In order to find out the tendencies on the Romanian and international ERP market, we had a discussion with TotalSoft, the company ranking first in top ERP providers for 5 years in a row (according to the research and consulting company, Pierre Audoin Consultants). Last year, TotalSoft intended to extend its international presence and aimed to occupy the top position in Eastern and Central Europe with Charisma ERP.
Interview with Laurentiu Mavrodin, International Implementation Manager Charisma ERP
In the latest number of our magazine, in March last year, Charisma ERP aimed to become the leader in Western and Eastern Europe. Mr. Mavrodin , it would be interesting to know, how this objective gets on with the westerners’ reticence to work with a Romanian firm?
Although there is a reticence regarding this subject, the international companies are interested in other aspects when searching a software solution. They analyze the system in detail, the provider’s team, the know-how and last but not least, the references. The client portfolio says a lot about a product. These are the stages preceding an achievement, when they realize they are dealing with professionals that know the market they operate in, or not. From our international experience, I am telling you for sure that the value of a product removes any reticence. Moreover, I believe that Romania becomes every day a more attractive destination for the multinationals looking for a business sector. It would be a mistake not to take advantage of this.
Last year, Charisma won a large-scale international project. Could you give us details?
We signed a contract with an international leasing company to implement a centralized platform that will be used in 22 countries, having Charisma ERP in the center. The client will see the advantages of this solution both at software infrastructure level and especially at business level. The company will be able to monitor customer exposures, will improve the relationship with the international vendors and will benefit from centralized reporting. In fact, the centralized reporting system will be a major advantage because it offers real-time data from all over the countries where the client is operating, and thus, a global image of the business. Furthermore, Charisma will standardize the processes in all the countries, and, through the deployment platform, all their changes will be performed automatically at global level.
It is a complex project, covering all the product ranges in the financial services industry, such as operational and financial leasing, stock financing, factoring as well as specific adaptations to the Anglo-Saxon market.
For Charisma, this project means gaining a position on the global market of leasing software, which is very difficult to achieve. Charisma will cover the particularities of each market reached through this project, such as China, UK or Canada. The entire know-how of operational and financial leasing business will be found in Charisma. The project is a challenge and an achievement which will lead us to other international projects. Currently, multinationals orient their strategy concerning the software infrastructure towards global solutions enabling them to align their internal processes from all over the countries, to generate common and centralized reports, standardized workflows etc. There is an obvious market trend, and Charisma is already struggling with the world’s leaders in the financial services area. We reached this point after 12 years of business in the financial sector, on an international market where this kind of solutions are much older.