Aerosoft carves a name in regional e-HR market
April 10, 2004
 
THE STAR - AEROSOFT IT Sdn Bhd group executive chairman Ahmad Fadzidin Arshad has a sharp eye for business ventures, thanks to the “corporate lessons” he has learned from his late father. His father had been a successful businessman before he passed away due to cardiac complications five years ago.

“Without him there will be no Ahmad Fadzidin today. He once told me that the willingness to take up responsibility and be able to mix well (with people) will take a person far,” Fadzidin told StarBiz in an interview in Petaling Jaya.

Fadzidin, 28, a graduate of Sunway College with a degree in marketing management, now runs Aerosoft IT, a software development company specialising in e-human resources (e-HR) applications that automate mundane chores like processing of leave applications, payroll, employee profiles, compensation and other HR-related functions.

The company, an appointed corporate partner of Telekom, was formed in 1996 with an initial investment of RM 100,000 taken from funds in his father’s company, which is involved in the aviation and aeronautical industry.

Aerosoft IT had a tough time convincing potential customers back in 2001 when it first started.

“There was this particular comment a prospective client said to me: Why don’t you come back to see me in a year’s time (when you are more established), seeing that you only have a total of seven customers now,” he said.

After three solid years of struggling, the company is now a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)-status company and has carved a name in the regional e-HR market.

Last year Aerosoft IT was also given RM50,000 as seed capital by Malaysian Venture Capital Management Bhd (MAVCAP) under the Cradle Investment Programme to develop Smart HR, an integrated Web-based enterprise HR applications software that it completed two months ahead of schedule.

With more than 100 customers, mainly the medium- and large-sized enterprises from the trading, manufacturing, IT, property development and construction industries, Aerosoft IT is also well sought-after by the public sector.

“The idea of venturing into the e-HR industry came during my stint as a software development consultant in an IT company. I found that local technopreneurs could actually leverage on their understanding of the local business environment to create software. And they are high in demand, especially in HR applications,” Fadzidin said.

The propensity to manage human capital in a corporation is vital in the competitive job market, and escalating administrative costs are a burden to most, if not all, companies.

Current broadening of HR activities now also takes the form of assessing workforce trends, identifying knowledge and competency gaps, measuring worker output against key performance indicators, and spotlighting existing problem areas like high rates of absenteeism and/or staff turnover and non-compliant practices, besides classical administrative roles, according to Fadzidin.

“Workforce efficiency is the key to better profits and shareholders’ value,” he added.

It was reported last year that a survey done by global consulting firm, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, found a strong correlation between good HR practices and improvement in shareholders’ value.

In the Asia-Pacific region, it said, companies that recorded significant improvement in all HR practices could increase the company’s shareholders’ value by 78.7% and more than a third of the companies surveyed revealed they gave 107% more in shareholders’ value compared with local stock market returns.

“Aerosoft IT's medium-term objective is to get listed on the Mesdaq market, where we will gain more exposure in the capital market and general public recognition.

“Over the next 10 years, we would like to be a global player in e-HR field with research and development and representative offices around the world.

“We have local partners in the Middle East, including Dubai, Yemen and Syria. They are just waiting for the right time to capture a share of the market there,” he said.

Earlier last month, Aerosoft IT submitted four tenders worth RM60mil combined, to the Brunei Government to upgrade the Web-based HR applications of several of its ministries and government agencies.

Fadzidin, in line with his late father’s advice, leads his employees by example.

“I still lead my sales team in sourcing for projects, which gives me a profound understanding of the underlying trends in the market. That way, you will know what your people (or product) are lacking and hence what warrants appropriate remedy. Being perceptive to market needs is not a choice nowadays. It's a rule,” he said.

Fadzidin believes that there is no ‘perfect’ software in this world.

“It does not exist, and it never will. There can never exist a single software (even in e-HR alone) to account for the entire spectrum of operational needs of any organisation, especially in today’s business conditions that are in constant flux,” said Fadzidin.

He said the only question was how well the solution was tailored to every customer's business needs.

“This is how we gauge the demand for our solutions. And our prices are very competitive. But all in all, we have proved that we are not a ‘main-main’ company,” he added.