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Merger a boost for Salesforce in SA

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 14 Dec 2015
CloudSmiths CEO Derek Hughes says the cloud-based market is set to explode in South Africa.
CloudSmiths CEO Derek Hughes says the cloud-based market is set to explode in South Africa.

The merger of two of South Africa's independent Salesforce partners - CloudSmiths and Ideas Incorporated - creates a strong reseller for Salesforce in Africa.

This is good news for Salesforce customers on the continent, says Stephen Bradford, VP for alliances and channels for EMEA at Salesforce.

"This merger creates a strong reseller for Salesforce in Africa and thus supports our strategy of having a local partner ecosystem in rapidly growing emerging markets," says Bradford.

Kim Fletterman, founder and CEO of Ideas Incorporated, and CloudSmiths' CEO Derek Hughes believe the merger will provide an additional boost to Salesforce development and adoption in Southern Africa.

"We've seen increasing demand for regional systems integrators able to deliver transformative projects that empower organisations to connect to their customers in new ways," adds Bradford.

CloudSmiths and Ideas Incorporated are both Gold Salesforce Consulting Partners and together offer organisations from across the economic spectrum skills and experience across all aspects of Salesforce clouds.

The companies believe the merger will help drive the adoption of cloud computing and CRM technology in the country.

Customer-centric philosophies

Ideas Incorporated was established in 2009, and is one of the first Salesforce partners in the country, where the market is only about a decade old. It is a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner and Registered Independent Software Vendor (ISV) with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

"I believe the merger will accomplish this, using the strong foundation that Ideas Incorporated has built," says Fletterman.

Shared business ethos: Kim Fletterman, Derek Hughes (sitting), Jason Timm, Rudolf Niehaus (standing)
Shared business ethos: Kim Fletterman, Derek Hughes (sitting), Jason Timm, Rudolf Niehaus (standing)

Although CloudSmiths was launched in 2014, it previously merged with another long-standing Cape Town-based Salesforce specialist, SFD Consulting. The company has become a Salesforce Gold Consulting Partner in less than a year.

"As competitors in the market, we kept bumping heads, but began to recognise that our customer-centric philosophies and business ethos appeared to be remarkably similar. We both realise that in today's tough business environment - and particularly in a market with enormous growth potential - it made sense to join forces with a like-minded company with complementary skills and expertise if we were to take the business to the next level," Hughes points out.

Fletterman says where Ideas Incorporated is strong in the large and small company sectors - particularly financial services and NGOs - CloudSmiths has focused more on the mid-sized organisations. "Together, we can now service the entire spectrum of companies, from very large to small," she explains.

"There is no doubt that the cloud-based market is set to explode in South Africa, and throughout the continent now that fast broadband is becoming an affordable reality. This deal sets us up to lead the charge," concludes Hughes.

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