Global financial and supply chain management solutions developer, Astute Software, appoints local strategic distributor and launches into South African market
Astute Software Products Ltd, the UK-headquartered developer of leading financial and supply chain management solutions, has launched in SA with the appointment of Dion Retief, a veteran of SunSystems technologies, as exclusive strategic distributor.
The appointment of a South African distributor is timely as the product portfolio offers a number of exciting and much anticipated opportunities for the local market, which will enable small and medium businesses easier reach of world-class software products through its affordability, including:
Next-generation product - the current crop of financial solutions available in the South African market have not been developed for the Internet economy but have instead attached a patchwork of add-ons, resulting in solutions that cannot make efficient use of the available technology. Conversely Astute was developed with the Internet as its foundation and offers an immediate solution that runs over the Internet.
ASP (application service provider) deployment - with Astute`s Internet foundation it is ideally positioned for the ASP market and in SA where bandwidth constraints have limited the growth of this market, Astute`s effective utilisation of the Internet will allow it to breathe life into the ASP market.
Perpetual licensing model - the perpetual licence model creates an effective protection mechanism against fluctuating currencies that has plagued SA, giving the reseller more flexibility in which to negotiate pricing without the constraints of the traditional licensing model. In a market which has a high technology awareness, the licensing module puts a world-class solution within reach of most end-users who now have the option of a rental model which most solutions do not offer, eliminating the massive capital outflow required by the traditional models.
Says Dion Retief, South African distributor: "The South African market has immense potential. Just as our American and European counterparts, local companies face the same pressures to improve efficiencies, bolster product pipelines, streamline productivity and increase shareholder value. Unfortunately, incumbent financial system suppliers are not responding to the demands of this market in terms of technology and business.
"Astute Software has taken these challenges and made them the foundation for developing solutions suited to the local market. Our modern Internet-architected solutions can be deployed internally and through an ASP model. Most exciting is that the perpetual licensing proposition offers a fresh and compelling alternative to what is presently available in the market."
Ian Skinner, Chairman and Co-Founder of Astute Software, added: "Together with Dion and his team, we are building the initial sales and support infrastructure to serve the southern Africa market where we will focus initially on end-user and reseller sales. We have great confidence in our business model and our licensing strategy is already winning mind and market share in UK and Ireland.
"Timing is right and our unique product development and licensing approach combined with Dion`s extensive experience in both financial and supply chain software and the needs of the region, represent an exciting route to this sizeable market for Astute Software in southern Africa."
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