Recently, Chetan Pathak- Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, Ramco Systems briefed ARC Advisory Group about new initiatives taken by the company to grow its business in the enterprise software market, and the new direction that the company is taking to expand. He was joined by his colleagues Tripureshwar Chattopadhaya – General Manager, Channel Development, OnDemand Solutions and Balaji Rangachari – General ManagerBusiness Support.

Ramco Systems is in the enterprise software product market space, which is typically dominated by global players, such as SAP and Oracle, and certainly not the forte of Indian IT Service Providers. Ramco’s big differentiator is its innovative approach to provide agile enterprise applications. Clients have the option of going in for standard packaged application or personalized solutions. Ramco’s other differentiator is that the company focuses on manufacturing, and its offering goes beyond offering Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions but encompasses enterprise automation systems, such as process optimization systems for cement plants and mining industries.

The company is also emerging as a supplier of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solutions to the airline industry and its client list includes marquee names, such as Air India, Virgin America, El Al, and Pinnacle Airlines. Ramco’s EAM solutions are also used by power generation companies like Reliance Energy and Torrent Power. Ramco Group, which owns Ramco Systems, operates cement plants and mines, and it is not surprising therefore that the company has inherited manufacturing as the core business focus.

Many manufacturing companies in India, and even globally, are small and medium-size enterprises (SME) which do not have necessary financial capital and human resources to invest in full scope ERP solutions. The top concernsof SMEs are minimal capital and infrastructure investments, total cost of ownership including cost of upgrading. Ramco Systems, sees these challenges of SMEs as a business opportunity, and it has evolved a strategy that seeks to focus on the SME market needs by comprehensively addressing their concerns. The company developed and positioned Software as a Service (SaaS) model-based ‘Ramco OnDemand ERP’ (RODE) in this demand space. Ramco has positioned the RODE as a cost effective ERP package that is designed to improve operational control and assist the manufacturer to enhance productivity through inventory optimization and management reporting in a manufacturing company.

Ramco’s strategy is to provide ERP solutions to SMEs at reduced integration and infrastructure costs that offer users the ability to optimize production capacity, from raw materials through final product, irrespective of manufacturing methodology. At its core, Ramco OnDemand ERP, has a unified data model that provides a single, accurate window of the manufacturing process. This approach speeds up the process of configuring customer orders, optimizing subcontracting, and cost, quality and compliance management. The OnDemand solutions provided by Ramco are in the low to medium complexity and low to medium volume, but also in medium to high complexity and volume of transaction.

Even though the global financial crisis has hit India, the growth story for Indian manufacturing remains robust. Therefore, India, with a growing economy and expanding manufacturing industry, provides a good platform to Ramco Systems to establish the necessary proof of concept. The company is banking on leveraging the success of OnDemand in India to secure the necessary foothold in the global marketplace.

Ramco Systems, part of the Ramco Group with turnover $800 million, is an innovative global provider of personalized and agile enterprise applications. Ramco Systems has customers in 35 countries and more than 1,800 employees in 9 countries which include India, USA, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and UAE. With strong investments in R & D and technology, the company has developed and markets Ramco VirtualWorksT, a collaborative solution innovation platform that delivers flexible business processes and focused analytics. The company provides solutions to multiple verticals, including banking, insurance, manufacturing, supply chain, aviation, transportation and logistics, health care, governance, retail and more. Ramco’s software development practices are ISO 9001 Certified and Development Centers assessed at SEI CMMI-SW Level 5. Ramco has ISO 27001 security certification.

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