Technology

Selling software to SMEs a big challenge

by Gamini Warushamana

Hasheem Hardware in Dipitiya, Aranayake is the main hardware store in this hamlet. The daily sales volume of the shop is significantly high and according to the nature of the business (as the number of items in the inventory is extremely high) it has a very complex business system. Everything was handled by the owner of this sole trade business.

The business was computerised recently and the owner himself was trained to operate the system. He still does the same function at the cashier's counter, billing and receiving money.

Today he has a greater control of the business, as he knows the stocks, amount received, issued and can also generate reports of daily, monthly and annual reports of all transactions.

Similarly, a large number of small and medium business organisations in the country are gradually computerising their business. The Sunday Observer interviewed one of the big software providers in the local market, @ e Soft Computer Systems (Pvt) Ltd.

The company is quite different to the reputed BPO giants who cater to the US and European markets and as the CEO of the company Nishantha Mahawatta said selling software to local SMEs is an extremely difficult and challenging task.

Organised marketing

@ e Soft Computer Systems in Maravilla, 55 kms away from Colombo caters to over 200 customers spread across the country. Mahawatta said that he has clients in far flung areas such as Vavuniya, Ampara, Dehiathakandiya, Polonnaruwa, Welimada and most of the suburbs in the country. The company has a small but well organised marketing, implementation and service team.

"We mainly focus on the SME sector and provide software and hardware solutions. This sector has been neglected by large software producers.

However, this is a vast potential market. We have to develop the market considering the specifications, limitations and mainly by changing the attitudes of the entrepreneurs," Mahawatta said.

Selling a software product to an SME business is a real challenge mainly because of the lack of awareness and negative attitudes of entrepreneurs. They are reluctant to pay the price we set for software because this is an intangible thing and they don't see the real value of the product.

According to my experience, we can sell software to this market segment, only if the price is below Rs. 30,000.

The attitude of the owners of even large-scale businesses in the rural areas is surprising.

Indifference to local products

A person we met in Polonnaruwa who uses vehicles worth over Rs. 10 million is reluctant to pay Rs. 100,000 for an accounting solution, which could improve his business tremendously.

They will pay for the hardware, because they are tangible and can see the value but not on software.

Some big business organisations reject our products because we are a local company. They prefer the Indian solutions marketed by various local agents. I don't know whether they are aware about the Sri Lankan software industry and BPO industry which provides solutions to US, European Union and other developed countries.

@ e Soft's the business practices are planned considering mainly the cost factor. It has cut costs in all ways to give the product at the price that the market demands. It delivers its hardware to customers in remote areas by public transport. Marketing, implementation and service staff travel by public transport.

He has placed well-trained persons in the provinces who can handle the software and hardware problems of clients.

He considers this cost factor in development too, Mahawatta said. We don't have highly qualified IT professionals here. If I were to hire them I will have to pay high salaries and this will increase the cost of our solutions and finally the price of our products.

Mahawatta believes that the software development is also similar to the construction of a building. In a construction project you don't need many engineers but you need many unskilled labourers. In this development cycle too I use software developers whom I trained.

We have tools developed by me to be used in this software development process. I hire A/L qualified people who have a basic knowledge in computer. They get on the job training and I also conduct a training course for them. We start work at 8 am and the training session goes on until 9.30 a.m. Seniors share their knowledge and experience.

Though they are not IT graduates they do what I need, he said.

Specific needs

We specialise in software products and today we have 12 products and customise them to meet the specific needs of the business. Our main marketing channel is our customer and we are proud that all our customers are satisfied with our products and services. They introduce us to most of the new customers and the business is expanding.

H.L. Perera, the proprietor of Gemilow Fashion, Marawila is an @ e Soft client. Perera said that his business was well organised and improved after he received the POS system from @ e Soft. The solution has all the facilities we need and is trouble-free. We also get a good service, Perera said.

Mahawatta said that @ e Soft's software solutions are easy to use, robust, user friendly, easy to learn, affordable and appropriate for even large business organisations.

With nearly 10 years' experience in software development, we have pioneered new system models for small and medium scale businesses. @ e Soft packages feature a simple and user friendly interface with powerful menus, user group and user wise security, scalability and higher reliability, he said.

Mahawatta, a science graduate from the University of Kelaniya learnt computer programming the hard way. He started his career as an engineering supervisor after his A/L examination. He entered the computer field as a data entry operator.

He learnt statistics and computing as a subject at the university and followed short courses in programming. In mid 1990s he joined a software development company as a trainee programmer and worked in several companies as a programmer.

Later he joined Sabre Technologies, a UK software company as a software engineer and worked under Johan Sharplin, a software expert. Due to his ill health he wound up the business and Mahawatta decided to start his own business as he saw the vast untapped market in the SME sector.

"I took to business in 2004 with only the two old computers I had. I did not have any money and the business developed to this level with the money I earned from this business.

Today I have nearly 20 people on the staff. I hope to recruit another 20 but the shortage of qualified people is an issue.

Mahawatta said that his long-term objective is to develop a good ERP solution and take it to the international market. We get orders for software projects from overseas, but we do not have the capacity to handle projects here, he said.

The laudable efforts of this courageous entrepreneur to bring technology to the rural areas under tremendous difficulties should be appreciated. There is a wide gap between our software giants who are looking at the export market and @ e Soft. If they can share their knowledge and experience it would help boost the local business sector.

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Software products presented by @ e Soft Computer Systems

The @es POS system helps to perform all kinds of retail business. Easy, fast, reliable, customer satisfaction billing, customer scorecard, discount card, gift voucher, greeting card, vender tracking accounts, location wise stock, sales and many more features.

Web enable Back office system, you can work on your back office 24 hours worldwide. You can reduce the staff and overheads by using the web enabled system. It's fast, reliable and user friendly.

The @es Hire purchasing management system covers all activities in hire purchasing sales. Bulk purchasing, discount, payment instalment in sum of digits and reducing balance, receipts, to date closing balance, rebate, various reports with management, analysing and auditing, stock movement, daily collection and payments. Various sales type cash, credit, group, individual and custom types.

The @es Gold manufacturing system covers all activities in the gold manufacturing process. Increasing productivity, employee satisfaction, accuracy, raw material and finished goods stock, wastage, wastage recovery, old gold melting process, sub-contract, staff attendance, payroll and HR module, accounts of customers, suppliers, employees, petty cash, expenses.

The @es Colour lab and studio management system covers all activities in the colour lab and studio front office and back office. Easy and fast billing system for lab and studio. Three types of customer category and their price lists. Credit customer handling. Retails sales by using the POS system fully integrated with accounts department. Barcode enabled, quick search of customer orders and their status.

The @es workshop management system helps manage three types of activities with Hiring (tools and equipment), outdoor services and workshop repairs. In hiring modules you can hire tools, machines and accessories.

Easy record of customer history, photos and payments. Outdoor services can be handled periodically and immediate breakdowns. Workshop repairs, job estimates and quotations, required accessory list and stock availability ordering.

The @ es Pawn management system easy customer handling with various search options, customer history, blacklist, day collection summary and details of all transactions, quick check list, gold stock and aging, reminders, take ownership, customised pawn methods with security, interest rates.

Complete solution for tyre shop easy and reliable. Credit customer handling, rebuild, DAG, under complaint, casing, purchasing, various search options, complete stock handling, quotations, service bill, inbuilt payroll system and accounting system.

The @ es Inventory for small and medium level business. Multiple stores, distribution, wholesale, customer outstanding, supplier payment and their stocks, customer orders, periodic orders, good reordering process, management, auditing and analysing reports. The @ es Restaurant system easy to work and trained, accurate and effective solution for the Restaurant.

The KOT and BOT automate with the relevant counters. Multiple price according to the service available. Recipes for each prepared item and integrated with stock movement. Multiple customers for single table, Credit customer, Take away, delivery orders, periodic orders. higher security.

The @ es Medical lab system covers all activities in the medical lab front office and back office. Collecting samples, patient's history and reports. Integrates with account system.

The @ es Money exchange system easy, accurate, fast and affordable solution. Currency wise data and their analytical reports and graphs, bank conformation, customer deposit, Approval customers. Day end reports, management reports @ es Payroll system ability to capture data by manual, thump reader, proximity, barcode.

Easy shift scheduling, day schedules, contract staff, labour supplier commission. Personal information system. Multiple loans. various deductions and allowances and higher security integrated with the Web.

JKOA sweeps the boards with top industry awards

John Keells Office Automation (Pvt) Ltd. surpassed all expectations last year by sweeping the boards with wins in all four business units, in awards conferred by their foreign principles, Toshiba Corporation and Riso Kagaku Corporation. Two Golds, one Bronze and one special award were added to JKOA's already formidable wins in many areas of sales and service.

Celebrating excellence in sales performance, Toshiba adjudged JKOA winner of the coveted PC Gold Award in the Toshiba laptop category as well as the Projector Gold award for exceptional growth in sales of the Toshiba multimedia projector.

The company was also awarded the EID Bronze for the copier business, where JKOA's Toshiba photocopier sales performance was evaluated against the entire Asian pacific and Middle Eastern region.

Riso Kagaku Corporation of Japan, the world's largest manufacturer of digital duplicator systems, also stepped into recognise JKOA with the RISO Award for outstanding sales of Riso digital duplicators. JKOA's YoY (Year on Year) sales growth of Toshiba Notebooks leaped to a phenomenal 257% increase this year, while YoY Toshiba projector sales grew by a substantial 105%.

Sales of the Riso digital duplicator soared by 164% over last year's volume. The copiers also grew in double digits.

"We are delighted that our foreign business partners have recognised and appreciated our exceptional performance," said JKOA Vice President/Chief Executive Officer, Chandima Perera. "Service quality and product quality are the hallmarks of our business and we will continue to raise the bar even higher in the future."

The awards recipients were felicitated at a ceremony graced by John Keells senior management including JKH Chairman - Susantha Ratnayake, President JKH Transportation and IT Group - Romesh David and Sujiva Devaraja - JKH Executive Vice president Sector Head IT Sector.

HP expands entry-level server portfolio for midsize companies

HP unveiled new economical servers, application solution "blueprints" and enhanced remote management software that can help midsize companies reduce operating costs while supporting their growth.

The company's entry-level server portfolio now includes four new HP ProLiant server platforms that help midsize customers with limited space, budgets and IT staff. The servers' easy-to-use tools guide users through system configuration for fast installation so customers can focus on what matters most - growing their businesses.

HP also has developed new Midmarket Business Solutions that cut the time and effort needed for customers and channel partners to either create or upgrade critical business applications for entry-level ProLiant servers.

Additionally, HP is helping customers save time and increase staff productivity by enhancing its Lights-Out 100 Remote Management capability with upgrades to ensure affordable remote server control.

The new products and solutions are part of HP's Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio, which helps customers of all sizes reap the benefits of an infrastructure tailored to their business requirements.

"HP is aggressively focused on creating technologies that reduce complexity for midsize customers at every step," said Tony Parkinson, vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. "With these new products and solutions tailored to address their needs, midsize customers don't have to be IT experts to keep their businesses up and running."

The four new platforms in the HP ProLiant entry-level portfolio are dense, high-capacity servers that improve data availability while protecting against data loss with embedded Serial ATA (SATA) Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID). In addition, these servers feature a high-efficiency power supply option which helps lower electricity costs.

ICICI Bank to support capacity building in Micro Finance

ICICI Bank recently introduced Financial Information Network and Operations Limited (FINO) to the Sri Lankan market, to provide cutting edge, smart card based multi functional/application solutions, to the unbanked, who are primarily in rural and semi urban areas.

FINO operations are based on a chip card and bio metrics and work on a range of applications including health, weather, vehicles, equipment and life insurance products for the rural population.

Continuing their efforts to impart knowledge on Micro Finance, ICICI Bank conducted a knowledge sharing program with the Sri Lanka Micro Finance Institutions, members of the Lanka Micro Finance Network (LMFN) recently, where over 75 MFIs were present. It was organised by LMFN and hosted by ICICI Bank with the Head of Micro Finance ICICI Bank India, Krishna Prasad T., as the keynote speaker.

Among the topics discussed by Prasad were the history of MFI in India, the present situation of the MFI market, factors behind the success story of MFIs in India, policy environment for MFIs and government support, different products for MFIs, performance standards and performance monitoring systems for MFIs, capacity building for MFIs, mobilisation of resources and how can a bank help MFIs.

In addition to Prasad, ICICI Bank's Sri Lanka Country Head, Prem Kumar Thampi addressed the gathering, while Deputy Country Head Romesh Elapatha and Senior Manager Mid Sized Businesses, SME and Micro Finance Sampath de Silva, were also present.

"It has been noticed that there is a substantial demand for micro credit in the country through the active participation of MFIs" said Thampi. He said that they may also enlist the technology support of FINO when they launch the credit program for MFIs in Sri Lanka.

FINO's main technology/business partners include global leaders IBM, HP, and Oracle, as well as Indian multinationals such as I-flex Technologies and Financial Solutions and Services Ltd.

FINO has developed a common sectoral platform using biometric enabled hybrid smart card and fixed (stationary) / mobile (hand held) Point of Transaction (POT) devices.