Singapore: Asian enterprises’ growing need for custom-developed software is driving India-based Ramco Systems’ business towards the region.

These enterprises are looking for a competitive edge over their competitors that standard enterprise applications may not be able to provide, said Errol Mascarenhas, regional director, ASEAN, Ramco.

The customers that have taken to Ramco’s customised software approach are mostly process and discrete manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and governments.

These customers include Seagate and Intel in Malaysia as well as People’s Association and Singapore Sports Council in Singapore.

Ramco builds customised apps for customers using VirtualWorks, its model-based app development environment, in its development centre in Chennai, India.

The integration and localisation work is then done in Singapore or Malaysia, where the company has offices in ASEAN.

VirtualWorks can be used to develop apps that run on .Net or J2EE, and at the end of this year, on IBM software-based platforms.

Business from custom-developed apps make up only 30% of Ramco’s business in ASEAN.

But Mascarenhas expects this segment’s contribution to grow further as more and more customers ask for customised apps.

The other 70% comes from packaged enterprise applications which Ramco targets at mainly mid-sized companies.

And it has recently launched six new products, also developed on VirtualWorks. With business looking up after last year’s difficult economy, Ramco is planning to set up an office in Thailand by June this year and sign up one to two large partners in Indonesia.

It has 80 staff in Singapore and Malaysia.

At the year-end, it also intends to enter the China market as its products would be double-byte-enabled by then. ASEAN contributes US$8 million in revenue to Ramco.

Mascarenhas is targeting US$12 million for the company’s new financial year starting April.