Tilos, a South African business software developer, has unveiled its strategy for increased focus on product development, further growth of business through channel partners and making greater inroads into the international arena after securing a multimillion-rand investment from Ethos Technology Fund.
Tilos is set to sell its product suite throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East and in some North American and Asian countries. It has concluded major contracts with more than 20 local and international organisations, and its corporate end-users number in the tens of thousands.
Incorporating more than 65 man-years of development, Tilos is a suite designed to allow the rapid creation and delivery of business solutions based on pre-built and pre-tested modules. These include portal, workflow, document management and business intelligence modules, which can be implemented on a standalone, phased or fully integrated basis.
"We created Tilos based on a unique architectural and business approach," says Tilos MD Victoria Vaksman. "This allows our clients to significantly increase both their competitive-edge and their return on investment.
"This vision has been validated in SA, and Tilos is now ready to increase its stake on the world stage. We have already established a significant footprint in the market, and this investment from Ethos will help fund our further expansion."
Tilos`s strategy is centred on the creation of dedicated sales and delivery channels in specific regions. Channel partners have been chosen based on their domain knowledge and their ability to develop industry-specific applications based on Tilos`s software.
In addition to strong South African partners, Tilos has signed value-added reseller (VAR) agreements in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany, Russia and Dubai, with a total of 11 partners actively building solutions for large corporate clients. These include insurance companies, banks and manufacturing enterprises.
"Our approach is to build a global footprint, using partners who share in the licensing revenue and secure consulting and business re-engineering income. This model allows us to incur minimal cost, and gain access to clients we could not have otherwise approached," adds Vaksman.
"We are proud to have Ethos as our investment partner. They share our strategy of building products in SA and promoting them internationally," adds Vaksman. "It is clear that South African companies have the skills and abilities, but they are under-utilised internationally. With Ethos behind us, we are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity represented by this dichotomy.
"While many other South African companies have failed to gain a foothold in international markets, we are fully confident we will succeed because of our channel strategy and our existing base of partners and clients," Vaksman asserts. "Our strategy is about keeping costs low through local software development and supporting an international channel which provides us with a certainty of access to a wide range of clients. Many of these prospects have become disillusioned with the endless cycle of costs associated with European and US software systems, and they are seeking an affordable, high-functionality alternative. We aim to fill that gap."
"The Ethos Technology Fund`s evaluation process is one of the most rigorous in the market, with only 2%-5% of investment opportunities converting into actual transactions," says Ethos Technology Fund CEO Claudia Koch. "In Tilos`s case, we reviewed the global market for similar applications and came across very few similar offerings. Unlike most of its competitors, Tilos has developed functionality addressing the full spectrum of enterprise process software needs. Its technology is robust and embedded in a product suite for which there is accelerating global corporate demand. With this differentiation and from its South African rand cost base, the business is very well positioned for scaling internationally. These factors support an attractive investment case for our fund.
"Our confidence in Tilos`s ability to accelerate its growth is underpinned by senior management`s deep strengths in the disciplines of strategy, technology and sales and marketing. In these areas, Tilos`s management team is one of the strongest we have come across in the venture capital sector in SA."
In line with the changes taking place in the business, Tilos has moved offices, from Centurion to more central and easily accessible premises in Midrand. Its new telephone number is (011) 847 5555.
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