Insight

SSA goes after SMBs

With a new ERP product, SSA Global is attempting to take on the incumbent and it has a couple of quick wins to its credit, says Akhtar Pasha

Aflurry of acquisitions left SSA Baan 4 customers a bit shaky as they did not know how SSA Global would take the Baan product forward. Naturally when SSA Global announced the availability of its next release, SSA ERPLN 6.1, in November 2004 it didn’t expect to snap up customers straight off the bat. Despite that two deals have already materialised with Bry-Air Asia Pvt Ltd becoming the company’s first customer in India. The company has purchased 25-concurrent licences of SSA ERPLN 6.1. KEI Industries Ltd. is the second Indian company to go in for version 6.1.

Improved functionality and a Web interface

Ravi Kathuria, director-Marketing, SSA Global India says, “SSA ERPLN 6.1 offers advanced new capabilities for organisations in hybrid discrete manufacturing, automotive, electronics, industrial machinery & equipment and general manufacturing. There are 26 new modules and 28 improved ones in SSA ERPLN. It offers manufacturing capabilities such as lean-based manufacturing, improved freight management and integration with third party application software. Additionally it embeds specific solution templates for its primary target industries—automotive, high-tech electronics, and industrial machinery and equipment. Pranav Kumar, research director, enterprise application software, Gartner Asia-Pacific says, “Functionality enhancements—both from the buyer and supplier side and open architecture-integration with third party applications are essential features that fit into SSA ERPLN.”

SSA ERPLN comes with a Web-based user interface, and paves the way for customers looking to make the transition to a service-oriented architecture (SOA). According to a leading analyst who tracks the Indian software and services industry, SSA Global had been trying to incorporate Web-services technology into their product and it took them a while to execute it in the form of SSA ERPLN 6.1, a completely Web-enabled product. The Web-interface will help enterprises to cut infrastructure and data centre costs.

These increased role-based functionalities and Web-interfaces are not new in the world of ERP solutions. SAP has consolidated pieces of technology that were previously separate, allowing users to install them as one technical package, instead of having to do separate installations for ERP, business intelligence, Web-interface and the like with SAP NetWeaver and mySAP ERP. Oracle E-Business Suite 11i.10 also incorporates added horizontal functionalities and improved business intelligence capabilities to offer what it calls ‘integrated performance management.’ Features such as transportation planning in supply chain management solutions have historically been handled by point solutions. SSA has integrated these into ERPLN.

Tepid globally, warm in India

We will not withdraw product support and force any customer to upgrade. We will continue to support a product as long as customers want it Ravi Kathuria Director-Marketing, SSA Global India

Analysts point out that globally the response for SSA ERP LN has low and there is no great excitement yet in the market place though it is four months since the product was made available. In India, however, it has two successes in just two months after the launch.

SSA Global says that any manufacturing outfit into discrete manufacturing, automotive, electronics, industrial machinery and equipment running multiple applications will be their key focus for SSA ERPLN. Some of its features such as lean manufacturing and vendor managed inventory, wherein suppliers stock their inventory at their OEM’s premises, will help minimise supply chain and procurement delays. Although Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) that are already using SSA Baan 4 may not migrate to SSA ERPLN, SSA Global expects its new licence revenues (SSA ERPLN) to come from new installations, particularly in the SMB segment. Kathuria says, “All our new deployments will be on SSA ERPLN.”

Analysts say that with SSA ERPLN, SSA Global has a shot at sinking deeper roots in the Indian SMB segment and perhaps it can even take on the competition from mySAP All-in-One and my SAP Business One Suite. According to IDC “At this point of time it would be difficult to beat SAP in the SMB segment as it has a large number of installations. SAP has been successful because of its sustained marketing efforts. Its strategy of going after a particular vertical in some industrial belt and organising road shows and handholding users has helped it win customers. SAP shows these wins as customer references to replicate its success in other verticals.” SSA Global needs to follow the same model in order to be successful in India. The company has a strong name in manufacturing particular in discrete manufacturing—automotive, electronics and industrial manufacturing. It needs to ramp up its marketing efforts and communicate to its customers strongly about the richness of ERPLN. SSA Global will release ERPLX, the next-generation platform of convergence for SSA BPCS, SSA PRMS, SSA PRISM and SSA Infinium MM/PR customers, in April 2005.

First time users more likely to bite

Kumar of Gartner says, “Version upgrades will not happen overnight and SSA Global has to show and communicate compelling reasons to customers. However a small percentage would give it a try, but new buyers and SMBs would be most benefited by this new offering.”

Deepak Pahwa, managing director, Bry-Air Asia says, “We were at the crossroads as to whether we should adopt SSA Baan 4 today and migrate to SSA ERPLN later when the need arose. Being a first time user of [ERP] technology we thought we would be duplicating costs by implementing SSA Baan 4 now and later moving to SSA ERPLN.” Pahwa believes that by deploying a next-generation solution, Bry-Air will be seen as a progressive company in the global market. “We are doing a good chunk of export business (30 percent of our total turnover Rs 100 crores) that is expected to increase by another 20 percent in the next two years, he adds.

Pahwa even goes on record saying that though it is pre-mature to divulge quantifiable benefits since Bry-Air is still in the process of implementation (SSA ERPLN 6.1), early indications are that SSA ERPLN increases customer responsiveness. The company is now in a position to schedule the entire production lifecycle and realise cost savings. It also helps release time for analytical work directly boosting employee productivity. “Our people can do more strategic thinking and planning,” says Pahwa.

A customer for life?

Analysts feel that the strategy adopted to market SSA ERPLN—’A customer for Life’—is going to be critical. SSA has stated that it will continue to support its previous product, SSA Baan 4, as long as customers demand it. At the same time it offers ERPLN to new customers and those existing users who want to upgrade.

Ravi Kathuria, director-Marketing, SSA Global India says, “We will never sunset any product support and never force any customer to upgrade. We will continue to support a product and release as long as customers want it.” Best of all, existing customers are being offered free upgrades from SSA Baan 4 to SSA ERPLN. They will not be charged for the software, only for migration and two weeks training.

IDC points out that SSA Global should replicate the SAP model (going after a particular vertical and showcasing customer references) to win customers. The ball is in SSA’s court and it has made the right moves, so far. Now it has to build on those moves and take the game to SAP and other competitors.

akhtar@expresscomputeronline.com