Lotus Development SA is delivering on its promise to make a major play in the electronic business arena with its appointment of network service provider, Infovan, as a strategic business partner. The announcement comes in the wake of the integration of Lotus and IBM`s respective partner sales programmes - a move which allows the companies to expand their partner base while offering greater vendor support. Infovan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of debis IT Services SA and a joint venture between Daimler-Benz and local IT solutions house, Ariel Technologies. The company will focus on providing electronic commerce solutions to small and medium sized local businesses. According to Gary de Menezes, manager of the company`s Infocommerce division, that market is wide open. "While many SMEs have identified e-commerce as critical, the companies are often not structured in a way that allows them to be IT-focused. We are looking to take our services and solutions [mainly based on the Lotus Domino server and its related applications] into those companies and map technology to business needs," he says. This may seem like nothing new - after all, the local market appears saturated with companies punting their `total solutions` as the answer to all IT woes - but Infovan is different, says de Menezes. "We do provide Internet access to our customers but our history is network provision. We therefore have an advantage over generic ISPs: we understand how to create an infrastructure, add value and deploy business solutions upon it," he says. "We also understand that companies with multi-million rand legacy systems cannot disregard such investments and switch to a new topology. Where possible we endeavour to maintain the existing infrastructure. "Our understanding of these issues is combined with our ability to provide Internet access when designing an e-com solution - a mix of old and new skills, as it were. We can look at mainframe, client/server, EDI and messaging systems and find solutions that allow for business continuity. That`s why we`re different." While the uptake of electronic commerce has been slow in South Africa, de Menezes believes that will change this year. He says awareness of e-com for business solutions will increase and the market will see an escalated takeup over the next 18 months, as well as a number of alliances and partnerships within the industry. Speaking on the appointment Steve Ayres, IBM/Lotus partner sales manager, says delivering viable e-business solutions is a key to Lotus` future strategy. "When you combine the reach of the Internet with the resources of traditional IT systems you get an interactive medium for working the Web. Companies around the world already buy and sell over the Internet. And they connect with customers, suppliers and shareholders," he says. "The Infovan appointment is another step in the right direction for Lotus as an e-business player. The local market has the need for solutions and it needs a skilled provider."
Share
Editorial contacts