As per Indian Economic Survey 2021, the domestic market is expected to grow three times in the next decade. India’s domestic pharmaceutical market is estimated at US$ 42 billion in 2021 and is likely to reach US$ 65 billion by 2024. It further expands to reach ~US$ 120-130 billion by 2030.
It is the largest provider of generic medicines globally, occupying a 20% share in global supply by volume, and supplies 62% of global demand for vaccines. India ranks third worldwide for production by volume and 14th by value. India has the highest number of US-FDA compliant Pharma plants outside of the USA. It is home to more than 3,000 pharma companies with a strong network of over 10,500 manufacturing facilities.
The pharmaceutical industry in India offers 60,000 generic brands across 60 therapeutic categories. The API industry is the third world’s largest, and it has 57% of APIs on the WHO. This big growing industry needs to be orchestrated in a symphonic manner, which is only possible with data support. One such company that empowers data as the key to minimizing cost and increasing efficiency is Soham ERP Solutions Private Limited.
Due to colossal labor turnover in the industry, people have now started adopting ‘system driven humans’ strategy instead of human-driven systems.’ Soham ERP Solutions Private Limited helps and guides this industry to grow in the coming journey of Industry 5.0. Both sectors are growing together hand in hand.
The genesis of Soham ERP
Soham ERP Solutions Private Limited was launched in 1988 by Mr. Suketu A Shah as a sole proprietorship. It started with developing customized software for anyone and everyone on the disk operating system using foxbase and clipper. The vision behind initiation is to provide the best and economical software to the pharmaceutical industry. Soham grew to incorporate a team of ten members belonging to the pharmaceutical background.
With thirty years of experience in the pharma software industry, Soham ERP Solutions is now an ISO 9001:2008 and D&B registered company catering to small, medium, and large firms. In 2012, the business was converted into Private Limited. Moreover, today the firm has a team of 55+ people developing a range of Pharma software for API Manufacturers, Formulators, Contract manufacturers, Exporters, C&F, C&A, and Wholesale Distributors.
The latest technology of Oracle, Apex, Angular TS, Forms and Reports, Java, Android, Flutter, and Native Script is incorporated. Soham helps the client to provide ease for management and simplify the processes without compromising with quality.
Innovative Leader
In his early stage of college, Mr. Suketu Shah, Managing Director, was attracted to technology and specifically computers. Besides college, he started attending extra computer courses at Rollwala Computer Centre – Gujarat University, a renowned computer center. Along with the college studies and additional computer studies, he began serving as a faculty at multiple computer centers of Ahmedabad.
On the day of his graduation, he had around three years of computer training and software developing experience. He launched two companies in 1988, the Institute of Computer Education (Training Institute) and Soham Software (Software development) companies with two branches in Ahmedabad. Eventually, he focused more on software development and assigned the training institute to another partner.
Soham Software’s journey changed from a partnership firm to Soham Computers proprietorship company with a vision to develop the only pharma-specific software. He completed his master’s degree in marketing and eventually set up as director of Soham ERP Solutions Private Limited with a rich experience of 24 years. During this period, he was on the advisory committee of Computer Education at Tapovan Sanskarpith, Gandhinagar.
Today with the experience of 33 years, he is heading a team of 55+ comprising Developers, Testers, Trainers, Customer Support, and other supporting staff. Technology has been changing every five years, and he is adopting newer and newer technology so that his customer always gets the best, state-of-the-art product. To add a feather in his crown, his second-generation Mr.Binoy Shah, Director Operations, has completed his graduation from Ahmedabad and got training at Mumbai regarding pharmaceutical manufacturing, repacking, and logistics.
Mr. Suketu Shah is also an executive committee member of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, Gujarat Chapter, and Life member of Gujarat Pharmaceutical Association. He has conducted quite a few seminars regarding the Track and Trace rules as per the guidelines of DGFT in the association of MSME. He is the founder and convenor of Alert Vyapar Organization, a Jain Alert Group of India initiative, and a Jain International Trade Organization life member.
Aspiring Thought Process
To develop something that does not exist has been Suketu’s hobby from childhood. To be creative is his passion. That is the chief inspiration to enter into the computer software industry. In his starting years as he was catering his software services to multiple industries like Cotton Yarn, Coal Logistics, Textile, Chemical Manufacturing and Trading, Branded showrooms, Engineering, packing material production, Jewellery, Road and Building construction, Automobile spare parts traders, Cement Manufacturing and Trading, Petrol Pump and Service station, Medicine manufacturing and distribution and lot more.
This multi-industry development nurtured his passion for being creative every day. He came across a new demand from a new customer with a new industry-specific requirement. So, this IT industry has become a fascinating life for him, more as a hobby than a business.
Crème de la Crème Services
The services are all about helping the healthcare organization create, manage, and implement the system. The products and services are as follows:
- PharmaCloud: SaaS and IaaS based Pharmaceutical Manufacturing ERP, a first in India
- e-Doc: Software to maintain BMR and BPR electronically and make documentation paperless, giving complete control over pre-defined processes
- BarGen: Track and Trace software developed as per guidelines of GS1 and DGFT for pharmaceutical produce exports
- MonitorEx: Specialized software for pharmaceutical contract manufacturers and exporters
- MonitorPlus: Specialized software for pharmaceutical contract manufacturers, loan licenses domestic, and C&F/C&A
- Radar: Mobile application and web-based software to monitor and manage sales force and marketing activities
- PdisPlus: Software for Pharmaceutical Distributors and Wholesalers
- DrugPlus: Software for Pharmaceutical bulk drug traders
Hurdles in the Journey
As Suketu was in the first decade of the software development business, the team was catering to more than 15+ categories. Going forward, it was challenging for the production and support team members to keep updated about each industry’s related changes. So, later on, the team focused only on one sector, i.e., the pharmaceutical industry, and discontinued software of all other sectors one by one. The company helped its customers to shift on other software smoothly during its stopping services for their industry.
It was a difficult job as the company was reducing its customers, and at the same time, it was not getting the same amount of business from the pharmaceutical industry. However, the team sticked to its decision and provided optimum solutions for the pharmaceutical industry.
Opinion that Matters
“The pharmaceutical industry is regulated, and everyday industry has to face one or the other challenges due to amendments in Drug rules, Govt. policy changes; challenges in export, which change from country to country. Young entrepreneurs can focus on any one of the challenges to start with, work on that challenge and provide the IT solution to make the life of the industry easier. This way, they can become part of this industry,” says Suketu.
Future Know-how
The future of Soham ERP Solutions Private Limited is very bright for multiple reasons. It is the most experienced pharma IT industry in India (30+ years). It is associated with thousands of customers who guide the company with newer requirements and ideas through which it consistently upgrades its product (2000+). The company wants to focus only on the pharmaceutical industry; hence, it understands their requirements and speaks their language.
The company is associated with many pharmaceutical associations where it discusses the future of the pharmaceutical industry and their expectation from IT to achieve their future goal or to deal with the upcoming challenges. Starting from Gujarat in 1988, today, it has covered 14 states of India. Its strategy is to expand its installations globally. It has already covered ten plus countries and is marketing in more countries and trying to grow in the countries where it has already sold to few customers.
For this, the company has associated with oracle and launched its PharmaCloud on Oracle Cloud. It can implement its ERP as Software as a Service (SaaS) model or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, which gives it an economical benefit to the customers. It is the first in India to provide Pharma ERP on Oracle Cloud.
Calculative Steps
Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, which was an exceptional lesson all humans went through, the company’s primary aim throughout the pandemic was to micro-manage every department and give the best services to its clients. Collectively, they decided to take service one step ahead of usual by making it 24 x 7 available without compromising the quality.
The calculated steps the company took to overcome the crisis included:
- It contacted all its clients individually via email, SMS, Whatsapp to assign each of its clients a single point of contact for their immediate needs.
- Routed all the landline support phone numbers to support heads’ mobiles. Equipped each employee with a laptop and phone for an internet connection.
- It took control and tried to keep all the office servers, machines, and air-conditioning on 24×7 during the lockdown.
- It made sure it used its self-developed support software named ‘Task Manager,’ which keeps the entire support team in the loop and tracks the service call from its receipt to the satisfactory resolution at the customer’s end.
- VPN set up for each staff member.
- Conducted daily online meetings sharp at 10 am, which started with a prayer, followed by a discussion of the pending or challenging issues of the previous day.
- Online training sessions played a vital role and helped the team to enhance its critical thinking.
Industry Now
The Pharma is food, and Tech is the air. Suketu running a Pharma focused tech industry, will give opinions for both sectors altogether.
The primary reason for this growth is as follows: –
- Expiry of patent drugs across the globe
- Increasing support of regulatory
- Developing an inhouse API farm and reducing the dependence on China
- Increase of the Private Investment as people got the idea after Covid that the only industry that won’t be affected due to any crisis is the Pharma.
