Building a Made-in-India ERP Product Company: Ramco CEO Virender Aggarwal (Part 7)

Sramana: What are your key product differentiators?

Virender Aggarwal: Our unique differentiators center on our complete mobile coverage capability. We can run on iPad and Android tablets with a mix of native apps and HTML5. We also have a great graphical user interface. Our system is geographically aware, and it does not ask the end user stupid questions. We know our location and the customer’s location. We are contextually aware as a result. We are doing interesting things with Google Maps integration. Contextual and location-aware ERP is something we think is going to be very big. Finally, we have memory computing capabilities which a lot of ERP systems do not have.

Sramana: This is an interesting story, and you are obviously getting traction. I can see you doing well in price-sensitive markets. The observation I have is that ERP is a very high exit barrier business. People do not change ERP very often. That is where I see issues in the future.

Virender Aggarwal: We are working on a strategy for that. If you have SAP all over but you don’t have a particular module, then we will come in and fill in the missing pieces. We don’t require customers to purchase our entire suite, so we are happy to augment an SAP deployment. From there we look to compete for every new expansion project that comes out. We are not going after the core SAP deployments.

Sramana: How big do you think the surrounding business opportunities are?

Virender Aggarwal: It is a huge market. We are getting business in Mexico and Colombia using this strategy. We are selling into Fortune 50 companies and picking up the peripheral business. Even companies of that size still have areas where they have not yet implemented SAP. They have probably done Europe and North America, but they have not done Sri Lanka.

Sramana: You can probably reach $300 million in the next couple of years.

Virender Aggarwal: We don’t know which one will be wildly successful, but my feeling is that HR is going to be that product. We are sure that at least one of our items will be wildly successful. We need to focus on brand and find the right places for these modules to be successful.

Sramana: I agree. If I were you, I would focus on verticals where you can stake out a differentiated position. I really like the aviation strategy, and that is what I have seen there.

Virender Aggarwal: We just picked up the second largest airline in the world. We have a comprehensive story.

Sramana: If you can find niches where the surrounding ERP strategy works well, that would be very good.

Virender Aggarwal: I think that will prove true. We are finding traction by using that strategy. We also have all the certifications that companies from the U.S. look for. We are seeing that right now with our dealer management system.

Sramana: If you can create differentiated positions in secondary ERP systems where people do not want to spend a lot of money on ERP, then you will be successful globally. That could be a very good strategy.

Virender Aggarwal: Right now we think we have a few balls in the air. Whatever takes off, we will fly with.

Sramana: I like the story, and I like the focus on product. This is a very interesting business you are building. Thank you for taking the time to share your story.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Building a Made-in-India ERP Product Company: Ramco CEO Virender Aggarwal
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