The Complete Solution

BM: Can you give me some background on Ramco in the Middle East?
R. Shankar. Ramco formally commenced its Middle East operations in 2005 with an office in Dubai. We invested our initial efforts into understanding the market, customer needs, creating a solid, 'referenceable' customer base and building partnerships in the region. Having achieved excellent traction in all these areas, we will now be accelerating our growth. Currently, our solutions are deployed across 13 countries in the MENA region, and accessed by over 1200 users in UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. Ramco's HRMS and payroll solution generates the monthly payslips for over 48,000 employees of our customers in the Middle East.

We have established a strong presence in vertical segments such as manufacturing (process and discrete) and Aviation MRO, as well as horizontal offerings like HRMS across industries. Some of our key customers include United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Schlumberger, RAK Bank, Commercial Bank International, Alsalam Aircraft Company, Gulf Helicopters, Ducab, Group 4 Securicor, National Life and General, Citibank and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL).

Very recently, we have entered into a significant partnership with Sharjah Teaching Hospital (STH) where Ramco's enterprise solution will be made available to students in the health and management programs of University of Sharjah. This will assist the Emirati students in understanding the benefits of enterprise solutions as a part of their curriculum.

STH is for us one of our most important government customers in the region. They will be implementing a full-suite Ramco solution centred around financials, HRMS and analytics for running their day-to-day operations. Our outstanding customer references in the region, with opinion leaders voicing their satisfaction with Ramco's offerings & services helped us clinched this deal.

BM. Despite being a newer entrant into the market, you have done well. What has been the secret?
RS. As an emerging player in the Middle East region, we offer significantly more value to customers than our competitors, both with respect to quality products and our approach to professional services, implementation and support.

We believe in leading the way with our innovative approach to create enduring value for our customers. Our unwavering focus is to deliver best-in-class solutions with end-to-end functionality on time and within budget. Two important facets are the flexibility of our system and its readiness to quickly and painlessly adapt to change at all times.

We dive deep into every engagement and ensure that all our customers derive true value from our implementations. We bring in dedicated professionals who demonstrate sincerity, commitment and honesty of purpose during customer engagements. Our ecosystem of partners and 24/7 support mechanisms enables our customers to reach us whenever they need to.

BM. What is your view on the potential of IT applications space in MENA?
RS. Across the region, there is substantial growth in the economies and businesses of various countries. New levels of investment are visible across various sectors. Businesses are clearly experiencing the need for a new class of IT solutions on the latest technologies that do not carry the baggage of older, legacy-type systems.

More than at any other time in the past, CXOs are aware that their IT solutions have to really keep pace with changes in the business. To achieve this, they need to work with a different genre of solution providers offering their products on exciting foundations like SOA and web services. Customers should also demand that solution providers and their partners need to be transparent, dedicated and committed towards rendering an exciting experience.

Moving forward, we believe that the small and medium segment of the market will be best served through an 'on demand' model, where customers can access hosted ERP solutions from data centres located in their respective countries.

BM. What is your business strategy and how does Ramco differentiate itself from its competitors?
RS. Customers have pain points that impact their entire business. Through its well-integrated solutions, Ramco addresses these pain points very uniquely and emphatically. This is achieved through a combination of deep functionality, a distinct implementation methodology with quality consulting, and flexible solutions.  We nurture an ecosystem that delivers very high customer satisfaction through superior products and services. This level of customer satisfaction pays off handsomely in the long term, particularly since enterprise solutions is a reference-driven business.

We invest in people, processes, partnerships and products that ensure sustained and profitable growth. While we bring in global best practices, we believe in partnering with local firms that enable us to deliver localized global solutions.

From a technology perspective, our strategy is to remain evergreen by continuously investing in R&D and partnering with leading technology vendors. This helps us stay ahead of the curve, and enables our customers to derive a distinct competitive advantage.

Ramco VirtualWorks, our solution delivery platform, forms the foundation on which all our enterprise solutions, products and services are built and delivered. Our solutions can be implemented with unparalleled speed and flexibility to provide a glove-fit for enterprise needs. Based on open standards and SOA principles, our solutions support our customers' ongoing business needs enabling high agility.

BM. How much does Ramco invest into the Middle East and Africa and what is the importance of this region to your global operations?
RS. ME and Africa form an integral and important part of Ramco's global operations, contributing almost 30 percent of global revenues. Although we entered this region later than other providers, we are growing well.  We are strengthening our presence in MEA and plan to add more resources in the coming quarters. The region has also witnessed several breakthrough deals for Ramco.

BM. What are Ramco's growth plans for the Middle East and Africa region?
RS. Our efforts in the region are yielding positive results. We will be enhancing our field sales teams, rolling out an integrated marketing program and also forging new partnerships to accelerate our growth. We aim to double our revenues in the region in the next three years. Our focus verticals are aviation, manufacturing, insurance and human capital management (HCM). We will also pursue select opportunities in the government sector.

We strongly believe that business partnerships/strategic tie-ups are the best way forward to leverage emerging markets in the region. We already have some strategic partners across the region, such as Emitac, CERT, Intercol, Lindenberg, CEM Business Solutions, MAJAL, Eurosoft, Mabas and Al Kalima. Ramco will invest into strengthening these relationships.

BM. Is there a success story unique customer in Middle East that you wish to talk about?
RS. Every one of our engagements in the region has been a success story, and each of them is unique. What is significant is the fact that our customers have been realising tremendous value from Ramco's solutions. In all cases, the return on investment for them has been very high.

With all our engagements in the region, we have been able to render the unique customer experience that forms the theme of the book recently released by Professor CK Prahalad, 'The New Age of Innovation'. Ramco's solutions provide a great foundation for businesses to transform themselves. 

About the company:

Ramco is a global provider of business consulting, enterprise solutions and outsourcing services that enhance business value through better business processes and agile, global-class applications. The company's solutions run at over 1000 customer sites across more than 40 countries, serving a customer base that includes Fortune 500 companies, SMBs, large enterprises and government organisations.