Epicor SA is setting its sights on the rest of Africa after the successful release of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering, Epicor 9, in Kenya.
Kevin Pentecost, location executive for Epicor in Africa, says, “We are aiming to launch in Tanzania within the next month and then focus on Nigeria and possibly Angola or Mauritius next”.
Epicor's production manager, Steven Helberg, says the major issue when introducing a new product into Africa is that of localisation. “The product needs to tweaked first to ensure that it serves the needs of the various customers in the various countries,” he says.
These localisation issues pertain mostly to language customisations as well as legislative stipulations and VAT and revenue services requirements of the particular country.
Pentecost notes that forming partnerships with value-added resellers (VARs) in Africa is very important for Epicor.
Says Helberg: “Companies in Africa are very sensitive about who does their implementations. Using local VARs is usually better, as it means lower implementation costs for companies in a specific country and these VARs already understand the way business is done in the particular country better than foreign implementers. Companies trust them more.”
Both Pentecost and Helberg say the rest of Africa is very up to date with international trends with regard to ERP. “These companies are requesting more transparency and visibility to be built into their ERP solutions and that is what Epicor 9 is giving them.”
According to Helberg, East Africa is especially driving its business into Africa. “They are hungry for ERP solutions and the increased availability of broadband into Africa is also fuelling the adoption of our ERP solution across the continent,” he adds.
Helberg concedes there are still a number of challenges in selling and implementing in Africa, with skills shortages topping the list. “A lot of change management is needed across African countries to ensure ERP implementations are really successful, but working closely with local VARs help to ease these problems.”
Kenya and East Africa are serviced by the Epicor Nairobi offices, consisting of 10 staff members, while southern and West Africa is serviced by the South African-based team.
Share