For more than a decade, CS Lucas Associates Pte Ltd has provided powerful corporate treasury management solutions to customers in the Asia Pacific region. An Advanced IBM Business Partner, the independent software vendor (ISV) credits its relationship with IBM with increased business, exposure and credibility since joining IBM PartnerWorld® in 2006.
That credit is best demonstrated by the closed deals worth at least US$600,000 that came as a result of improvements made to the CS Lucas solution with technical assistance from IBM. CS Lucas has corporate offices in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and now has established a presence in Hong Kong, China, thanks to collaboration with another IBM Business Partner.
“Our business partner relationship shows customers that IBM recognises the quality of our solution, and those customers know that IBM only works with the best in the business,” said Jeff Hofer, business solutions manager at CS Lucas.
CS Lucas joined PartnerWorld because IBM has a reputation for helping to empower ISVs through collaboration with its marketing and sales support, Hofer noted. “Teaming with IBM has not only improved our technical know-how, it also helps us maximise our marketing reach and increase our brand equity,” he explained.
Running on IBM System p™ and System x servers with DB2® Universal Database™ and WebSphere® Application Server, Infinax Treasury from CS Lucas is a scalable, easily deployed solution for large corporations across a diverse range of industries. It addresses the most challenging treasury concerns and helps CS Lucas customers achieve an economic advantage by automating asset, investment, risk and global cash management activities.
Based on Internet technology, an Infinax Treasury system integrates front, middle and back offices through a single integrated portal that allows authorised multi-lingual access for viewing, analysing, processing and sharing mission-critical data across the enterprise. The solution is unlike other treasury systems because Infinax is designed to accommodate an unlimited number of users and is Software as a Service ready, all possible through IBM technology.
“We support the IBM platform because IBM is the only company that can provide all of the pieces we need for our product development, including database, application server and tooling,” said Tan Chee-Seong, managing director of CS Lucas. “It gives us a single point of contact and eliminates the problems associated with trying to get products from two or three different vendors to all work together. It’s an efficient way to work and helps to increase our productivity,” he explained.
CS Lucas development team members found “excellent” support at the IBM Innovation Center in Kuala Lumpur, where they received education on IBM DB2 and WebSphere products and on using the IBM Rational® Application Developer tool. They also had access to state-of-the-art IBM equipment and assistance from consultants who were available to give immediate advice and feedback.
With help from the IBM Innovation Center, Chee-Seong said that migration time was cut by 75 percent. He explained that if CS Lucas had to acquire all of the equipment and do all of the product research, troubleshooting and testing on its own, the process would have been far more expensive and taken much longer than the nine months spent working with the center.
With an improved product, CS Lucas is now better able to attract new customers. Chee-Seong said confidence in the quality of the solution that came from deploying and testing at the IBM Innovation Center led directly to closing two deals, each valued at US$300,000 in revenue for CS Lucas.
The first was for an upgrade to the Infinax Treasury system of an existing customer, a blue chip account in Singapore. The second was for a global corporation dealing in primary commodities, with operations from South America to Asia and with 30,000 employees.
For follow-up support, the CS Lucas development team members regularly use the resources of the IBM Virtual Innovation Center (VIC). Whenever they have a product-related issue, they contact the product experts at the VIC via online chat and e-mail to get advice that helps resolve the issues.
CS Lucas had its first notable experience co-marketing with IBM not long after joining PartnerWorld. IBM hosted a “Solutions Day” in Kuala Lumpur and provided its new business partner with a booth to showcase its solution. “The fact that IBM invited us to participate showed us and the attendees that IBM believed in the value of our company and solutions,” Chee-Seong said.
In April 2008, IBM co-funded a marketing event held by CS Lucas in Singapore for an audience of 50 of the top treasurers and chief financial officers of major companies in Singapore and Malaysia. CS Lucas presented its Infinax Treasury solution and a representative from IBM spoke about IBM products and directions.
Chee-Seong said the event was a great success, as it resulted in seven strong leads. “We expect to close business on several of the leads in the foreseeable future,” he said. “Closing those deals will double our sales over our previous expectations.”
A second successful customer event was held in Hong Kong in August 2008. Co-funded by IBM, this event was hosted jointly by CS Lucas and a system integrator and fellow IBM Business Partner that provides services to complement the CS Lucas solution. Out of 16 prospective customers represented, the event generated four good leads on the spot - a 25 percent success rate. CS Lucas considers this event to be its foot in the door for expansion of its business into Hong Kong.
