Oracle has announced its sponsorship of Softstart, the technology and business incubator designed to enable small, micro and medium enterprises in the South African ICT sector to develop their technology innovations to full commercial potential.
Softstart helps software entrepreneurs grow sustainable businesses. Through its partnership with Oracle, it offers entrepreneurs exposure to a range of resources and contacts in the industry.
"Softstart enables software entrepreneurs to get the most of their partnership with Oracle, a relationship which Softstart facilitates," says Ben Zaaiman, CEO of Softstart. "It gives them an introduction to the enterprise space in particular."
Deon Els, Oracle Director: Alliances and Channel Sales, says the sponsorship is in line with government's drive to establish SA as a competitor in the global market. "Oracle is a leader in enterprise development and business transformation in the South African information technology industry. Although there is still much to be achieved, we have had some real success in helping start-ups become solid sustainable businesses, offering job opportunities in the local marketplace."
Located on the CSIR campus in Pretoria, Softstart provides early-stage ventures with furnished 'plug and play' office space, a full suite of affordable and shared resources and support services, as well as strategic, technical and operational mentoring in the practice of growing a sustainable software business.
"We provide our clients with the opportunity to grow their businesses into becoming independent and successful," says Zaaiman. "We adopt a 'venture coaching' model to lead our clients through a three-step programme; from concept development where an idea or invention becomes a product to exploit commercially; to business start-up where the first sales from or investment in the business happens, and finally, growth where businesses begin to expand on the back of market opportunities. At this stage companies are generally ready to graduate from the incubator."
The wide range of businesses currently in the incubator indicates the breadth of mentoring and coaching work Softstart undertakes - from mobile software applications, to training and smart card applications.
One of Softstart's clients is International Business Dynamics (IBD) of SA, positioned as leaders in management and technology. Jack Nel, Managing Director of IBD says: "Joining the Softstart incubator has provided IBD with an enormous boost to get our telemetry, database and Web portal development operations up to speed. Softstart not only provides the supporting infrastructure, but also active business coaching and a truly entrepreneurial spirit. We can now launch the first of our new product lines in March 2004, a lot sooner than we initially planned."
For more information, please contact Ben Zaaiman, CEO of Softstart, on (012) 349 2355.
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Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit http://www.oracle.com.
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