Local Firm Targets Enterprise Software Market with Ownership Model
The enterprise software market in Indonesia is opening opportunities for local technology companies to offer business models beyond annual licensing schemes. One strategy being developed is selling systems with full ownership, including source code, while offering artificial intelligence (AI) integration with a company’s core systems.
Founder and Director of PT Ilmuprogram Teknologi Informasi, Wahyu Amaldi, said this strategy is pursued to meet the needs of companies seeking greater flexibility in developing their systems while controlling long-term technology costs. “Indonesian companies should own their own systems, not rent them forever,” Wahyu said in a written statement on Thursday.
According to him, the enterprise software business model has largely relied on licences and cloud services with recurring payments. This condition opens opportunities for local technology companies to offer an alternative in the form of systems that clients can own and develop. Ilmuprogram subsequently launched the Ilmuprogram Agentic AI Platform as a product to penetrate the enterprise market more deeply. The platform connects AI agents with a company’s core systems and can run on the client’s own infrastructure.
This strategy also allows the company to offer AI not as a separate product, but as a layer integrated with the business systems customers already use. The platform can connect with Enterprise Asset Management, Spending Management, Budgeting & Planning, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management, and SAP systems. AI can be used to run various processes, such as creating purchase requests, checking budgets, issuing maintenance work orders, and running cross-application workflows.
Wahyu said this approach is also a strategy to build a position for local companies in the enterprise technology market, which has been largely dominated by global vendors. “The pattern is always the same. Companies pay every year, but when they want to change their own work processes, they have to wait for the vendor. Now the AI wave is repeating the same pattern, and the stakes are higher. Not only is the system rented, but the data is also sent out,” Wahyu said.
Under the model offered by Ilmuprogram, clients receive the platform along with the source code. The system can be placed on the company’s own servers (on-premise) or on a cloud provider of the client’s choice, without the obligation to pay per-user licence fees annually. This model provides room for companies to develop the system with their internal teams or use other technology partners. For local technology providers, this scheme also shifts the revenue source from mere licence fees to system development, implementation, integration, and technology services.
From an economic perspective, Ilmuprogram uses a simulation to show the potential cost difference between the ownership model and annual licensing. For a company with 100 users, the ownership model is projected to reach a break-even point by the end of the second year. By the end of the third year, the cost of the ownership model in the simulation is approximately 13 percent lower, or a difference of around IDR 580 million. By the fifth year, the difference is projected to reach approximately 29 percent, or IDR 1.87 billion.
Wahyu stressed that the simulation is illustrative and not based on actual client measurements. Actual costs depend on the number of users, module coverage, level of customisation, and infrastructure used. “The more users there are and the more frequently the system needs to be changed, the faster the break-even point is reached. For small companies with standard needs, a subscription model might still make more sense,” he said.
In addition to developing the AI platform, Ilmuprogram is building an enterprise software portfolio in-house. The products being developed include ERP, Enterprise Asset Management, Spending Management, and Budgeting & Planning, as well as solutions for the plantation, property, upstream oil and gas, mining, hospital, and higher education sectors. The company is also developing solutions that can be used as web applications, mobile applications, or SAP S/4HANA extensions using a Clean Core approach. Development is carried out using the Ilmuprogram Quality-Driven Methodology, which consists of seven phases of development and quality control.
Amid the growing need for AI in the enterprise sector, local technology companies also face the challenge of providing talent capable of developing and maintaining systems. For this reason, Ilmuprogram runs talent development programmes in full-stack development, SAP Clean Core extension, and AI implementation for enterprise needs. “Technological independence does not stop at the software. If there is no one in the country who can maintain and develop it, ownership is only on paper,” Wahyu said.
This strategy shows an effort by local technology companies to shift competition from merely price and features towards an ownership model, development flexibility, and the ability to integrate AI with business needs. The changing demands of companies for data and system control could create new growth opportunities for domestic players in the enterprise market.