Spotlight

A strong believer in processes

Indigenous ERP developer and vendor Eastern Software Systems is eyeing new markets abroad, says Chirasrota Jena.

Delhi-based Eastern Software Systems (ESS), a player in the ERP field, is eyeing new markets abroad. The company recently entered the South African market as it wants to expand its reach. It is also planning to enter the South American market where it hasn’t ventured yet. Software exports already contribute nearly 40 percent of its total revenues.

Along with ERP, ESS is also offering total IT outsourcing solutions, making it the only Indian ERP company to offer a combo solution. With communication infrastructure improving tremendously over the past decade, and an increasing number of companies preferring to outsource their in-house, enterprise or legacy applications to offshore locations, ESS has ventured into this space by providing 24/7 offshore support to its global clients. The company provides software design and development services following proven and tested methodologies.

First product

The company was established in 1990. ESS started its operations with customised software development, IT training and consultancy. The company developed its first product, a hospital management software application, in 1993.

"It’s very difficult to get a good price for your product here, so we have decided to move to untapped markets like the Middle East and South Africa" - Anil Bakht Chairman & Managing Director Eastern Software Systems

ESS launched its ERP solution commercially in 1998 and named it Makess. The company renamed it ‘ebizframe’ in 2000. This is the flagship product of the company. Says Anil Bakht, CMD of the company, “Today, ESS offers a full bouquet of IT services to meet the requirements of its global clients, and has a number of large and MNC clients for its IT outsourcing services as well as for customised application development. Three to four years back we were doing business only in India. But it’s very difficult to get a good price for your product here, so we have decided to move to untapped markets like the Middle East and South Africa.” Over the past eight years ESS has built up a base of nearly 500 customers with more than 1,400 sites and 14,000 users spread over 25 countries. Although ESS has its R&D centre at Delhi, its offices are spread across all metros in India.

For ebizframe the company is eyeing the SMB segment, highlighting the product’s low cost of acquisition and speedy implementation. Informs Bakht, “ebizframe offers you the best of functionality at a cost comparable to mid-range ERP systems. It works with equal dexterity and robustness across manufacturing, distribution, trading and retail environments. ebizframe is specially targeted at the SMB segment. Over the years it has become the most successful ERP product in India as well as in some foreign countries in this segment.”

Other areas of operation

The company is also providing total IT outsourcing to its customers to manage their IT infrastructure. ESS provides 24/7 support to its global as well Indian customers for hardware, software, peripherals, networks, Web hosting and custom applications.

Bakht elaborates on the IT outsourcing services. “ESS can help plan, integrate, modify, implement, transition and modulate the IT infrastructure of any organisation to any scale and complexity. We have the necessary scale and expertise to create, design, implement and maintain the complete IT infrastructure for your organisation in line with your business strategy.” Specific services under the total IT outsourcing umbrella includes auditing existing IT hardware and software infrastructure, understanding business objectives and their impact on IT deployment, infrastructure enhancement planning and procurement advisory based on your budget and design, and implementation and maintenance of networking, security and access control. Along with this, ESS also provides ongoing maintenance and support, Web site management, e-commerce, and processes and people integration with a company’s IT vision. The company has introduced a concept called Bolt-on where it helps existing customers upgrade to newer technologies for a nominal charge.

Then there are the application development support and services. Informs Bakht, “These have helped many clients achieve significant cost and productivity improvements. The clients for these services include large, global organisations.” ESS has also done sub-contracting work for large IT vendors, as well as for projects given by large MNCs for their international operations with multi-country deployments. The company plans to be more aggressive in this area.

Select club

In 2002 the company was assessed at SEI CMM Level 5 for maintaining quality in software development. Recently, the certification of ISO 9001 by BVQI was upgraded to ISO 9001:2000. Explains Bakht, “We firmly believe in investing in processes to be able to achieve world-class quality in deliveries to our customers. As recognition of our process quality, ESS has been assessed at SEI CMM Level 5. This puts ESS in a select band of around 120 companies worldwide which have a similar assessment.” The company is targeting auto ancillary manufacturers along with chemical and retail players.

Companies that maintain applications by themselves often find it hard to retain the ever-mobile programmers. Besides this, the cost of keeping your own programmers can be much higher than taking programmers on short- or long-term assignments from software services providers. In this context, ESS provides technical manpower to companies like Citibank, Aramco, HP, GE and Pfizer.

About the foreign market Bakht comments, “It’s very difficult for Indian players to compete with global giants. To change the mindset of foreign customers about Indian products is a difficult task.” The company is expanding its business by 20-30 percent annually, so it adds 30-40 people per year. Employee recruitment is an ongoing process at ESS. The targeted revenue for 2006-07 is Rs 15 crore. Every year the company is adding about 80 customers to its existing list.

Reason for success

ESS recently ported ebizframe onto RedHat Linux with support from Oracle and Red Hat, a process that took two months for a team of eight engineers. It included installation and configuration of the Oracle Database, Application Server, Collaboration Suite and E-Business Suite on Red Hat Linux. States Bakht, “Because of a number of reasons—it is a certified platform for Oracle 10g products, free upgrades are available on the Web, it provides efficient support, is user friendly, and is growing in popularity—we have ported our flagship product to Red Hat Linux. Both the database server as well as the application server can run on the Red Hat Linux environment now. A combination of Red Hat and Windows is also possible for the database servers and application servers respectively.”

The company is concerned about its employees and its work environment. Onsite and classroom training are regularly held on subjects such as processes, domain knowledge, technology and behaviour. According to Bakht, “the company is a strong believer in processes, a philosophy which percolates to the lowest ranks of the company and to every project that ESS takes up. Strict process adherence has been one of the biggest reasons for ESS’ success in the IT industry.”

At present, 240 engineers are working to support customers across verticals. The company has also deployed active sales teams all over India. As the Indian SMB segment is expanding rapidly, ESS is eyeing this market to push its flagship product. The company is now diversifying its target verticals and wants to enter pharmaceuticals, food processing and garments.