Business software solutions company Tetra is to change its name to Sage International. The move follows the recent US$130 million acquisition of Tetra by financial software giant, Sage, a UK FTSE 100 company with a market capitalisation of US$5.8 billion.
Ashley Ellington, the new divisional manager of Sage International Africa, says the name change is necessary to ensure consistency of branding in line with other worldwide territories which have already switched to the Sage name and are now closely integrated with existing Sage operations.
"While Tetra has been extremely successful delivering mid-range software solutions to a broad spectrum of customers in Africa, Europe and the Far East, the incorporation into the larger Sage Group brings about major growth opportunities."
These include an expanded range of products targeted at the SME sector; leadership in emerging technologies such as e-commerce and customer relationship management software which complement the CS/3 flagship product; as well as the increased R&D and scale necessary to meet the post-millenium software industry challenges.
"Sage has some two million business customers worldwide which offers immense potential for us. We're confident that by capitalising on their international infrastructure, brand management and installed base marketing skills, we can rapidly expand our customer base in both the small business and mid-market solutions sectors."
Ellington anticipates that these developments will have an enormous impact on the local operations. "We can expect to see a fast spill-over of the international developments into the African region. Enhanced and faster product delivery, streamlined distribution channels and stronger skills sets will add greater value and benefits to our customers."
He also believes that the Sage 'Partner-Centric' business model fits his local operations extremely well. "With the CS/3 product we have already developed a strong and successful software implementation and support partnership with Q Data Consulting. With the broader Sage product set we intend to build on this partnership and considerably extend our partner base and market coverage. In addition, we will leverage off The Sage Group's extensive world-wide relationship with other industry leaders, such as Microsoft."
Commenting on the new moves, Paul Byrne, The Sage Group's regional director says: "We anticipate a rapid, post-millenium shake-out amongst business software suppliers. The 'paradigm shift' to web-centric business software solutions and the R&D expenditures necessary to stay abreast of the new technologies, will see many of the smaller international players struggling to keep pace."
Looking at The Sage Group's plans to launch its new Web-based business software solutions into Africa, Byrne says the company has taken the leading position in this field in the North American and European markets. Africa and the Asia-Pacific countries are the next strategically important marketplaces for us - we already have a leading position in other parts of Africa, particularly in French-speaking territories."
Byrne notes that the CS/3 product acquisition and the introduction of the new Sage products places the company in a strong position to address the spectrum of new business system needs in the mid-range business systems sector.
"In South Africa, we have been fortunate to acquire a highly committed and experienced team and I am confident that they will build Sage's share of the market to the levels which we have achieved in the US and Europe," he concludes.
Share