RAMCO
TREND SETTER
P R VENKETRAMA RAJA, VICE CHAIRMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, RAMCO SYSTEMS
SUKUMAR R, GENERAL MANAGER—SALES, RAMCO ONDEMAND ERP, RAMCO SYSTEMS
ANANTHASAYANAM N C, GENERAL MANAGER CORPORATE STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, RAMCO SYSTEMS
“WE ARE SEEING A TREMENDOUS INCREASE IN THE CUSTOMER INTEREST FOR CLOUDBASED ERP IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT. ”
“WITH RODE 2.0, THE VALUE ADDITIONS CAN BE EVEN BETTER FOR THE PARTNERS THAN BEFORE.”
“AS FAR AS ONDEMAND ERP IS CONCERNED, OUR MANDATE IS THAT EVERY ORDER THAT IS ROLLED OUT WILL BE THROUGH THE CHANNEL PARTNERS.”
Even though it is on demand solution and the delivery model is through Cloud, partners have a very strong role to play. Sukumar R, General Manager—Sales, Ramco OnDemand ERP, “As far as onDemand ERP is concerned, our mandate is that every order that is rolled out will be through the channel partners. We have been building capability of the partners around products in terms of knowing its USPs. We encourage our partner to be consultant for the customers.” Ananthasayanam N C, General Manager Corporate Strategic Alliances at Ramco Systems, says, “With RODE 2.0, the value additions can be even better for the partners than before. With EDK they can address the customers’ requirement and architect solution accordingly.” With a target of 280 customers by the end of this financial year, their eye is on 500 numbers by 2011. They have already proved customer base that are testimony to the cusses of the model. And their strategy is now cluster based. The company has already earned quite a good name for itself as a brand in enterprise business by an extensive marketing campaign as well. Sukumar adds, “We are looking forward to grow at 10-20% every quarter but the reality might be more than this.” Today the company has a very solid 50 partners, who are being trained and done a lot of holding. As per Sukumar, Ramco goes along with the partners till the first three order closes and till two
implementations happen. This means the vendor is with the partners till they feel comfortable dealing with the customers. It is to be known that the margin on the solution is around 25-30% and with the greed of the margin more partners will definitely jump to the bandwagon but Ramco is pretty straight in its strategy. They want to give the best to their existing partners and need commitment from the partners. They do not want to add any number if do not see any long term prospect in the partner. Ananthasayanam maintains, “To add the channel partner is secondary, first our objective is to ensure that the existing partners are productive through various empowerment programmes. So that the bandwidth is fully utilised after which we will only add strategic partners. We are eying at a phenomenal growth to our onDemand ERP, but it is not necessarily to add more partners because it is not easy to manage partners. So if one partner gives one lead may not become our partner. He has to have long term commitment and vision.” He added, “To empower them we offer tech strength. We have already done 10 city programme across the country. This is one way of empowering the partners. The other way is, we have on the field training by handling first few enquiries along with the channel partners so that they learn how to approach the customers. The third method is through partner portal. It is exclusive for the partners to transfer knowledge in
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BIG ADVANTAGES OF RAMCO ONDEMAND ERP
1. Pay per use per month!
2. No wasteful IT infrastructure! 3. Reduced Operational Management Requirements! 4. Up & running in weeks! 5. Instant scaling up or down, without fear! 6. Access from anywhere, anytime! 7. Security as per highest norms!
terms of our products’ features and marketing collateral. This partner portal has also a lot of pricing and marketing information.”
Finally… When people were thinking that cloud computing is hype only, Ramco is changing the perception by bringing in products and capability for the customers and partners. It will definitely go as the beginning of a new trend.
SME CHANNELS 39 OCTOBER 2010
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10/20/2010 10:20:15 AM