Despite the global economic slowdown, which has cast a shadow over many organisations' growth and expansion plans, Bidco Oil Refineries - Kenya's leading refiner and manufacturer of edible oils, fats and soaps - is expanding its African interests. To this end, Bidco has already purchased an additional 30 iBaan licences from Softworx - sole distributor of the iBaan product range in SA and Africa - in order to facilitate business growth in Kenya and expansion into Tanzania.
Vimal Shah, managing director of Bidco, says: "Bidco's goal is to be number one in market share in the edible oils, fats and soaps market in Africa. As a result it was imperative to harness the Internet and integrate it into our core business strategy. Thanks to Softworx and iBaan's eBusiness solution, real-time access to customers and suppliers and the ability to transact 24x7 irrespective of location, now forms part of Bidco's formidable competitive advantage."
According to Shah, one of the main reasons for the additional investment in the iBaan solution set - which includes E-Sales, E-Procurement and E-Collaboration - is the company's original successful start-up in Kenya.
He says: "Our initial success, which we view as also due to the e-business benefits of iBaan and its rapid adoption by our customers and suppliers, has enabled us to commission further investment in our back-end systems. This includes, in future, the purchasing of additional iBaan licences for our operation in Tanzania which we are looking to launch in the next six months."
Commenting on the business benefits of implementing the iBaan suite, Shah Says: "One of Baan's key differentiators is its Dynamic Enterprise Model (DEM), a feature that is not yet available in any other enterprise solution. Bidco is growing rapidly and iBaan enables us to maintain a rapid response rate to changes in customer and supplier demands. This is largely because iBaan allows Bidco staff, suppliers and customers throughout Africa to process sales, pricing and financial information instantly online, so streamlining the business and operating processes.
"A very important aspect of the Baan implementation is the knowledge transfer that takes place which is a part of the Baan strategy, and that is so vital for Bidco. This means that Bidco now has the capabilities to implement Baan in its multiple locations planned in future.
"One of the most effective strategies of its type on the market, it has enabled Bidco staff to solve challenges as they arise along with the Online Baan support, effectively empowering Bidco's staff to resolve operating issues by themselves. This is important as other, similar systems often require outsourced support which is costly and time-consuming."
Jane Thomson, managing director of Softworx, says: "With iBaan, Bidco has realised the benefits of utilising the Internet as a business tool, giving the company the opportunity to tap into new markets and venture outside of Kenya's borders. iBaan enables Bidco to share information and automate processes between the company and suppliers and customers. By leveraging Internet technologies, iBaan effectively eliminates geographic and time barriers to streamline the business processes and reduce costs while, at the same time, creating new ways of growing the business and delivering value and services to customers."
Shah concludes: "Bidco has an aggressive Africa expansion plan in place and Softworx is viewed as one of our most strategic partners in helping us achieve this goal."
* Bidco Oil Refineries went live with Africa's first iBaan eBusiness implementation in Thika, Kenya in 2001. At the time, Softworx won the tender over competitors such as Oracle and SAP. The nature of the Bidco/Softworx relationship continues to be that of a mutually beneficial and strategic partnership.
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