And with over 40 companies in Pune opting for the installation of ERP packages, Pune is in the race with other cities to become the ERP capital of the country.

This was revealed by chairman of the Computer Society of India (CSI), Pune Chapter, Deepak Shikrapur while speaking to mediapersons at the ERP convention organised by the CSI and the Indian Express. According to Shikrapur, SAP, Baan and MFG/PRO have emerged the top three ERP packages being used in India. SAP is the biggest player in the Indian ERP market with a share of nearly 50 per cent of the market. Baan Co and MFG/PRO have a market share of around 20 per cent each while rest of the players share the remaining 10 per cent. Shikrapur revealed that these companies have developed Indian versions of their ERP packages which had helped them capture the market.

The swedish company Scala has set up a development centre in Pune. SAP is also getting into a tie-up with a Pune-based institute for being their official training centre. Similar tie-ups are in the offing in Hyderabad, Chennai, Calcutta and Delhi. Currently such official training centres are running only in Mumbai and Bangalore.

At present, there are at least 750 ERP installations in the country and fifty per cent of these are online and the rest are in the process of installation. He expected the costs to come down by 100 per cent once the market expanded. At present an ERP installation costs around two per cent of the turnover. He also believed that the deep-rooted fear among companies to combat the Y2k problem was driving them to install ERP as a cost effective solution.

Earlier, Prakash Kulkarni, managing director, Thermax Babcock Wilcox inaugurated the convention ERP' 98. Over 300 participants and eight ERP companies are participating in this four day convention. Bhaskar Parmanik, MD, Sun Microsystem released the ERP'98 souvenir. "ERP Journal", the first of its kind magazine in Asia devoted exclusively to ERP was released by Ganesh Natrajan, MD, Aptech Ltd.