Why I Left My Job to Build an ERP for Indian SME Manufacturers

Six months ago, I left a stable career in IT services to build an ERP for Indian SME manufacturers. People thought I was taking an unnecessary risk. The ERP market is crowded. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, and a dozen Indian players already dominate the space. Why would anyone build another ERP? The answer became obvious after I spent weeks researching the market and talking to the people who actually run factories.

The Indian manufacturing landscape is sharply divided. On one end, you have large manufacturers — companies with Rs 100 crore+ revenue — running SAP, Oracle, or other enterprise-grade ERPs. These implementations cost Rs 50 lakhs to several crores, take 12-18 months to deploy, and require dedicated IT teams to maintain. The software is powerful, comprehensive, and built for scale. For companies of that size, it works.

On the other end, you have SME manufacturers — companies with Rs 5-50 crore revenue — running on Excel sheets, paper registers, and manual GST calculations. These are not unsophisticated businesses. Many of them manufacture precision components, supply to automotive OEMs, or export to international markets. They produce high-quality goods that compete globally. But their back-office operations are stuck in 2010.

The gap exists not because these manufacturers do not want software. Every factory owner I spoke to knew they needed better systems. The problem is what is available to them. Enterprise ERPs like SAP and Oracle are priced for companies 10 times their size. The total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, customization, training, annual maintenance — puts these systems completely out of reach. Even the mid-market options like ERPNext or Zoho require significant technical knowledge to configure and maintain, which means hiring IT staff that a 30-person factory simply does not need for any other purpose.

Then there are the local vendors — small software companies that build custom solutions for individual factories. These can work initially, but they come with a different set of problems. The software is tied to one developer. If that developer moves on, support disappears. There is no product roadmap because there is no product — just a collection of custom code. Upgrades are expensive. And scaling from one factory to two or three locations means rebuilding from scratch.

I saw this gap and realized it was not going to close on its own. Enterprise vendors are not going to build simple, affordable products for a Rs 10 crore factory in Pimpri-Chinchwad. They have bigger markets to chase. Local developers do not have the resources to build a scalable, maintainable product. The SME manufacturer is stuck in the middle — too big for spreadsheets, too small for SAP.

That is why we are building SAMaGRA. The name comes from the Sanskrit word meaning complete and comprehensive. SAMaGRA is an ERP built specifically for Rs 5-50 crore manufacturing units across industrial hubs like Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar, and eventually across India. It covers the core modules every manufacturer needs: inventory management for real-time stock visibility across warehouses and shop floor. Production planning with BOM management and MRP to ensure materials are available when production starts. GST-compliant invoicing with auto-calculated taxes, e-invoicing, and e-way bills. Purchase management to track orders, deliveries, and supplier performance. And AI-enabled insights that surface actionable intelligence from everyday business data.

But what makes SAMaGRA different is not the feature list — every ERP has similar modules. What makes it different is the design philosophy. Every screen is built for the person who will use it daily, not for the person who approves the purchase. The supervisor on the shop floor, the dispatch coordinator loading trucks, the purchase manager calling suppliers — these are our primary users. If they cannot use the system comfortably on a phone with minimal training, we have not done our job.

We are also building with a different business model. No large upfront costs. No 12-month implementation timelines. No vendor lock-in. We implement in phases, starting with the modules that deliver the most immediate value, and expand as the team gets comfortable. The goal is visible ROI within the first month, not the first year.

The Indian SME manufacturing sector is at an inflection point. GST compliance requirements are getting more stringent. Customers — especially large OEMs — are demanding digital purchase orders, delivery tracking, and invoice reconciliation. The government’s push for Make in India and digital transformation is creating both incentive and pressure to modernize. The manufacturers who digitize now will have a significant competitive advantage over those who wait.

I left my job because I believe this is a problem worth solving and because the people who need the solution deserve better than what exists today. Every factory owner I have met works harder than anyone I know. They deserve software that works as hard as they do.