Raj Ratan Looks for ERP to Facilitate Expansion
By Abhishek Raval
Mumbai, Jun 4, 2007

Business expansion is driving Raj Ratan Global Wire to look for an integrated core business application that would help the company address various regulatory specifications as well.

Speaking to CXOToday.com, Sameer Poorkar, asst. manager (EDP) said, "We are looking to move over to an integrated ERP as we are on a huge expansion mode."

The company is about to set up a plant and begin operations in Thailand, where one of the raw materials for tyre, i.e. rubber, is available in plenty. Besides, the issue of availability of expertise for the specialty wire that Raj Ratan manufactures is expected to be solved, since Thailand has numerous rubber making companies.

Incidentally, Raj Ratan Global Wire is the only manufacturer of tyre bead wires (special wires on tyres for heavy vehicles) in India, other than Tata Steel. At present the company is using an ERP that is locally made. The IT department has been going through a trying time, since the existing ERP fails to fulfill the incorporation of various statutory requirements.

"We need a system that provides functionalities to incorporate service tax, and helps retrieve information as specified by regulations," added Poorkar. As of now the company is carrying on with separate applications for finance, purchase, etc. The company uses PostGre SQL as its database that is hosted in servers running on Linux platform.

Raj Ratan has witnessed an annual turnover of Rs.117 crore for 2006-07, and is planning to spend comprehensively to make its systems go in sync with its business expansion objectives. It spends close to Rs.8 lakh per year on IT infrastructure.