Systime: riding on the demand wave

From being a software provider for the CMS group, Systime has grown to be an IT solutions and consulting company that implements enterprise applications, says SUSHMA NAIK

RAMESH SUBRAMANIAM says that when Systime started they used to do three to four projects per year. This year they are in the process of closing four deals a quarter

SYSTIME started off by addressing the software requirements of the CMS group. The company has since moved on to become a known player in the highly lucrative enterprise application consulting space. Today-as part of the CMS group-Systime provides a range of solutions in the ERP, data mining, data warehousing and business intelligence tools market.

Mainframe to ERP

In the 1990s, Systime saw the need for entering the enterprise solutions market. This was a significant shift as till then the company's focus was primarily on mainframe projects on IBM platforms. Says Dr Ramesh Subramaniam, senior vice-president, Systime, "We saw a clear trend towards the acceptance of enterprise applications and decided to focus on the enterprise space."

Systime's first customer after adopting this new policy was Philips, which was a long time client of CMS and was looking out for a vendor that could provide a complete IT solution including an entire enterprise solution. The experience proved handy as Systime tried its hand at setting up a WAN network, VSATs and management systems for the first time.

The partner effect

Till 1994, Systime was a typical me-too organisation. However, the company realised that the best skills would lead it nowhere if it did not team up with the right partners. Accordingly, Systime began scouting for partners that could help it extend its domain strengths. The first high profile alliance was with J D Edwards (now acquired by PeopleSoft). This alliance successfully established Systime as a significant player in the enterprise application implementation space. It was followed by other alliances with Cognos, BMC and BEA Systems.

This resulted in what Subramaniam calls a major metamorphosis in Systime's image. From being seen just as one of the many software service or implementation organisations, Systime now began to be perceived as a company that could provide something more than mere implementation, i.e., consulting.

Says Subramaniam, "This new image helped us tap opportunities in the enterprise consulting and business transformation space. We put forward proposals to companies whose businesses were not doing well. For these organisations we provided enterprise consulting services. The idea was to help them achieve higher efficiency and productivity by implementing PeopleSoft or Cognos tools. The customer had the option of paying a fixed or variable fee depending on the growth of the company."

This strategy helped Systime differentiate itself in the market place. Since the company has extensive knowledge of almost all segments in the enterprise space, it is now looking to provide its expertise to projects where it can bring together different enterprise applications into a single solution.

Everybody needs it

In the early 1990s, enterprise applications were considered an unnecessary expenditure. Comments Subramaniam, "When we started we used to do three to four projects per year. This year we are in the process of closing four deals a quarter." Additionally, ERP tools which were restricted to big organisations are now being adopted by SMEs. As per Systime's internal research, there are at least 25,000 SMEs that do not have an enterprise application in place. Subramaniam says that even if the company manages to tap one percent of this potential it will be a huge windfall. Systime is also looking at convincing existing ERP clients to go in for enterprise applications in other verticals. For example, Cognos could be an option for its installed ERP base. The Cognos partnership also holds good potential for growth. With this partnership, Systime has ventured into the data warehousing space, especially for companies which want corporate performance management. It looks to be an interesting strategy as there are not many system integrators in the business intelligence space. Systime's clientele in this space includes American Express India, Hughes Telecom, TechNova Imaging Systems and the Mumbai Port Trust.

Systime is also bullish about ReportNet, a Cognos product launched in September 2003. ReportNet 1.1 features comparatively better integration with third-party products, and includes support for SAP's business warehouse and several of IBM's WebSphere and DB2 management products. So what does Cognos make of this partnership? Explains Forrest Palmer, managing director, Cognos Asia, "We chose Systime for their track record as an SI and the value-add they could bring to our customers." Adds Raj Guduru, vice-president, South Asia, Cognos, "To increase our footprint in the Indian market, we regard Systime as one of the most important partners."

ReportNet's capabilities can be used to generate reports from multiple sources of data. These include SAP's business warehouse and Microsoft's SQL Server. ReportNet works by allowing the company to get the required information by asking a single question rather than querying separate data sources. Prior to this, clients had to dump the data into Excel or run separate reports from each data source. Further, ReportNet can be tightly integrated with the rest of the Cognos' product portfolio which provides a level of integration that was not available earlier.

New verticals on the horizon

Systime is also looking at big wins in the banking and financial sector (in addition to the telecom sector) for providing these forecasting tools. "The banking and financial sector does not have any advance forecast of the success [or failure] of their products. Which loans will click? Which assets will pay back? This kind of forecasting solutions are currently not available, which is where we want to step in. We are acquiring a knowledge base and manpower, and have been invited by banks to talk about these forecasting tools. We expect this space to be a big growth area in the future," says Subramaniam.

Systime is also banking on its vertical strengths in the automobile and pharmaceutical industry. Insists Subramaniam, "There are very few entities in India who are authorities on the automobile and pharmaceutical industry. We have some of the best domain experts in these two verticals. For example, our domain experts know the entire manufacturing process of the pharmaceutical industry; they have knowledge about complying with

FDA regulations, and putting procedures in place from the WTO point of view."

The company is also using its expertise in the domestic industry to win global projects.

Round the corner

Having already acquired expertise in the ERP and BI space, Systime is actively looking to add domain knowledge in technologies whose applications would be huge. For example, the company is investing considerable resources in RFID. As the company has domain knowledge in the automobile sector, RFID expertise will be very useful. Loyalty projects have already been happening through RFID Smart Card Solutions, a division set up by Systime in Chennai. The company hopes to leverage its expertise in the automobile space by combining RFID with GPS-based systems. Since many manufacturing companies have their goods moving across different regions, RFID combined with GPS-based systems could be used to track movements of vehicles. The company estimates that the market for Cognos on SAP is huge, and is intently looking at this space.

sushma@expresscomputeronline.com