Australian-based IP fax solutions provider, MessageManager Solutions, has signed a partnership deal with local distributor Reflex Solutions, to open an office in SA.
Ivor Livingston, CEO of MessageManager Solutions, says: “SA has a strong economy and a mature IT market, which, together with the growth in the sector, has encouraged us to partner with Reflex Solutions to operate the South African office.”
According to Livingston, fax is far from being a redundant technology. He says fax is a $700 million revenue-generating industry, according to IDC research. “Despite being dated technology, fax is a legally binding and essential means of communication for many organisations.”
“Fax is still alive and well and we hope to do a lot of business in SA. Livingstone notes that the South African market is a similar market to Australia, hence the company decided to expand to SA.
“What happened in Australia, in terms of market trends and Internet connectivity, is starting to happen in SA. The country will see faster broadband speeds, lower Internet costs and this will drive the demand for IP fax.
“The Australian market for us is worth $4 million to $5 million in a two-year period. And we've had similar experiences in the Asian markets. Our expectation, locally, is that the South African fax market will provide revenue of $1 million in the first year.”
The biggest challenge for MessageManager, points out Livingston, was defining what the fax target market was for the company.
Currently, MessageManager's multi-tenant servers are based in Australia, but the company is in discussions to locate them in SA and to host cloud solutions, which would be managed by Reflex.
Livingston explains that financial institutions, real estate, government, legal and accounting organisations still heavily rely on fax to deliver critical documents from their enterprise resource planning systems.
As part of its initial plans, Livingston says MessageManager will be engaging in business development and will be looking to increase awareness of the brand with key partners.
Through its partnership with Reflex Solutions, the company will offer reseller opportunities to IP telephony resellers and multi-function device manufacturers.
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