An Indian Pharma CEO's Dilemma

Top management in most of the Pharma or for that matter any mid-segment company in India faces with a dilemma when it comes to deciding on their IT Implementation Strategy that involves deciding on adoption of solutions like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relations Management), SFA (Sales Force Automation), PayRoll, HRM (Human Resource Management).

(PRWEB) January 5, 2005 -- When the company is young the CEO/CFO/CIO do not see the value of IT investments at early stage of their operations due to the uncertainties related to their own growth or they are not willing to make decent investments on Enterprise Information Systems when they could divert the same for their immediate needs such as Raw Materials Purchase or Marketing.

An ideal strategy would be to go early with the IT infrastructure investments organically than going late after the growth has happened which is a typical scenario in many Pharma companies in India.

Once a company that has grown substantially decides to adopt an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Solution then it is posed with the question of which ERP solution it need to go with. Implementing an ERP solution aftermath of substantial growth spells another dip in business during the transition of the company from its current systems to a much proven ERP implementation process. The chaos includes the resistance from within to transform and adopt new system as much as the duplication of work till the transition is complete. The transition period has been generally identified to be anywhere between 6 months to as long as 18 months for large implementations.

An ERP selection process is getting increasingly complicated especially when it comes to dealing with "PROVEN Proprietary Solutions" from vendors who are dealing with old technology solutions catering to new business needs. The costs involved are as high as the uncertainties related to the fate of these vendors in an era of mergers and acquisitions.

An ideal strategy for selection of a new generation ERP would be to find flexible solutions with minimal overhead costs that are naturally passed on to customers. It should also be verified if the solution is OS independent which would avoid any porting issues of the application in case of policy change in OS adoption across the enterprise.

Open source ERP solutions or ERP solutions with Software Escrow options are most recommended in the present day scenario for the enterprises to be on safer side. Platform independence, scalability and flexibility of the solutions to adapt to changing or emerging trends is most crucial when it comes to choosing a solution of a companys choice that ultimately safeguards the investments while yielding desired results.

An ERP in today's world is a single view of the Sales Force, Enterprise Information, Human Resources and Recruitment, CRM and Market Research activities coupled with traditional ERP modules of yester years that dealt with Sales and Distribution, Warehouse, Production, Accounting and Finance work flow. If this is the vision then the ERP should have both client application as well as web-based access whichever appropriate for the users based on their roles in the enterprise and location.

Vendors like Zudha are committing themselves to bring better value for money through new generation ERP solutions that are built on open architecture keeping in mind the future trends and needs of an enterprise which ultimately is in the interest of the company for its long run.

Customers saved substantially for the initial risk they took in adopting the new generation ERP. They are glad that they took the lead which has put them out of risk from vendor lock-in while retaining the flexibility to transform their solution to changing business needs without having to revamp or replace their IT infrastructure investments.

About the author:

Rajesh H A is the CEO of Zudha Information Technology Pvt Ltd a Bangalore based Enterprise Information and IT infrastructure provider for HealthCare and Pharmaceutical sectors. He can be reached at the following contact address.

Zudha Information Technology Pvt Ltd

No. 227, 12th Cross

Wilson Garden

Bangalore - 27

Tel: 91-80-22225486, 91-80-51206608, 51206609

Fax : 91-80-22214112

http://www.zudha.com

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