[JOHANNESBURG: 11 August 2009]
UCS Software Manufacturing (UCSSM), the retail software factory within the JSE-listed UCS Group said it has targeted a number of potential clients in the USA as part of its plan to roll out its assemble-to-order (A2O) retail-focused software solution.
Grant Wellbeloved, UCSSM’s newly-appointed CEO, said the company is also in the process of establishing offices in the United States.
But he stressed that the SA market remains “extremely important” for the company.
Commenting further on the offshore sales drive, Wellbeloved said: “Our preferred route to market is via selected partners. In other words, services businesses that derive income from long relationships with customers through the delivery of software development, supported by a range of their horizontal services. Our plan, therefore, has been to establish an office in the US to provide these businesses with optimal partner support and pre-sales support. Our US office was officially opened 1 July 2009.
“UCSMM and its partners will target retailers who are in the market for the replacement of in-store solutions, or for automation of specific process requirements (“whitespacing”) within the store – and who are finding themselves in the uncomfortable space between packaged product functionality and its limitations, large-scale customisations or the ‘thin end of the wedge’ of an in-store solution requirement from a significant ERP vendor.”
In the US, retailers turning over less than $600m per annum through a footprint of a few hundred stores are typically buying and integrating packages and leveraging Software as a Service (“SaaS”) to fill the gaps, said Wellbeloved. As their business starts to push boundaries, their needs become more complex. They require increasing customisation, more agility and better leverage of technology to outwit competition.
“Our approach to software delivery is what sees us gaining an edge, from a technical and functional point of view. We abstract business requirements and processes as far as we can from the technology upon which an application is built and deployed. We use modeling and retail domain specific code generation techniques to assemble our solutions, on a made-to-order basis. We pride ourselves on being able to provide rich documentation; our requirements specifications, both functional and technical, have been applauded by auditing firms. Indeed,” he said, “we find our offer appealing to consulting businesses looking to leverage our requirements analysis and Intellectual Property only, right through to large-scale services businesses looking to play a role in the development, deployment and ongoing software lifecycle management for a key account.”
Still a major player in SA – and still its main market
UCS Group is currently a major player in the retail software market in SA, boasting more then 60% of the leading retailers as clients. But Wellbeloved said there are still at least 10-15 local retailers – who could be considered Tier One or Tier Two retailers in the USA – who would be “ideal candidates” for its software solutions.
“So certainly, while we are eyeing offshore markets, the local market is still extremely bullish for us.” he said. There are currently two valuable “proof-points” of the company’s approach to assembling retail solutions in the South African market as the company’s software is currently installed at two blue chip retailers multi-million Rand accounts.
Engaging with international partners
“We are already in the process of engaging with selected business partners to assist in our offshore marketing drive. The offshore market potential – while a tough market to crack – is massive. We believe that the list of 300+ US companies we have profiled as A2O candidates is certainly not the entire pie to focus on.”
“What attracts our potential partners and, hence, our potential clients, is our vast domain expertise built in re-usable formats that can be accessed rapidly through an engagement with us. The retail focus for 2009 - and certainly into 2010- is about a reduction in IT costs, rather than on the value to be unlocked through the implementation of new solutions. Retailers are sweating their assets, and seeking complimentary solutions to new business initiatives, and this is where our A2O approach can play its part well,” said Wellbeloved.
“When it comes to working with business partners the beauty of our offer lies in its portability and attractiveness to these partners who are seeking to build, or complement, a services-focused footprint in the retail solutions vertical.”
“Our preference for future sales is via partners, although we will obviously engage interested retailers with a strong in-sourcing strategy and rich development and support skills. One of our definite advantages in the retail market space is that we can assemble exactly what a client needs and take it to market – due to our software factory methodology.”
Here he said the company’s CMMI certification has instilled a consistently high-quality way of work and “an environment that is focused on optimisation of processes to deliver solutions to retailers ‘Better, Faster and Cheaper’.”
“Certainly our software solution methodology is a compelling one for retailers locally and abroad. Our feature-tree modeling, our process orientated way of working with retailers to design a solution for them, our significant investment in retail software components – our assets - that can be coupled together in many different processes, our developments in robust retail frameworks, and our investments in automated code generation and other techniques for assembling solutions provide us with a unique edge in the market.”