Event
Summary
On October 29, Ramco Systems, an Indian provider of enterprise
business applications and accompanied services, announced that its ASEAN
and European operations have continued to drive revenues during the second
quarter of FY 2001-02. Building on their strong performances in the previous
quarter, Q2 revenues in ASEAN and Europe grew by 37% and 24% respectively
over the corresponding period last year. However, the company cites the
general US slowdown and the tragic events of September 11 had an impact
on its US revenues, which witnessed a drop of 30% over the corresponding
period last year.
For
the first half of FY 2001-02, the company has posted global revenues of
$22.05 million and a loss of $4.82 million, which compares to $24.34 million
(a 9% drop) and $2.76 million respectively. This was mainly attributed
to investments in product development and to efforts to build long-term
strategic partnerships with large global corporations. The company has
reportedly invested about 50% of its manpower on development of the next-generation
ERP suite of products that are expected to be ready in early FY 2002-03.
During the second quarter, ERP solutions have reportedly registered a
20% growth in revenues compared to the corresponding period last year.
This would be a much-needed revival in demand for ERP solutions worldwide
and should augur well for the next-generation ERP suite of products currently
under development.
This,
Part One of a three-part Event Note, covers recent announcements
by Ramco Systems. Part Two will cover the Market Impact of the
announcements, and Part Three will discuss the Challenges faced
by Ramco Systems and make User Recommendations.
Joint
Ventures and Partnerships
During the quarter, the company's Swiss subsidiary entered into a joint
venture with Triamun AG of Switzerland, a provider of integrated solutions
for the health care sector. The two companies are jointly developing advanced
solutions for the health care sector. These solutions, which are specially
tailored to the needs of medical practices, pharmacies, laboratories,
health insurance companies and hospitals, will be marketed and implemented
by both companies.
Ramco
Systems also recently announced that partnerships signed during the last
several months and the ones to be signed in the future would be the growth
driver for the company in the coming times.
The
company has recently signed partnerships with a few major global corporations.
As an example, on October 15, Enterasys Networks, a leader in the
Enterprise Networking Solution, announced a partnership with Ramco Systems.
According to this agreement Ramco will offer Enterasys' Networking products
as part of its Enterprise solutions to its customers. Enterasys offers
data networking solutions to the enterprise customers in association with
technology partners like Nokia, F5 and Siemens. The
Enterasys flagship products include Matrix and Vertical Horizon Switches,
XPEDITION Switch Routers, NetSight Manager, Aurorean VPN products, Roam
About wireless LAN, Dragon Intrusion Detection products. In addition,
Firewalls from Nokia, Load Balancers from F5 and Convergence Gateways
from Siemens form the complete solution for the enterprise.
System
Integration Services
The Enterprise Networking division of Ramco Systems with expertise in
designing and implementing networks will offer System Integration services
to enterprise customers. The Enterprise Networking Solutions division
of Ramco Systems provides Network and System Integration solutions and
Information security solutions. The networking services offered by Ramco
include Network Consultancy Services, Network Design & Implementation,
Network Management Services, Facilities Management Services and Educational
Services.
Further,
on August 30, Ramco announced a strategic partnership with webMethods
Inc., one of the leading providers of integration software. The two
companies are partnering to meet the growing demand among companies for
enterprise application integration (EAI) services. Combining Ramco's applications
development and implementation expertise with webMethods integration platform
could give customers integrated solutions that meet organizational needs
and drive business efficiencies. Globally, Ramco has enabled companies
in the aerospace, chemical, building products, utility, food and other
industries to operate more efficiently with Ramco solutions.
This
concludes Part One of a three-part note on Ramco Systems. Part
Two will discuss the Market Impact of recent announcements and Part
Three will cover the Challenges faced by Ramco Systems and make User
Recommendations.