Black economic empowerment company, Baraka Consulting - a subsidiary of Baraka Technology Group - has been accredited as an SAP Africa Resource Service Provider Partner and is on track to become a fully-fledged SAP Service Partner through accreditation on SAP 'new dimension' products such as business intelligence and strategic enterprise management.
Working with SAP Africa and some of its larger business partners, Baraka's 15 SAP certified consultants have already built up a track record on large projects at the SA Revenue Service, City of Cape Town, PetroSA, TransNamib and the SA Post Office.
Baraka Consulting MD, Nomvula Ndzengu, acknowledges SAP Africa's role in helping Baraka implement its growth strategy. "SAP has been very supportive, from providing access to partner events, where new strategies are discussed, to bringing us in to collaborate on bigger projects."
Lorna Cook, Alliance manager at SAP Africa, says: "Young black-owned companies face the old Catch-22 situation: they need experience to win contracts, but need to work on contracts to get experience. So, we focus on enabling them to get the skills and the experience to win bigger SAP projects on their own."
With SAP's continued support in respect of pricing for SAP training courses, Baraka will focus on investing in the ongoing training of existing and new consultants in order to build and retain a robust, relevant and innovative talent pool. As Ndzengu points out: "There's no better way to prove that BEE works and that investment in previously disadvantaged talent pays substantial dividends than to plough our growth gains back into our people."
Cook agrees. "Supporting the growth and development of local partners makes good business sense. In any country IT skills can be costly, particularly if they have to be 'imported' on a contract basis. Customers want to be assured that they will have fast access to local skills at reasonable cost. So, SAP encourages and facilitates the development of local SAP 'ecosystems' made up of partners and solution providers with the right skills."
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Baraka Technology Group is a black owned and managed diversified ICT solutions and business consulting company with two subsidiaries - Baraka Consulting, which focuses on SAP ERP solutions and management consulting, and Baraka IT Solutions, which focuses on ICT infrastructure and software solutions. The Group employs about 40 professionals, operating out of its Johannesburg and Cape Town offices.
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