Friday, September 26, 2008

SYSCON TO OFFER ITS SOLUTION THROUGH SAAS

K Rajani Kanth, Chennai/Hyderabad
Business Standard

Syscon Solutions, a Hyderabad-based software product development company, will expand its sales and implementation ecosystem to cater to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The company plans to offer its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution – Syscon Cronus – via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

Cronus, which involved around 150 man-years of development efforts, is an out-of-box ERP solution focused on SMEs with functions including sales, inventory, excise, financial accounting, planning, production, quality, maintenance, dispatch production and payroll.

“We currently have three implementation partners, which we plan to ramp up to 20 in the next one year,” S Vijay Venkatesh, managing director of the 12-year-old company said.

Around 10 companies, which are into pharma, chemicals, electronics and engineering, are on the verge of finalising orders, he added.

Deploying ERP solutions through an ownership model is a challenge for SMEs as it involves huge capital infusion into services, server operating system, database, air-conditioned rooms, UPS, and professionals for maintenance.

Typically, an ERP deployment from majors like SAP, Microsoft Navision and Ramco Systems, will cost anywhere between Rs 13 lakh and Rs 30 lakh for the first year. The running costs will be around Rs 5 lakh thereon. On the contrary, SaaS will cost about Rs 8,500 per month for a five-user licence per year, Venkatesh noted.

The privately-held company has tied up with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Hyderabad, for offering full ERP functionalities including a stable server, data centre, and bandwidth.

“According to estimates, there are around 3 million SMEs in the country of which 250,000 companies are ready to go for the ERP SaaS model. We are aiming to complete 5,000 implementation in different parts of the country, garnering revenues of Rs 50 crore in the next three years,” he said.

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