Why Indian Manufacturers Must Stop Chasing the Lowest Software Price

India's manufacturing sector is on an upward trajectory, buoyed by government-led initiatives like the Production Linked Incentive scheme and a surge of investment across pharmaceuticals, automotive and consumer goods. But according to Razat Gaurav, CEO of Kinaxis, much of that momentum could be squandered if enterprises continue making technology decisions through a procurement lens rather than a business outcomes lens.

Speaking with CRN India, Gaurav identified the core challenge facing Indian manufacturers today. It is not a shortage of technology options. It is the wide variation in organisational maturity, leadership readiness and supply chain capability that determines whether transformation investments actually deliver value.

This gap becomes increasingly consequential as Indian companies expand their global footprint and encounter the volatility and complexity that come with operating inside interconnected international supply chains.

Gaurav acknowledged that Kinaxis views the Indian government's push to strengthen domestic manufacturing as a genuinely positive development. The company operates across manufacturing sectors worldwide and sees substantial opportunity as Indian enterprises scale up and deepen their integration with global supply networks. However, he was clear that building more factories is only part of the equation. Companies also need the planning, orchestration and operational infrastructure to manage what those factories produce within a complex, often unpredictable global environment.

He offered two telling examples. India is a world leader in generic drug production and vaccine manufacturing, yet the pharmaceutical sector still depends heavily on imports for many active pharmaceutical ingredients. Similarly, automotive manufacturers continue to rely on global component ecosystems even as domestic production grows. These dependencies introduce layers of risk and complexity that require more than ambition to navigate.

"The government's PLI incentives and efforts to strengthen manufacturing are very positive developments," Gaurav said. "However, success requires more than investment in manufacturing operations. Companies also need to build the supply chain capabilities that support those operations."

For Gaurav, planning capability is fast becoming a defining factor in enterprise competitiveness. Organisations need genuine visibility into how their supply networks function and how disruptions ripple through production schedules, inventory levels and customer demand. That means moving away from periodic reviews toward continuous demand planning, supply planning, inventory planning and production planning.

Scenario planning, he argued, has shifted from being an operational nicety to a strategic necessity.

In environments defined by market volatility and supply uncertainty, the ability to model different futures and understand their downstream impact is what separates resilient organisations from reactive ones.

Gaurav noted that many Indian companies are making meaningful progress on this front as they grow beyond domestic markets and build more sophisticated supply chain networks. But the pace of that progress is being held back by how organisations evaluate and procure technology in the first place.

"In the Indian context, organisations are at very different levels of maturity," he said. That maturity is not just about technology infrastructure. It encompasses management processes, data readiness and the capability of leadership teams to drive and sustain transformation.

His sharpest observation was directed at a buying behaviour he sees repeatedly across Indian enterprises. Too many organisations still define technology procurement success by how aggressively they negotiated a discount, rather than by the business value generated after the contract is signed.

"The objective should not be securing the lowest price. The objective should be achieving the best business outcomes," he said.

The questions enterprise leaders should be asking, Gaurav argued, are about revenue growth, customer service levels, inventory optimisation and working capital efficiency. How well does the organisation match demand with supply? How effectively is inventory being reduced? How much working capital is being freed up? These are the outcomes that determine competitive advantage, not the size of a software discount.

"You can secure the lowest possible price and still deliver poor outcomes. That is not a win," he said.

Gaurav was equally direct about the scale of the opportunity being overlooked. The value locked inside supply chains, in the form of excess inventory and inefficient working capital, dwarfs the cost of the technology investments being scrutinised so heavily at the procurement stage. "Our pricing is a rounding error compared with the value tied up in inventory across supply chains," he said.

He believes CIOs and business leaders need to collaborate far more closely when assessing transformation initiatives, aligning around the outcomes they want to achieve rather than optimising for short-term cost savings.

Gaurav pointed to Indian manufacturers in pharmaceuticals and automotive that have managed to combine production scale with genuine global supply chain capability. These organisations tend to treat technology not as an isolated purchasing decision but as part of a broader commitment to process maturity and operational excellence.

As Indian manufacturers continue their global expansion, Gaurav believes the next phase of growth will be determined by how well companies build the supply chain capabilities that surround and support their manufacturing operations. The technology itself is no longer the limiting factor. Leadership alignment, process discipline, data foundations and a willingness to measure success by business outcomes rather than procurement metrics, these are what will separate the companies that fulfil their global ambitions from those that invest heavily but fall short of the outcomes they were chasing.