on .Net platform is one of the major thrusts of the company this year. On 25 February 2002, Microsoft announced sales and customer service software targeted to small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and built on the .NET platform. The company expects to release the software in North America in 4Q02 as a stand-alone product, bundled with Microsoft’s Great Plains Software suite or as an Internet service. Analysts believe that the product will be introduced in India during early 2003. Official sources at Microsoft India remain tight-lipped about this.

“Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is one of the growth areas for Microsoft India in 2002. We have an offering called BizTalk for this segment and the response has been very good,” says Daniel Ingitaraj, senior marketing manager, Microsoft India. The company is also planning to push its program for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).

“We have already clinched significant deals for BizTalk. ICICI and HLL are some of our early customers for this product,” says Ingitaraj. Another growth area for Microsoft is SQL Server. “With the launch of SQL Server 7.0, we are better positioned to tap the enterprise segment,” admits Ingitaraj. ICICI and HDFC Bank are already large users of SQL Server.

Baan

Baan has traditionally been strong in the manufacturing vertical and the last few quarters have been evolutionary for the company. “In India we are number two or three in terms of revenues, but if you look at brand recall in the manufacturing segment we are number one,” says Y Shekar, general manager, Baan India.

The company has now launched iBaan, which integrates the Internet with its offerings. Baan has around six percent share in the Indian ERP market and the company has been growing at a rate of 25 percent.

The company is planning to aggressively push iBaan amongst its clientele in India and this is expected to be a strong growth engine for the company in 2002.

Baan will be offering a core “stack” of capability (iBaan Enterprise) that includes ERP, OpenWorld, Decision Manager, B2B Server, Portal and Reporting. Versions based on Baan IVc4 and Baan5.0c will be offered.

Services key for SAP in 2002

SAP India has been dominant in the Indian enterprise market with more than a 50 percent market share in the ERP segment alone. This year, it is planning a significant thrust on the services front, apart from its packaged solution for the manufacturing segment. At present services account for 30 percent of SAP India’s revenues, but this is expected to increase in 2002-03.

The company will be tapping its existing clientele for vending new applications like CRM. “We see revenue opportunities in tapping our existing clientele for selling new applications,” admits Pradeep Sen, director - manufacturing and distribution, SAP India. More than 60 percent of large enterprises in India have not yet implemented ERP. These late adopters, according to SAP, are another growth engine for 2002.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions are going to be another growth engine for the company in 2002. According to IDC, 49 percent of large enterprises in India are aware of SCM as a concept but only 7.4 percent of them have implemented SCM so far.

In terms of business segments, the government sector is another huge revenue opportunity according to the company. “We have already started making small but significant breakthroughs in the government segment,” reveals Sen.

SAP at present is not pushing its solutions into the SME segment, but it has already started chalking out plans for customising its offerings. “We believe that SAP has made considerable progress in tailoring solutions for SMBs and setting up well-defined and supported business channels for them. However, the execution of SAP’s SMB strategy remains in its early stages,” states Gartner.

Oracle to focus on the verticals

Oracle India is planning a pointed thrust into the verticals of Telecom, Financial Services and Manufacturing in 2002. “These verticals continue to be our focus,” says Vivek Marla, senior director - sales, Oracle India. “On the ERP side, our 9i application server and database are gaining ground in the Indian market.”

India is one of the growing markets for Oracle and with the opening up of the insurance and finance sectors, enterprise spend on the database solutions is rapidly increasing. Oracle is leading in the Indian database market with around 58 percent market share followed by Microsoft’s SQL Server, which has 19 percent market share.

The company’s list of customers include Airtel, Birla AT&T, Maruti, Kirloskar Oil Engines, State Bank of India, ICICI, AP government, Department of Income Tax, Telco, Tisco and Coca-Cola.

Oracle is also optimistic about its ASP-based offerings in the areas of software services and e-business. “At present we have two ASP partners in the country, one of them being Global Teleservices. ASP is a cost-effective model, especially for the SMEs,” says Marla. The company offers some of the modules of its e-business suite like OracleSalesonline.com through ASPs.

In terms of business segments, Oracle sees tremendous potential in the government sector. “We already have significant installations for the Andhra Pradesh government and a few other state governments are now evincing interest in our products,” reveals Marla.

The CRM roadmap for Oracle incorporates the following: Upcoming Oracle programs that lower the total cost of ownership of CRM implementations, while minimising enterprise risk and shortening implementation times. There will be an emphasis on process over technology, and current and planned releases of the product will fill functional gaps and generally increase functionality.

Oracle will focus on its 9i range of Database, Application Server (9ias) and Development suite in the country this year. Marla is not aware of any new product line that can be launched in 2002, but he says that the 9i range has lot of technological options, which can be introduced as part of 9i Database or 9i AS.

“Some of our clients in India have recently gone live with the RAC option of 9i Database. There are several other options that can be offered along with the 9i suite. These include enhanced security features, diagnostic packs and wireless options,” says Marla.

According to him, Business Intelligence solutions from Oracle are also becoming popular amongst the Indian enterprise customers.