[INTERVIEW] Douzone compete with foreign ERP companies with homemade software solutions

By Lim Chang-won Posted : January 20, 2022, 15:20 Updated : January 20, 2022, 15:20

[Photograph by Yoo Dae-gil]

SEOUL -- It's not been easy for a homemade business management system to settle down in a market dominated by prejudice and popular foreign-made solutions. Douzone Bizon, an ICT solution and service provider in South Korea, has survived through the technology development of enterprise resource planning in an unfavorable market environment to become an essential solution for corporate management.

Douzone, which is involved in a state project to establish a big data platform, supports digital transformation by segmenting a service-type software for private companies and expanding opportunities for innovative new financial services. Douzone's services include accounting programs, cloud, groupware, information security and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

ERP is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real-time and mediated by software and technology. It provides an integrated and continuously updated view of core business processes using common databases maintained by a database management system. Cloud-based applications have grown due to information being readily available from any location with internet access.

"All our products are doing well in the market by overcoming prejudice against domestic ERP solutions," Lee Kang-soo, Douzone's co-CEO in charge of ERP business, said in an interview with Aju Business Daily. In terms of sales in 2020, Douzone stood second by cornering over 20 percent of the domestic market which used to be dominated by foreign ERP vendors such as SAP.

"In the early days of ERP introduction in the domestic market, it was recognized as an advanced management method to use foreign solutions rather than domestic systems. At that time, there were no alternative domestic systems," Lee said, adding Douzone has developed next-generation solutions suitable for global corporate management while continuously accumulating experience in ERP establishment. 

The "New Deal" master plan aimed at helping South Korea emerge as a digital powerhouse through industry-wide digital transformation has served as an opportunity to raise awareness of excellent domestic solutions. "Previously, in the process of proposing our ERP system to public institutions, we had difficulties. The threshold was high for Douzone, which supplied solutions in public projects involving small and medium-sized domestic partners that supply foreign products."

"Now, ERP has become an essential solution for corporate management, and Douzone is competing with foreign ERP software solutions by securing a high share in the domestic market," Lee said, calling for government support to address "reverse discrimination."
 

[Courtesy of Douzone Bizon]

As COVID-19 spreads a trend of avoiding face-to-face contact, South Korea is actively adopting digital transformation in public and corporate sectors by utilizing cloud, big data and AI technologies. Douzone's ERP 10 is a software solution that realizes real-time enterprise, robotic process automation, and business process automation required by large companies. It manages big data, maximizes management efficiency by closely connecting all information and resources of a company, and improves the accuracy and visibility of decision-making through the comprehensive analysis of real-time data.

ERP 10 has raised awareness in the market because the advanced architecture inherent in the solution has been well received for responding to the interests of large companies and regulatory issues within the domestic economic structure, which heavily relies on exports for economic growth, Lee said, pointing to Douzone's software solutions with excellent scalability and no technology dependency. 

The fast adoption of ERP in South Korea, Lee said, is because many companies are pushing to upgrade their management systems as the Fourth Industrial Revolution evoked the craze for utilizing big data and artificial intelligence and interest in office automation and smart factories.

"ERP functions should be expanded to increase the efficiency of users' work, but they are often easily possible by collaborating and linking with specialized companies in different industries. When two different solutions are interconnected, customers do not have to repeatedly work on multiple solutions to increase productivity by investing saved work hours and resources in different tasks," Lee said.

The ERP developer has accelerated its global expansion since US private equity firm Bain Capital agreed to invest around 400 billion won in March 2021. "ERP is an integrated system that covers almost all areas of company work."

(This story is based on a Korean-language interview conducted by Aju Business Daily reporter Im Min-cheol)
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