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Among the firms manufacturing and distributing Enterprise Resource Planning and Extended Supply Chain software, QAD is a name to reckon with. And it's making its mark in India too now, selling e-business solutions to product-focused companies in the country.

Arjun Erry, QAD's country sales manager, spoke to Neena Haridas about the company's plans in India and the future of the ERP market.

What are your focus areas in India?

T O D A Y

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Our applications focus is on core enterprise, supply chain management, e-commerce, customer relationship management, business intelligence and other key supporting applications. Mainly we deal with business-to-business relationship because that is where real enterprise resource planning is required. Even our CRM is targeted at business-to-business solutions.

But ERP came to the Indian market with a bang and has now retreated without a whimper. Companies are using the Net for the services that ERP provides. In such a scenario how do you intend to survive by providing ERP solutions alone?

It is not that ERP has no market today. It's just that even ERP is becoming web-based. In fact, QAD also has an application MFG/PRO that is a web-enabled core enterprise software that provides midsized and multinational companies with full-function, integrated solutions that include manufacturing, distribution, and financial applications within an open system environment.

They capitalize on the global reach of the Internet opening up enterprise to the resources of virtually every computing system on the planet. What I mean is that ERP is also evolving and companies are realising this and will use it accordingly.

Which means that ERP in its traditional form is passe?

Well, I wouldn't say that because if companies use ERP to integrate their business network then I think it is ERP in its traditional form. The only add-on is that these companies are also getting on to the Net, which in no way undermines ERP.

Isn't the high cost and long implementation period for ERP a deterrent to its popularity?

QAD has got over both these problems. Our applications are not very expensive and we have one of the shortest implementation periods. On an average, a medium-sized FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company takes about four to six months. I think ERP is on the downswing currently because of the Y2K problem. Companies are investing in Y2K solutions and hence don't want to pump in money on ERP right now.

So when do you think ERP will happen again?

I think companies will jump on to ERP in the second quarter of next year after the Y2K problem is behind us.

Is ERP really hot in India?

Yes, it is heating up. Every market goes through four phases -- the initial phase, when only multinationals adopt a particular technology. India went through that phase from 1994-95. In the second phase, Indian conglomerates start adopting the technology. This is the phase that India is going through right now. The third phase is the high growth phase when big and small enterprises jump on to the bandwagon. The fourth is, of course, all those late entrants. All markets go through this cycle.

What are the industries that are your core customers?

We have decided to focus on fast-moving consumer goods companies and food processing companies. These companies are big and need enterprise planning to keep their businesses running smooth. Some of our customers are Avon, Black & Decker, Borden, Caterpiller, Daewoo, Ford etc.

Are smaller companies being left out in the run?

Not really, smaller companies are also adopting ERP. As I said, in the third phase more and more companies will get on the ERP bandwagon.

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