At home with software innovation in South Africa

South Africa is home to a thriving information and communications technology industry where innovation and perseverance have resulted in solutions which have seen adoption and use around the world. While the country's best-known technology entrepreneur is undoubtedly Mark Shuttleworth, the country's intellectual capability includes and extends beyond the achievements of Shuttleworth and the company he founded, Thawte Consulting. Indeed, South African companies today successfully compete across the spectrum of the ICT industry, putting the country on the world map as a highly innovative producer of software systems.

Among the biggest successes which have come out of the country include companies like SYSPRO and Softline, which produce enterprise software solutions which are used by companies around the world. But these companies, which have their origins in 80s are by no means alone, with a wealth of young entrepreneurs developing a wide range of products which they are proving domestically and taking to clients globally.

Companies like SourceCode and i5 - and many more - are taking up the mantle from proven companies like SYSPRO, Softline and Thawte Consulting to demonstrate the capability of local talent and innovation to improve international business.

Founded in 1988 by Ivan Epstein, Alan Osrin and Steven Cohen, Softline was established during the formative years of the software industry and listed on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa in February 1997. The company provides accounting, payroll and CRM software solutions to small, medium and large sized companies in South Africa and Australia.

The quality of the company's products, which include well-known brand names like Softline Enterprise, Pastel (Accounting and Payroll) and Softline VIP- and Softline Accpac, which it acquired - is such that the company has a proud track record as a market leader. The group has a broad range of products offering users a variety of software solutions to run their businesses efficiently.

Already recognised by its clients as a company capable of meeting their needs for accounting and payroll solutions, Softline attracted the attention of leading international companies looking to expand their solution offerings after weathering the industry meltdown around the year 2000. As such in November 2003, Softline was acquired by the Sage Group plc, an established FTSE 100 company. The group includes market-leading businesses throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia, supplying business software to the small, medium and large sized business community.

From its beginnings as a small software developer at the southern tip of Africa, Softline today is an integral and valuable component of the Sage PLC stable. The southern African region is under the leadership of Softline CEO, Ivan Epstein, who is also a member of the Sage plc CEO Forum, which determines the group's global strategy.

According to Epstein, the company's success can be attributed to its focus on six fundamental principles:

* Understanding customers' needs - Softline recognises that businesses continually change and develop over time. As a result, Softline offers a range of accounting, payroll and CRM software products that meet the needs of both new and existing customers.
* Local solutions in a local market - Softline understands that local businesses need accounting, payroll software solutions that are designed to suite the local business environment. To respond effectively to these local needs, Softline has a high degree of autonomy, making the relevant decisions about product development and marketing. Its local support includes advice on local legislative issues, assistance with correctly implementing procedures or rocesses, as well as more general technical product support.
* Providing industry specific solutions - South African businesses have shown an increasing demand for software tailored to the requirements of the industry in which they operate. As a result, Softline provides customers with industry-specific solutions enabling customers to optimise their business processes rather than adapting them to conform with standard software.
* Investing in our customers' growth - Each year, thousands of companies introduce accounting, payroll and CRM software to automate their business processes. At Softline, this first step towards automation is critical and a vital part of the overall success of the customers business.
* Business that drives technology - Softline's continued investment in research and development enables the group to both lead and guide customers through a constantly changing technology landscape.
* Supporting Customers - 95% of Softline's customers employ less than 100 people. Few can justify the investment in dedicated in-house IT staff. Softline provides personnel trained to help customers overcome a variety of challenges whether it is technical or broad issues outside of pure product support.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market is notable for at least two reasons - the first is that this software, which essentially runs every element of large scale business, is extremely complex. The second is (despite the complexity) that it is a highly competitive industry with many players. Given these realities, prospering in such an environment is no mean feat. However, South African business SYSPR, under the leadership of its founder Phil Duff, has done just that. His company today is renowned for its breadth and depth of business functionality and outstanding price-to-performance ratio.

The SYSPRO ERP system offers ease-of-use and business process-orientation, combined within a single integrated system encompassing strong accounting, manufacturing, distribution and supply chain capabilities. That makes it a compelling solution for a broad range of mid-market businesses in a variety of vertical industries.

With a focus on businesses within the process manufacturing, discrete manufacturing, asset-intensive and service-intensive market domains, SYSPRO has been successfully installed and is operating satisfactorily at more than 12,000 licensed companies in environments including: custom job shops, engineering-to-order, configure-to-order, assemble to-order, made-to-order, make-to-stock and mixed-mode operations.

SYSPRO has offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.

The organisation is managed as privately-held companies with a full-time staff of over 350 people worldwide. This makes SYSPRO one of the largest privately-held and independent enterprise application software vendors in the world.

Duff says SYSPRO remains united in its mission and focused on its commitment to customers. Corporate governance is well-rounded and balanced through breadth of international perspective and executive experience. As a result, the company is clear in its vision of the future but equally well grounded in the reality of the present.

With the bar set very high owing to the successes of companies like Softline and SYSPRO, South Africa continues to produce entrepreneurs and innovators who are taking software technologies to new heights. Among these are businesses like SourceCode and i5. SourceCode is notable for its development of a solution which automates and 'enforces' workflow. Business processes typically involve the movement of documentation through a company, with various touchpoints and activities performed by people, which results in a 'value add'.

SourceCode's K2 can automate and manage business processes - such as document approval or inventory tracking - or pull together business processes, people, services, information and systems into a single application that helps drive business. The K2 platform eliminates redundancies and dramatically increases efficiencies, leading to greater productivity and profitability.

K2-driven business benefits include:

* Increased productivity: K2 provides easy-to-use tools for defining, automating, streamlining and managing unique business processes, freeing up valuable time to concentrate on driving business.
* Reduced costs: The K2 platform saves time and capitalises on a business' existing investments. It delivers powerful, flexible and seamless integration across a range of Microsoft products and a broad spectrum of back-end systems, collaborative tools and people.
* Support for compliance efforts: Tasks and processes are easily automated and information is secure with the K2 solution. Repeatable and predictable results are assured.

From its beginnings in South Africa, SourceCode's value proposition has been recognised around the world; today the company is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and is a close partner with the world's leading software vendor, Microsoft. It has offices in Europe, South Africa, the Pacific Rim and Asia.

An emerging company which was started just 4 years ago, Glen Ansell's i5 is doing great things. As a Microsoft partner, i5 focuses on the delivery of customer relationship management solutions for medium to large businesses. The company is also a software developer: based on the Microsoft platform, it has developed an application called Rezonance, which enhances the capabilities of Microsoft CRM 3.0.

Rezonance bundles various benefits such as alerting, system dashboard, multi-field search and summary and other advanced analysis capabilities while providing the flexibility of per user or per server licensing.

Based on the strength of this product, i5 is emerging as one of South Africa's new software export successes: it has opened an office in New Zealand, is planning to open an Australian office in early 2008, and no doubt, will follow in the footsteps of other great South African successes as it eyes further markets globally.

South Africans have demonstrated a remarkable propensity for innovation and development in an industry which is complex and highly competitive. As a result, the country is home to companies young and established which are helping businesses around the world to improve productivity, accelerate profitability and benefit from more efficient management and operations. With a proud software development tradition and a strong industry, South African software companies will continue to prosper on the global business stage.

Softline clients include the likes of:

* Clarins
* Furnex
* Micros Fidelio
* Digicore
* Bathroom Bizarre
* Gold Reef City
* Natal Sharks
* Ushaka Marine World
* Registrar of Deeds
* Road Agency
* Law Society of South Africa
* Franke

Meanwhile, SYSPRO counts among its many thousands of customers, worldwide, the following companies:

* Illinois Tool Works Inc (ITW) Canada
* Supreme Homes
* Cedarlane Laboratories
* Bont'e Foods
* Lee Spring
* World Precision Instruments
* Benchmade Knife Company Inc.
* Westgroupe (Western Optical)
* Atlantis Submarines International Inc.
* Semler Industries Inc.
* Performance Machine
* Apex Industries Inc.
* EPM
* Ace Packaging Systems, Inc.
* Concentric Systems, Inc.
* Abbotsford Concrete

Meanwhile, K2 Workflow is used by hundreds of companies across the world map, including:

* Accenture
* Advanced Info Service (AIS) Thailand
* Amanah Raya Berhad Malaysia
* Anglo Coal
* Ascendas Singapore
* ASTRI Hong Kong
* AUTOVISION
* Bank of Thailand
* Baxter China
* Beijing Power Company (Heng Dai Shi Da)
* BMW (South Africa)
* BMW Financials Japan
* British Columbia Transmission Corp
* Callaway Golf
* Canadian Tire
* Central Bank of Hungary
* Commonwealth Bank of Australia
* Court of Crown Prince
* CS Holdings
* Datacentrix Holdings
* Dataprep Malaysia
* Defence Science and Technology Agency Singapore
* Delphi Automative Singapore
* Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
* Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources
* DERBY CITY COUNCIL
* Derivco
* DEVELOPMENT BANK OF SA
* Dimension Data
* Drainage Service Dept HK
* EDCON
* EMC
* Energizer
* Epicentre Trading Pty Ltd
* ESHARE UK
* ESKOM
* FAA
* Food Services of America
* Forestry South Australia
* Foschini
* Fraser health Authority
* Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific Pty Ltd
* Genesys Labs
* Georgia Department of Human Resources
* Gestetner
* Getty Images
* Government Savings Bank of Thailand
* Harrogate NHS Trust
* Health Services Australia
* Hitachi Nippon Steel Semiconductor (S) Pty Ltd