OutSystems South Africa has signed a number of multimillion-rand, multi-year client projects, marking a watershed year where digitalisation reached a tipping point, and businesses channelled increasing investment into mobile development.
With 20 clients, and over 30 solutions in production, OutSystems SA has seen a 30% growth in revenue this year, while its staff complement expanded by 50%. Capping this off, the digital solution provider, along with its partners alsonetted two innovation awards.
Craig Terblanche, MD of OutSystems SA, says that while every client solution has been unique in the way it uses the platform, the common theme has been dramatically accelerating the time to deliver business solutions and achieve adoption.
“Across all industries – from high-tech players such as IQ Logistica, to specialised niche players such as I-Sixty, all the way to industry heavyweights such as Multichoice and Hollard – clients have challenged us to deliver solutions in record time.
“Powered by the latest iteration of the OutSystems platform and through our partners, we’ve been able to shift development timeframes from months or years, to just weeks,” he adds.
“In one custom demo, a customer admitted that we had done in nine hours what another vendor had been working on for nine months.”
These early adopters of a digital platform have started pulling away from their peers. They are benefitting from the ability to change quickly, iterate their solutions based on user feedback, reach customers on a myriad of devices and mobile platforms, and generate immediate value from Cloud-based or hybrid architectures.
Its strong momentum in the local market mirrors strides OutSystems has made at a global level in 2016. It debuted as a ‘visionary’ in the June 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms and was named a leader in The Forrester Wave: Low-Code Development Platforms, Q2 2016. OutSystems now manages the complete application portfolio lifecycle for thousands of clients, in 22 industries and 33 countries.
“The insurance industry is in a state of flux. In order to remain relevant and retain customers we need to be digitally enabled. Partnering with OutSystems enables us to solve our digital challenges in the shortest possible time.” says Shawn smith, chief operating officer at Hollard Life.
Allen McDonogh, MD of Strategic Insurance Systems (SIS), comments: “OutSystems is the catalyst for a radical reinvention. We now own an ecosystem not dissimilar to iTunes or Google, to which our previous competitors are now collaborative partners in an ever-increasing web of specialist skills.”
In 2017, Terblanche expects the demand for mobile and digital solutions to continue exploding, as South African firms look to enhance the offerings and experiences they provide to their customers.
“We’re seeing companies across all industries expressing their pent-up demand for innovation, realising that legacy inertia is now holding them back.
“Some companies are making sweeping changes to the way they operate: forming digital units outside the traditional structure, appointing millennials into the executive suite, establishing incubators, hiring digital agencies, appointing Chief Digital Officers, and more,” Terblanche notes, adding that OutSystems has ambitious plans to serve an increasing customer base into 2017.