IFS spreading wings in Bangladesh
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 the Maldives and Nepal in the near future.
In a recent interview, Country Director for Bangladesh Asanga Marasinghe and Sales and Marketing Director for South Asia Shiraz Lye 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.
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 standardize and streamline their business processes, while adapting to best business practices. In addition to this, IFS’ key strengths developing solutions, marketing, implementation and support by one organisation, was warmly embraced by the market,” he said.
Director for Sales and Marketing South Asia Shiraz Lye said, “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.”
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,” Adding further, he stated: “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 utilized in regional and global business consultancy needs such as project implementations. Furthermore, IFS is currently strategizing at promoting modern best business practices and concepts in Bangladesh, in a bid to change the leniency to bespoke business solutions and non-standardized industry norms.