Australia-based business intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, has entered the South African market.
In an interview with ITWeb, Glen Rabie, CEO of Yellowfin, revealed that his company sees a lot of opportunities in the local BI market. "If you look at something like the US market, you will see there are lots of BI software vendors. But in South Africa, there are only a handful, and this presents us with a huge opportunity," he said.
He also revealed that interest in BI solutions in SA is on the rise, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises. According to Rabie, in the past, only large corporates saw the importance of BI. "Now we realise that everyone wants to track their business, and they want to improve on business visibility," he explained.
Yellowfin's go-to-market strategy is to use channel partners in the South African market, said Rabie, adding that the company is also looking to partner with software vendors for the distribution of its solutions. Yellowfin has already signed a distribution agreement with Albi Investment Group Services (AIGS). Under the agreement, AIGS will offer Yellowfin, and its associated suite of professional services, directly throughout sub-Saharan Africa, trading under the name Yellowfin SA.
Rabie noted that the time was right to introduce Yellowfin to the African market, and that the company has already won significant local success, signing multiple clients and reseller partners - including Liv4 and Wishlist Corporation - prior to its official launch.
Describing some pain points that he believes South African organisations are facing, Rabie pointed out that the ever-increasing volumes of data, as well as the speed of change in business, are the biggest worries.
When implementing BI solutions, Rabie urged local organisations to start small. "Organisations must realise that they cannot solve all their problems instantly. So my advice is to start small and take it from there."
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