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SoftBrands
hopes to leverage the huge opportunity for enterprise applications
in the Indian SME segment
SoftBrands
Manufactu-ring, which announced the setting up of its 100
percent subsidiary in India, is now charting its growth roadmap
for the Indian market. Going aggressive on its sales and marketing
strategy as the company directly enters the Indian market,
the Indian subsidiary, headquartered in Bangalore, has earmarked
an investment worth Rs 3-4 crore for its sales and marketing
activities over the next few months, and an additional Rs
6-8 crore in 2003. Expansion of business partners (resellers)
from the current two to six by the year-end is also on the
agenda of the company. According to Patrick Maguire, managing
director, South Asia Pacific, Fourth Shift, the target is
to double SoftBrands Manufacturing’s business from the
Indian market over the next one year with its direct presence
in the country.
According to Maguire, “There is a big opportunity within
the Indian SME segment for enterprise applications. The reason
for coming directly into the Indian market is to be able to
leverage on this huge opportunity.”
As far as the operations are concerned, the company will be
expanding its partner base to further strengthen its installation
base in the Indian market. The Indian subsidiary is looking
at adding another four resellers to its two existing resellers,
i.e, Data Line Integration and Pride Systems. “We are
talking to small concentrated groups of resellers who have
a strong presence in the manufacturing segment. This will
enable us to leverage on their competencies to strengthen
our presence in India,” explains Maguire. With around
25 Fourth Shift installations currently, the company is targeting
to add another 25 over the next one year. The present customer
base includes names like Gillette India, Frito Lay, Oriflame,
Kodak India and Bausch and Laumb.
Also on the company’s agenda is an expansion of the product
line. Apart from flagship product Fourth Shift, the setting
up of the Indian subsidiary will also mark the presence of
the other two core product offerings, i.e. Demand Stream and
Evolution for the SME manufacturing segment in the Indian
market. While SoftBrands Manufacturing India has recently
launched the Demand Stream solution in early August 2002,
the company is not yet divulging its cards as far as Evolution
is concerned. According to Maguire, the company is not focusing
on Evolution currently as it does not foresee much demand
for it at present in the Indian market. Fourth Shift is an
integrated manufacturing solution, facilitating business functions
like manufacturing, operations, financials, customer and supplier
relationship management. On the other hand, Demand Stream
is an enterprise application software, which executes manufacturing
and purchasing activity based upon actual demand and requests
for materials/components replenishment instead of pre-calculated
scheduling. Built on NT/Unix, Evolution provides applications
for Internet, Intranet, information publishing, connectivity,
platform scalability and multi-site operations. The development
centre for SoftBrands Manufacturing in India is planning to
come out with a new version of Fourth Shift with enhanced
features like sales collaboration and supplier collaboration.
Till March 2002 SoftBrands Manufacturing was represented by
its channel partner Systems Plus, which was marketing the
company’s flagship product, Fourth Shift in the Indian
market. With the takeover of the Fourth Shift division of
Systems Plus, SoftBrands Manufacturing India will now offer
complete implementation and support for Fourth Shift to mid-sized
manufacturing units within the Indian subcontinent, including
Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Burma. Apart from
this, the company will also be able to reap advantages in
terms of closer proximity with customers in order to provide
more efficient implementation and after-sales support
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