KarenSoft expanding market to Thailand and Indonesia StarBiz, Tuesday, May 11, 2004 KarenSoft Technology Bhd, a home-grown enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions provider, is set to market its products in Thailand, and then Indonesia, as part of its expansion plan over the next few years. Executive chairman Chee Chong Hwa said that this year should be interesting, as the company was focusing more on overseas expansion and new product launches. “We are in the midst of negotiating the expansion to Thailand due to its fast growing economy, and we hope to have a presence there this year,” he said. Chee Chong Hwa He added that the company was also interested in expanding to Indonesia within the next five years, as Bahasa Indonesia was quite similar to Bahasa Malaysia and there was hardly any need to localise its products. Chee said after the company’s AGM in Penang yesterday that KarenSoft signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an Iranian IT company early this month to market its ERP products there. “We chose Iran because the manufacturing sector there is one of the fastest growing segments, with the sector accounting for 13.5% of the country’s GDP,” he said, adding that there was a ready market of about RM300mil for the ERP system in Iran. “We also want to be a pioneer in entering virgin territories such as Iran and Yangzhou city in the province of Jiangsu in China,” he added. Chee said KarenSoft was now physically present in Yangzhou and a new wholly-owned subsidiary, KarenSoft China Venture Sdn Bhd, was incorporated in April this year to invest in the company’s China operations. “We are targeting about 1,600 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China, with potential sales value of 200,000 renminbi (RM94,481) each,” he said. Chee said the expansion would be followed by new product development such as its recently launched KarenSoft membership-based ERP system. KarenSoft’s revenue increased by 16% to RM5.24mil for the year ended 2003 from RM4.51mil in 2002. However, the company incurred a loss of RM595,000 after tax last year, against a profit of RM1.50mil in the previous year. “The outlook for the company would still be satisfactory due to the overseas expansion and introduction of new products,” Chee said. BY OPALYN MOK IN PENANG