zara technology: go to market strategy - University at Buffalo School ...

access to any software to help me. I was forced to use a patchwork of unworkable
software secured from a variety of suppliers. I figured, I was no exception and other
SMEs must be facing similar challenges. If we could develop something which will meet
the needs of this large neglected market, we could be winners,” recalled Francis. As the
Asian financial crisis faded, Francis brought in several external angel investors and, with
Chris as in charge of technology, Zara started developing Window based software, later
christened as SteelClaws (SC), to help SMEs. Francis became the business face of Zara,
concentrating his energy on marketing and finance while Chris was focused on the design
and development of software. “We did not take just any client who called us. Instead,
we focused our attention on those SMEs where we could learn about their business
operations and procedures. We wanted to fully integrate ourselves into the operations of
our clients so that we may develop software which reflects their needs and not our
theoretical vision,” explained Francis. The Dot Com bubble of 2000 convinced Zara that
they needed to move to an internet based software. “We saw how the legacy software
companies were collecting huge licensing fee from users. On top of it, they imposed
requirements for expensive hardware. It increased the usage cost to SMEs by some 40%.
This shrunk the number of potential customers.” The entire software was re-written in
the open source Java promoted by SUN Microsystems. Instead of hiring a permanent
staff, Zara outsourced portions of the coding work overseas to contacts of Chris in
England and others in Asia and thus kept their payroll very lean. The burst of Dot-Com
and outbreak of SARS in Asia slowed down business in Singapore and that of Zara. A
decision was made to cut cost by shifting operations from a rental facility to their home.
As Singapore was emerging from SARS, Zara embraced Web 2.0 promoted by O'Reilly
Media. It had the attractive feature of ability of users to work with the data stored on
servers. “We figured this feature could eliminate the need for PCs for the users of SC
and provide better protection to them against viruses lurking on the web,” said Chris.
“We also wanted to wring out any excess fat from the usage cost of SteelClaws.”
A New Approach: SUN Ray Thin Client
In 1997, Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison and SUN Microsystems' chief
executive Scott McNealy proposed thin client computer as a replacement for the
corporate PC. They envisioned a client device which will be used to access applications
and information running on a back-end server. Towards this, in September, 1999 SUN
launched Sun Ray I aimed at corporate environments.
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