Oracle NetSuite, one of the world’s leading providers of cloud-based financials / ERP, HR, Professional Services Automation (PSA) and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced the expansion of business operations in South Africa. With the support of Oracle’s global resources behind it, NetSuite has added a dedicated sales team and new leadership; new solution provider partners to strengthen its existing partner ecosystem; and new customers such as Jasco and ElectroMechanica on NetSuite OneWorld. This expansion is in response to the increasing demand for cloud ERP in the region from fast growing, innovative and emerging international businesses.

“South Africa and the region, as a whole, represent the next great opportunity for NetSuite,” said Mark Woodhams, Oracle NetSuite Vice President EMEA. “Today’s announcement is further proof that, with the global resources of Oracle behind us, we can now scale rapidly and better serve the needs of the region.”

NetSuite Bolsters Direct Sales Team and Leadership

NetSuite is extending its focus in South Africa and in the surrounding region with the addition of a dedicated sales team and country manager.

The dedicated sales office will be led by Khaled Ismail, Vice President, Oracle Digital Application Business, East, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (ECEMEA), who will manage sales and marketing strategy for the region. In this role, Ismail will manage an organization of 250 sales professionals with almost 20 managers and directors. He will also be directly responsible for all the supporting functions working for ECEMEA OD from pre-sales, sales development, marketing and customer success.

NetSuite will also recruit local implementation partners with experience in ERP to support continued growth in the region.

“The South African market is uniquely positioned for this expanded investment in the region,” Ismail said. “Companies here are realizing the value, flexibility and scalability of the cloud and are beginning to understand that their aging, legacy on-premise systems are no longer meeting their needs in this digital age.”

Stronger Partner Ecosystem

As part of its expansion strategy, in addition to its existing partner in the region, BlueBridge One, NetSuite added four new implementation partners operating in South Africa, including Business Connexion, EOH Mthombo, Dimension Data, and XZQ Services.

BlueBridge One has been a NetSuite Solution Provider partner since 2004 (when it was named Miraculum Cloud Computing Services) and an exclusive NetSuite partner since 2009. The company has received global 5-Star status for the past three years and is also a Commerce Agency Partner and SuiteCloud Developer Network Partner. Its head office is based out of the United Kingdom with local offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and now Cape Town. BlueBridge One is focused on customer success in the midmarket with a significant international experience implementing NetSuite OneWorld for local and global customers seeking to enter the African market and beyond.

“NetSuite’s continued investment in South Africa comes at a time when local, growing midmarket businesses are in need of a comprehensive, cloud-based business management solution and international businesses are coming here to get a foothold on the continent,” said Channing McDonald, Managing Director at BlueBridge One, South Africa. “We look forward to continuing to work with NetSuite to expand the use of cloud computing here and across Africa.”

Jasco, ElectroMechanica Thrive with NetSuite OneWorld

Jasco (www.jasco.co.za ), a solution provider across the telecommunications, IT, energy industries and more, turned to NetSuite OneWorld to merge several independent businesses into one organization after determining that its existing system could not provide the unified view of the business it needed. Jasco is implementing NetSuite OneWorld in a phased approach. It started with CRM for its support desk and has rolled out financials, CRM, Services Resource Planning (SRP), and inventory management to six subsidiaries with several more to come. NetSuite OneWorld provides Jasco with multi-currency management for the South African rand, US and Canadian dollars, Kenya shilling, UAE dirham, English pound and the Euro.

“We thoroughly evaluated the business management software packages on the market and NetSuite OneWorld was the clear winner,” said Anneke Grond, Managing Director for Jasco Enterprise. “It gives us a scalable, flexible system to manage all of our businesses from one unified platform.”

ElectroMechanica (www.em.co.za), a distributor of switchgear brands with four branches across South Africa, went live on NetSuite OneWorld in April 2017. ElectroMechanica selected NetSuite OneWorld for its modern user interface and cloud-based architecture. NetSuite OneWorld provides mission-critical functionality across financials, CRM, inventory management for 11,000 SKUs and a B2B ecommerce website.

“We were looking for a modern, cloud-based system that could keep up with our growth,” said Muhammed Osman, Operations Director at ElectroMechanica. “NetSuite OneWorld was an obvious fit allowing us to expand as our business continues to grow.”

NetSuite OneWorld, a Game-Changer for South African Businesses

Businesses, like Jasco and ElectroMechanica seeking to gain efficiency, grow revenues, expand globally and enter new markets often find themselves held back by software systems siloed by department, geography or legal entity structures, leaving them unable to deliver an optimal customer experience and gain insights into their operations. These disparate software systems not only cannot scale with business growth, but also introduce excessive costs and potential errors, while also restricting businesses’ ability to respond to their changing markets and the needs of their customers. On-premise ERP software such as Syspro, SAP or Sage require costly maintenance and disrupts the business with every product upgrade, forcing companies to remain locked on outdated versions. The agility, flexibility and scalability that NetSuite OneWorld provides is difficult to achieve by businesses running legacy on-premise software. Meanwhile, other available cloud financial software solutions only offer basic product functionality that cannot scale and support changing business needs, growth and international expansion.

With more dedicated resources in the region NetSuite OneWorld will provide a unified and cloud-based suite of software that is flexible enough to meet the needs of the diverse business models, legal structures and geographies in the South African region.

NetSuite OneWorld supports 190 currencies, more than 20 languages, automated tax calculation and reporting in more than 100 countries, and customer transactions in more than 200 countries. Further, to help today’s B2B and B2C businesses with omnichannel commerce, NetSuite OneWorld delivers commerce-ready capabilities that can help both B2B and B2C commerce businesses to move from siloed online, in-store and phone consumer shopping channels to an integrated commerce solution, connecting ecommerce and in-store POS to order management, inventory, merchandising, marketing, financials and customer service, while delivering a seamless brand experience and exceeding customer expectations.