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Baan bullish on India

Vishwanath Kulkarni

BANGALORE, Feb. 25

GLOBAL ERP major Baan Company is bullish on the Indian market for the E-Enterprise product that rolled out recently. Mr. Adrian Di Fide, Manager, E-Enterprise Products, Baan, Asia-Pacific, said Baan was very bullish on the Indian market and would be focu ssing both on existing customers and on those set to e-enable their enterprises.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr. Adrian said: ``India is important for Baan because of the knowledgeability and the expectations of different players in the e-commerce market. The business-to-business (B2B) segment is still in the beginning stage. With opp ortunities just opening up, not many Indian companies are ready to embrace e-commerce. We are targeting those companies planning to enter e-commerce and would also be focussing on our existing customers.''

With E-Enterprise, customers would be able to leverage their existing or planned investment in Baan's enterprise applications to address three key e-business initiatives _ unassisted Web selling, Web-based value chain collaboration and automated indirect procurement, Mr. Adrian added.

Baan offers a broad set of deliverable e-enterprise applications along with the supporting transaction applications that support e-business, he said.

According to him, e-fulfilment (that is to be able to satisfy customers' needs and meet their expectations) is going to be an important factor for successful business on the Web. And to offer this e-fulfilment, companies need to have the infrastructure i n place. Baan offers the whole spectrum of requirements _ ERP, SCM (Supply Chain Management) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to provide e-fulfilment, he said.

While other companies such as SAP and Oracle talked about being able to provide such integrated solutions, they did not have such solutions ready for the market place, he claimed.

Mr. Y. Shekar, General Manager (Marketing), Baan Info Systems India, said the company was doing well in the ERP segment in India with an annual growth rate of around 25 per cent. The total number of Baan clients in India had reached around 100 as of now and was expected to grow at a rate of around 25 per cent. Baan's clientele includes L&T, BlueStar, Godrej and Dabur.

The company would be focussing heavily on the manufacturing and non-ERP segment for the E-Enterprise product, he said. Declining to give details of sales and revenue target for the E-Enterprise product, Mr. Shekar said: ``We are bullish on the Indian mar ket.''