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January - 2009 - issue > STARTUP CITY
GINNI SYSTEMS
Jayakishore Bayadi
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Founded in 1999, Ginni Systems Ltd (GSL), a provider of software solutions for the retail industry was providing management consultancy and software solutions to several manufacturing and garment firms during the initial days. As the company moved forward, the GSL team sensed a retail boom in the offing, back in early 2002, and decided to plunge into the retail space and developed a standard solution targeting Indian SME retail segment leveraging their expertise in that space. According to research and markets study, IT revenue from the Indian retail segment was $253 million in 2006 and is expected to grow to $1.07 billion by 2010.GSL is very keen on making the most of this growing market, competing with global and local players in the segment.

HEADQUARTERS: New Delhi, India

HEADCOUNT: 60

OFFERINGS: The GINESYS Retail solutions, GINESYS Point of sales Softwares, GINESYS Retail enterprise solutions, and industry specific ERP solutions.

WHO PUT THE MONEY: Self

HOW THEY MAKE MONEY: Selling software licenses

WEBSITE: www.ginnisystems.com

BIGGEST CHALLENGE:

Initially, the company faced a huge challenge in convincing the customers how their product is worth the investment they make when there are solutions like Tally. "But our product had ingrained in it our deep knowledge about the Indian retail segment, which we leveraged heavily while building the product. Competition is inevitable and our domain knowledge is our strength to compete," says Lohia. Today, the company has solutions for the entire gamut of retail chains. GSL works with a huge number of channel partners located across India who work closely with their SME customers. However, currently the retail industry is facing a crunch due to the ongoing recession; the retail market on the whole has been hit. "But it's a short term phenomenon," opines Lohia.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT:

Normally, the solutions available in the market are generic ERP solutions. But GSL provides retail specific solutions, which meet the needs of the Indian retail industry. "SAP or other ERP solutions cannot be implemented easily in the Indian scenario as most of the mid level retail players here are not equipped to handle such huge software, and that's where GSL grabs the opportunity," opines Prashant Lohia, CEO. The company claims that the software costs about 50 percent less than the traditional tier-1 or tier-2 ERP solutions, as their implementation cost is lower, though it varies from case to case. The concrete and robust IP built over the past 10 years using Oracle is scalable and could be implemented within one or two months, while the traditional ERP software take several months. The solution can coexist, as a key retail solution, with huge solutions like SAP and alike, especially in large retail organizations where SAP is being used mainly for backend administrative or accounting activities.

THE PEOPLE:

Prashant Lohia, CEO
Arjun Roy, COO
Soumyadip Bhattacharya, VP, Software Development
Harsh Nahata, VP, Support & Implementation
Sameer Shrivastava, VP, Enterprise Solutions
Rajarshi Basu Roy, Associate VP, GINESYS Product
Jitendra Vyas, Associate VP, Sales & Marketing

CUSTOMERS: Kalamandir, SKC, Turtle, Mufti, Vmart,
R S Brothers, Vishal, Mayur Suitings, Sree Leathers,SMC, Pepsi, Meghalaya Cements, and many more.

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