IFS expands footprint to Bangladesh; eyes Maldives, Nepal next

IFS AB – The Global Enterprise Applications Company started its South Asia regional operations headquartered from Colombo in 2002 and since then has expanded its presence from Sri Lanka to Pakistan and Bangladesh. IFS is also looking at Maldives and Nepal in the near future.

In a recent interview, Asanga Marasinghe – Country Director for Bangladesh and Shiraz Lye – Sales and Marketing Director for South Asia stated that they are further expanding the operations and increase presence in Bangladesh in terms of business and consultancy.

“IFS’s presence in Bangladesh began in 2005 with the Singer Bangladesh – one of the largest web-based ERP implementation projects in the region, which was implemented primarily by Sri Lankan consultants and software engineers. Due to the scale of the project and particularly due to the immense potential and growth of Bangladesh economy, we appointed a local company in the country to serve as our marketing, implementation and support services Business Partner (BP). The BP also helped us with several other new implementations in Bangladesh such as Bombay Sweets (& Co. Ltd) and Lal Teer Seed Ltd. A few years down the line, however, we realised that to serve and grow more, IFS needs to have a direct presence in Bangladesh,” said Marasinghe, who is also the Director Software Development and Technical Services at IFS.

He added that in late 2011, in view of increasing IFS’s presence and capitalisation in South Asia, IFS chose Bangladesh as one of its direct presence zones. As a result, IFS established its own operations in Dhaka in Q1 2012.

The main objective during the initial phase was to ensure a smooth transition of projects of existing customers from BP to IFS. With the new set up in the country and more focus, IFS managed to win contracts with Apex Adelchi Footwear Ltd. – ― the leading footwear manufacturer in Bangladesh and Rangs Limited — the distributor for Mitsubishi automobiles in Bangladesh to implement IFS Applications.

Marasinghe also spoke about what made IFS to enter Bangladesh: “No doubt, Bangladesh is a large economy in the region and is growing at a pace. Bangladesh has also declared an initiative called ‘Vision 2021’, which aims at uplifting Bangladesh to an IT-based middle-income country by 2021. In support of this, there are many reliefs for IT investments by companies in the country. Also in Bangladesh, most organisations are family-owned and entrepreneurial type. Their newer generations are more tech-savvy and IT literate, and are interested in investing in IT to standardise and streamline their business processes while adapting to best business practices. In addition to this, IFS’s key strengths ― developing solutions, marketing, implementation and support by one organisation, was warmly embraced by the market.”

Lye explained how the product and cultural fit helped IFS in merging into Bangladesh: “As a top-tier ERP solutions provider, IFS is much stronger and has deep industry knowledge in verticals such as industrial manufacturing, utility and power, retail, and automotive, which incidentally are the most demanding sectors in Bangladesh at present. Above all, the strong cultural and friendship ties, and the wide acceptance to Sri Lanka as a fellow regional country has helped us a lot in setting our footprint in Bangladesh.”

“During the past years, IFS has built strong case studies and references in the market, causing more prospects to flow into the pipeline without any full scale marketing expenditure. In Bangladesh, it’s a more close community and most organisations that run the private sector are family-owned entrepreneurial businesses. For this reason, word of mouth plays a big role in business development than in Sri Lanka or any other country in the region. IFS has been very successful in tapping this channel in the past. However, we are also looking at a few other initiatives to expand the scope of business development in short term as well as long term. These initiatives and plans also involve our existing valued customers such as BRAC Bank, Singer Bangladesh, Jamuna Bank, Bombay Sweets & Co, Lalteer Seeds and recent ones – Apex Adelchi Footwear, and Rangs Limited,” Lye added further.

Marasinghe spoke on the challenges IFS had to face: “One of the main challenges we had to face in tapping into the Bangladesh industry was finding the right people with the apt to reach high in IT and industrial consultancy.”

He added: “Bangladesh, having one of the biggest and growing economies in the region, is targeted by many new and emerging solutions vendors, which had made the IT business solutions sector very competitive. We also had to change our way of approach significantly, as unlike in Sri Lanka, most of the establishments in Bangladesh are well diversified groups of companies. Additionally, as a global solutions vendor, we are aspiring to venture into the industries outside Dhaka, especially due to their rapid industry expansion and huge potential. But the fact that the infrastructure and other resources are congregated mainly in Dhaka city has largely held us back.”

According to Marasinghe, IFS also plans to raise an industrial consultancy arm in Bangladesh by training and grooming the local industry and IT professionals to global standard with the aid of the Sri Lankan industry experts. They will be utilised in regional and global business consultancy needs such as project implementations. Furthermore, IFS is currently strategising at promoting modern best business practices and concepts in Bangladesh, in a bid to change the leniency to bespoke business solutions and non-standardised industry norms.