Enterprise resource planning (ERP) will still have a place in the market in future, but in different forms, CS Holdings CEO Annette van der Laan said in an interview.
Software sales have dropped and companies, especially overseas, are becoming very interested in application service protocol (ASP) models, she says.
CSH has been appointed an ASP partner for SAP, and Van der Laan believes this is a new growth area for the ERP market.
"It is still ERP, but with a different angle," she says. "It`s a bit of a challenge because it remains to be seen how it will be received in SA. It`s working well in the US, where they predict a 91% growth rate in the next four years."
Van der Laan is confident about her company`s growth prospects for the next few years.
"I think we succeeded in building economies of scale and achieving critical mass, and we will be able to leverage off that," she says.
While the company`s good growth has been off a low base, she believes CSH will continue to deliver strong results.
"Over the past year we have focused internally, bedding down acquisitions," she adds.
CSH has disposed of its offshore operations. The UK operation in Birmingham was sold off because of a culture misfit and the Canadian concern, which was staffed by only three people, has been closed down.
Van der Laan acknowledges setting up the Canadian office was a bad business decision. "We will look offshore again when we have the right business model," she adds.
Although only about 25% of the group`s business comes from education and training, Van der Laan believes this area will see huge growth, particularly in view of new skills and training legislation.
She says many training companies fail because although staff may be dedicated to education, they lack the business acumen to keep the firms going. CSH acknowledges the importance of the business side and combines business acumen and dedication to training.
Van der Laan says the recent ITI Systems deal, which involved taking over select infrastructure, staff and annuity-based contracts of the company`s desktop maintenance and service business, was not a significant one.
"We took, very selectively, the clients and staff we wanted," she says. "The only real positive impact is on our client base, but it doesn`t really affect the bottom line." The business was not a core one for ITI Technology Holdings and so it could not be run profitably.
The CSH share started the year at 120c and touched 96c - its lowest level this year - on 29 February and reached 150c on 7 March. It was trading at 120c late on Wednesday morning, unchanged from Tuesday`s close.
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