As a child, Prathamesh Adep frequently visited his dad’s company – who was an industrialist. This grew his interest towards the manufacturing sector. Later, he developed immense interest towards technology. Growing up, he combined his interest and passion and decided to set up his own venture. The result was NextSky. “Before venturing out, we made detail research in small and medium manufacturing sector for nearly six months and we saw opportunity. We also realized that small manufacturing companies are not suited financially or culturally for traditional ERP systems and consultants. Through NextSky, we are trying to bring the most practical and effective way to help small manufacturing companies and offering them affordable software with an efficient process workflow that can be implemented without requiring outside help,” explains Prathamesh.

When NextSky came into being, the first challenge was to find a great team with sound technical knowledge. This was followed by the universal start-up challenges of raising funds and development of the product. “It took us almost

one and half year to launch our first version. Almost three times we scrapped it and redeveloped it. But as we’re developing SaaS product(common for all), many a times customer demand used to change, and it used to change as per sector or industry. We have successfully converted every challenge into opportunity and today we’re able to serve multiple segments,” mentions Prathamesh.

"By2020, NextSky envisions being a leader in manufacturing ERP segment"

Dexterous to provide customized software solution to every industry, Nextsky Fusion automates the plant floor and informs the top floor. With in-built intelligence, powerful flexibility and an easy-to-use interface, its flagship ERP solution delivers rich insights that help increase business efficiency, revenue and growth. Its manufacturing cloud ERP software is designed from the ground up connecting suppliers, machines, materials, people, systems, and customers. Focusing on the unique requirements of discrete and process manufacturing, the Fusion Manufacturing Cloud delivers production control,inventory management, supply chain management, and ensures them being competitive, efficient, and responsive to the customer's need.

An Edge above Others
Team NextSky believes a one size fits all solution is not the most effective approach to meeting the needs of a wide range of businesses. The team thus chooses to provide an open platform and take a collaborative approach to accelerate innovation,

collaborating with customers to plot a product roadmap and with partners to fill gaps and provide specializedfunctionality, producing what it calls vertical editions. “In doing so it moves away from the traditionally cumbersome monolithic solution in favor of more loosely coupled features and functions,”he says.

With 12 modules some of which includes CRM, Inventory Management, Supplier & Purchase, Quality Control, and Accounting & Finance, the company guarantees dramatic reduction in time of employee by stopping repetitive work & maintaining several files, reduction in Inventory cost by 30 percent, education in Machine downtime by 15 percent targeting on preventiveactions, boosts human efficiency, amongst others.

The Growth Story
Since the launch of the product in mid of 2015, the company has been growing in an impressive rate. Currently, its focus is on Maharashtra and it caters to more than 50 customers across India.

“Geographically, our focus areas are manufacturing hubs in the country. Our focused sectors are automotive, consumer electronics, FMCG, pharmaceuticals and defense,”he adds.

By 2020, NextSky envisions being a leader in manufacturing ERP segment. “Going further, we will launch our next product in IoT based on machine learning technology in December 2018. By next year end we'll launch next two products in the market which will be based on AI,”he concludes.