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Inforum: Cafta to boost ERP solutions market - Regional
Published: Friday, August 26, 2005 18:37 (GMT -0400)

The Central American free trade agreement (Cafta) will boost sales for enterprise resource planning solutions among SMEs as companies seek to improve efficiency to take advantage of the new business opportunities, Guatemalan IT company Inforum's director Edgar Urrutia told BNamericas.


According to Urrutia, the market potential is huge with 3,000-4,000 companies that fall in the SME range in Guatemala alone that could be interested in implementing ERP solutions.

"With Cafta, a lot of companies are seeing the need to get their house in order or go out of business," Urrutia said, speaking on the sidelines of the Latin America Business Partner Summit of German software solutions company SAP (NYSE: SAP).

"There was a gap in the market in Central America for a world-class software solution for small businesses at an affordable price," Urrutia added.

Inforum, headquartered in Guatemala, is the largest partner in Central America for SAP's Business One suite, aimed at SMEs. The company recently opened offices in El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica.

One-and-a-half years after allying with SAP, Inforum has 30 customers and expects that to rise to 40 by year-end. In Guatemala, the only country where Inforum has seen a full year of business, the company posted revenues of around US$1mn in 2004, Urrutia said.

Inforum's two main business areas are implementation of ERP solutions and licensing. Implementation time is currently four-to-five months, which Inforum hopes to reduce to three months.


By Patrick Nixon
BNamericas.com