Johannesburg, 28 Jun 2022
South Africa has produced some of the world’s brightest and most talented people. Political and sports personalities aside, the likes of Elon Musk, Trevor Noah and Black Coffee currently dominate headlines and are impacting the world in ways they could never have once imagined.
There’s just something about South Africans and their unique combination of strength of character, ambition and ability to work hard.
There are several notable software technology successes too. The latest of which is a South African business called Silversoft.
Siversoft is a reseller, partner and developer of enterprise software solutions for people and project-centric organisations. The company works in close partnership with global project management software leader, Deltek, and specialises in helping fast-growing professional services firms, including some of the biggest names in agency, engineering, consulting, legal and accounting, to deploy and maximise ROI on Deltek’s range of solutions.
Silversoft is also the first Deltek partner to be recognised as International Partner of the Year for five years in a row – which is a huge achievement!
We met with Silversoft’s Managing Director, Jacques du Buisson, who founded the firm and leads their global charge to find out how they did it, why it matters and what they’re doing next.
Q: Tell us about this award and why it’s such a coveted prize
Jacques du Buisson: Every year, Deltek announces its global partner award winners in a range of categories – this year there were nine categories. Of course, the International Partner of the Year is a significant achievement on a global scale, as it means that we are the partner that has performed beyond expectations both in the the markets we serve and in the various products and locations in which we collaborate with Deltek.
Being named international partner of the year confirms the great work our firm has been doing to deliver deep, functional and innovative solutions to our clients, while working hand-in-hand with Deltek to tailor our offering to suit our markets. This kind of recognition confirms that we are doing the right thing.
Q: Why do you think Silversoft won the award this year?
Du Buisson: I believe that it’s a combination of a few things, the most important being that we have remained completely dedicated to our strategy, especially our commitment to – and investment in – a partnership with Deltek. In the last year this has included a significant focus on international growth.
We work very closely with Deltek. We know their excellent solutions inside-out and, after 15 years, we know exactly how to implement, customise and onboard clients across the professional services market, so that our customers maximise their return on investment as fast as possible.
Silversoft’s deep contextual knowledge, ambition and ability to win new customers, and then to successfully implement and support Deltek solutions, is what sets us apart. This drives healthy year-on-year growth in our user base, and has enabled us to scale into the UK and beyond.
Q: What does this recognition mean to you and the team?
Du Buisson: It’s a great validation of our strategy and hard work. We know that we have a good business model and that our firm has a bright future ahead of it.
Also, we’re passionate about Deltek’s solutions. We believe that they’re best on the market, and we’re proud of our role in building the Deltek Project Nation community.
Five years of consecutive recognition for excellence drives home the fact that we are making the right decisions for our people, clients and partners. It’s a big deal and pushes us to maintain such standards.
Q: What sets Silversoft apart from similar service providers?
Du Buisson: We have well over a decade of experience in addressing the core challenges of project-centric businesses. We apply this experience throughout our client engagements, helping clients create an environment for their people to thrive, maximising utilisation of their team, improving cashflow and optimising working capital.
Service-centric firms need to be flexible and agile in order to survive, and our team works very closely with them to ensure that the technology they use helps to protect their profit margins and creates a platform for best practice and growth. We relentlessly focus on ensuring our best-of-breed technology enhances the entire project life cycle, while minimising time to value.
This approach illuminates the pathway for decision-making and has been working well so far. We’re particularly excited by the many international opportunities opening up to us as we scale.
Q: What’s your approach to hiring and keeping the best talent in South Africa, and what does this award mean for your team?
Du Buisson: Our approach is to hire great people who are also experts from the industries we serve. We want people who have managed traffic in a creative agency, or managed complex projects in an engineering firm, because we know that they truly understand the challenges our clients face. The project industry can be complex and intensive, and the more experience we have inside the markets we serve, the better.
Our team lives our values and we consistently punch above our weight, always looking to employ hard-working, ambitious people that reflect our culture and values. So we know that winning this award from a global leader like Deltek is a reflection of the talent of our people. They have an excellent standard of service delivery and now they’re seen as the benchmark in the industry.
Not only can they rest assured that Silversoft is a safe and stable employer, but also that their future careers will be bolstered by the fact that they have worked at one of the top international firms in this industry.
Q: How do you find space to innovate and add value when Silversoft is a reseller?
Du Buisson: Innovation is one of Silversoft’s core values, but you’re right, it’s very difficult to innovate when you’re not in control of product development. Deltek has really proven their leadership in the project space and we partner closely with them to deliver on that.
That being said, we consistently strive to think creatively and find new ways to add further value for our clients. For us it’s all about improving the project life cycle and reducing the time to value. Project-centric firms need the tools to deliver amazing services. That’s what they rely on us for, and that’s what we’re very good at.
We are also always looking at how to improve and speed up the way we implement and support Deltek products for our customers. In a demanding industry, time to value is key in all we deliver.
This is where we apply our creativity and development capability. More recently, we used our experience in the industry to develop a product that fulfils a very specific requirement in our market, that will soon be available on the Deltek Marketplace. The product is called ‘Boost’ and it’s a great little plug-in that completely removes the effort of completing traditional timesheets. We know that incomplete and inaccurate timesheets cause a lot of pain for our clients, and we’re thrilled that we have found a way to automate this tedious and often contentious task. Imagine if you could just focus on your work, while the software learns how to track your time automatically!
To find out more about how Silversoft can assist your professionals services firm, visit our site www.silversoft.co.za for more information.
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