Friday, June 11, 2004

[news] Kingdee does it right!!

Friday, June 11, 2004
Dateline: China
 
Well, at least that's the plan.  Frankly, the strategies I've been touting map very closely to what Kingdee is doing -- and why they are doing it.  According to a story recently released over the IDG News Service ( http://tinyurl.com/2sb99 ), Kingdee has taken the following actions:
 
1) They've opened TWO offices in the States.  One in Palo Alto (Go Cardinal!) and one in New York.
 
2) Rather than focusing on selling their ERP and CRM offerings in the States, Kingdee is positioning itself as a consulting partner and outsourced labor provider for U.S. companies.  Their objective is to connect with U.S. firms seeking access to a talented, low-cost labor pool.
 
3) They're touting their strengths in programming (including debugging), maintenance and localization.
 
4) They're targeting software vendors (ISVs) seeking development assistance.
 
5) They're seeking partnerships with American ISVs moving into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market.
 
6) They plan to leverage their market experiences in the States to help domestic Chinese firms as they expand globally.
 
7) They've developed a relatively strong partnership with Sun, becoming a J2EE licensee in April (believe it or not, this is a big deal for a firm in China) and working with Sun on language localization projects.  (The point is that they're developing a strong partnership with an ISV.  And Sun is a good one to choose!)
 
8) They're talking with a product lifecycle management (PLM) market leader that's looking at the Chinese market; they're also talking with a hosted CRM company -- utility computing strikes again!
 
Wow, let's be honest, this is EXACTLY the kind of strategy I've been touting over the past several months.  My recommendations map about 90% with Kingdee's strategy.  Frankly, I can't fault ANYTHING they're doing, except I'd look at ISVs in other categories:  PLM is continuing to rank near the bottom of CIO priorities in just about every survey.  But it's a great long(er) term play, which might be fine as Kingdee ramps up their offshoring ops.
 
Bottom line:  To all other systems integrators and software vendors in China, take notice.  Kingdee, at the very least, is trying to do it right; if they succeed in their execution phase, they'll be a formidable foe.
 
Cheers,
 
David Scott Lewis
President & Principal Analyst
IT E-Strategies, Inc.
Menlo Park, CA & Qingdao, China
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posted by David Scott Lewis at 6:49 PM