Original Source:https://theceostory.in/lounge-interview/sage-software/
If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.” a famous quote tossed by Steven Johnson, a Science author & media theorist, speaks a lot about the company that we have featured here. We were in a virtual conversation with Jitendra Somani (CEO) to touch different aspects of this ingenious business venture and came across some valuable and insightful nuggets. We firmly reckon that our readers will find this elegant read enjoyable and inspirational like always!
THE PREFACE
Sage Software Solutions has become a reputed name as a distributor of Sage group in India offering integrated cloud and on-premise ERP and CRM solutions. Launching an exemplary product portfolio comprising Sage X3, Sage 300 cloud, Sage CRM, it has become a prominent player across the space. For the last two years, its flagship product — Sage X3— has been at the centre of its product offering, which is an enterprise-grade solution, unlike any conventional ERP.
Today, it has brought thousands of clients across multiple industries under its service parasol and still counting. With one-to-one customer interaction being its mantra, its customer-centricity has allowed it to play the trumpet of its success across the space. Innovation and customer feedback have been its impeccable tools to excellent performance allowing it to make every imperative adjustment while building economical solutions under a certain time frame.
INSIGHTS ON INNOVATION
When questioned to define their innovation management strategies at the company, the CEO claims that ‘innovation in customer success and delivery is the backbone’. And here, customer feedback fuels their innovative speckle. The management has offered the employees absolute access to the new-fangled platforms to monitor the market trends, customer expectations and customer choices. “At the crux of innovative strategies stands deep analysis of each input and see how it might help our clients save time and resources,” asserts the luminary.
And when it comes to establishing business model innovation, the company attentively analyses its offerings, target audience, geographies while acknowledging their fortes as well as weak points. They believe rather than generalizing any issue, considering the business pain point is crucial. And hence, their product portfolio targets macro as well as micro verticals. No doubt, their team is a collective of the right tools blended with decades of experience in market exploration and sectors that guarantee maximum ROI.
“We are always motivated by the evolving technological ecosystem and try to become a part of the change by including modern and innovative solutions into our products,” affirms Jitendra.
At the time of the inception of Sage Software Solutions, ERP automation in SME was the least popular topic in the Indian business space. Two decades ago, this company started delivering solutions for— ‘simplified business process and reduced operational inefficiencies with fewer complications’. Now, enhanced productivity and boosted profits are the outcomes for opting for their extraordinary ERP solutions integrating business functions.
THE X- FACTOR
When questioned about their differentiating factor, then the luminary responded that their DNR comprises of freedom of choice as they never imposed any solution on the end-customers. They are free to choose — be it choice of Database and Infrastructure platform, deployment option of Cloud or on premise, Licensing model of Perpetual License model to a subscription model, it’s their free will. Apart from this, another aspect of their leading edge in the market is the availability of Industry-specific Micro vertical solutions developed with sheer profoundness. All their offerings are designed to address the end-to-end needs and functionalities of the client organisations.
Additionally, information silos pose major challenges to the free flow of communication among the departments of any organisation, eventually hampering overall productivity. To combat this scenario, Sage X3— ERP solution, addresses such issues by integrating different business functions like accounting, purchase, manufacturing, inventory, data management and reporting, SCM, and sales and marketing into customizable dashboards for easier readability, enhancing the business productivity.
And for better organisational flexibility, their unique cloud applications (on-cloud ERP and CRM Deployment) has been known as quite effective solutions. These applications allow companies supervise instrumental processes with minimum human interference. Moreover, in the present work from home scenario, Sage’s exemplary offerings have minimized the remote working hassles.
RELIANCE ON R &D
The organisation fervently believes that the R&D process is imperative for company growth. For this, they are consistently investing so much time and resources to get the market pulse via R&D techniques. It has ensured them a better comprehension of challenges, inefficiencies, compliance issues, and areas of mismanagement existing across the industry. To sum it up, the exemplary success of the company is a sheer result of possessing an apt R&D team.
SUSTAINING THE ‘CRISIS LIKE NO OTHER’
The pandemic was like a wake-up call for the overall business landscape where it spotlighted the inconsistencies and inefficiencies that has been prevailing in the system. Likewise, enterprises had to deal with a plethora of impediments to getting essential raw materials since a majority of vendors, suppliers, and distributors were struggling to supply products from source to destination. Recognising this alarming situation, the Sage product development team updated Sage ERP software to allow businesses to recognise real-time insights into their inventories to place orders in case the material quantity goes below the set goal.
Along with this, digital supply chains have boosted the performance of Sage X3 ERP software assuring complete electronic connectivity via the deployment of electronic sensors. Real-time tracking of the movement of goods via the product line and transportation routes have become a cinch with these sensors. Also, smart manufacturing algorithms to automate and monitor production activities and the use of data analytics for the ameliorated manufacturing process are the additional gains of their tech inclusion.
LEADERSHIP NURTURING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION
As the leading figures of the company hail from the technology and management education space, Sage Software is adamant about driving transformational tech changes across the business world. They motivate every ounce of the team’s effort on tech trends mixed with relevant functionalities to be substantial to organisational functions. The workforce aspires for an ultimate solution that is easy, agile, useful and impenetrable to business problems. Jitendra’s leadership is heavily aligned with the notion that the workforce is their most precious asset, ergo, the management hosts regular training sessions annually to enhance their talents and skills for their personal as well as professional development.
Under intuitive stewardship thrives a collaborative culture that incentivizes the outperformers. Transparency and employee engagement are at their core values supervised by the senior management team itself. Addressing their cultural principles,
Jitendra says, “To foster an overall departmental growth, the responsibilities are exchanged between the members to promote individual contributions and avoid monotonous work schedule. This allows our employees to pick up new skills and contribute to the company in varied ways. Moreover, we have built a grievance redressal technique that ensures speedy solutions to complex business challenges at the earliest.”
RECOGNITIONS AND FUTURE OUTLOOKS
Owing to its phenomenal offerings that have revamped many businesses sophistically, Sage Software Solutions has been granted several awards and accolades. One of those is Edge awards that the company bagged for its successful and highly impactful business technology adoption in favour of its valued customer base. Furthermore, SageX3 has been rewarded with the best SaaS software for ERP MRP in SaaS 2020 awards. This outstanding product has also been awarded Techradar’s 2019 Best Business Awards and many more to mention.
For the future prospects, the senior executives of the company are converged on bringing the best out of technology and functionality that can be easily owned by SMEs. Soon, owing to their innovative streak Sage core product team will be including practical usage of RPA, AI/ML and IoT enabled devices, side by side seeking ways to utilize technologies to solve real-life problems for small and medium business leaders.
At last, the speaker signed off by providing us positive feedback on experience, “I want to congratulate The CEO Story for building a robust platform that provides a voice to organizations working hard to create a difference.”
