How to Expand your Software Business Successfully to Indonesia

Many software companies decide to expand their business to Indonesia seeing this as a large market with a trillion dollar economy. The Indonesia market has its own flavor of doing business and a few of them start to get bogged down after the ecstatic first deal.

To establish a business here, a few notable ground rules have to be followed. I list down a few of those basic rules to start your business, win a few deals, implement projects successfully and continue to sustain your software business in Indonesia.

Get the first deal

·??????Understand the process for selling to local customers. Check my article Demystifying the Software Deal with Banks in Indonesia to understand the deal process.

·??????Understand local pricing models

·??????Get the first local reference implementation - this really helps as many local customers will make this a requirement to be eligible to sell to them

Well defined product-market-fit

·??????Bring a product that is relatively mature and can potentially be delivered on time

·??????Local customers would believe that any product can be easily configured or new requirements can be quickly customized because it is a “product”

·??????Indonesia is surely not a testing ground for early-stage products. Bringing in an early-stage product is a red flag right from the start and will need to be managed very carefully.

Effective mix of Local Resources

·??????Invest in building local teams to bridge the gap in culture, understanding of requirements, project planning and execution

·??????Have the right local partners - sales, presales, delivery skills may not all be available with a single partner

·??????Solution selling, certified project management expertise is rare and few local IT companies have those resources

·??????Lots of very affordable local talent is available for development work, so much of the development, support work can be outsourced locally

Setting clear expectations with the customer

·??????Once the project is started, ensure requirement specifications are well drafted - spend a lot of time on this before you start

·??????If bringing in a relatively less matured product and planning to produce the solution “just in time”, ensure that delivery is done in a phased manner agreed beforehand with the customer

·??????If the project gets initiated without clear requirements, ensure to use a well-defined agile methodology

·??????Ensure that the customization timelines are communicated clearly to the customer

Managing the customer relationship

·??????Invest in building a good relationship with the bank – when things go wrong, your customers will be more inclined to understand

·??????Hire a local engagement manager

Invest in your Indonesian business for the long term

·??????Implementing software projects in Indonesia will not be a “fill it and forget it” type of execution, it requires long term commitment and nurturing

·??????If your product is a good fit for the Indonesia market, invest and build a long-term business

Gathering local wisdom

At PT Trilloc Consulting Group, we are doing the investing in Indonesia, understanding the market, building local capability in sales, presales and project management so you do not have to expend too much effort on it. Do please reach out to me at [email protected] for?discussions, conversations and more.