Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry specific software to promote business growth, announced today that it has signed an international channel distribution deal to accelerate business growth and meet demand across Africa.
The arrangement will see epic ERP, previously a value-added reseller (VAR) for Epicor in South Africa, shift focus from selling and implementing Epicor ERP to customers directly, to recruiting and supporting resellers to grow their customer base.
epic ERP was established in December 2015 by South African Pros Software, along with three industry veterans to meet market demands for strong expertise in delivering enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. In under a year its revenue has grown over ten times and its ERP application team has quadrupled in size.
Despite having recruited some very talented resources to provide customers with support, demand is currently outstripping supply. In order to grow the business at the rate that the market opportunity would allow, the company has decided to change to a distribution model.
A recruitment drive for VAR partners in the region has begun with a view to doubling the current reseller base in the first eighteen months. epic ERP will take full responsibility for managing, marketing, invoicing and training resellers across Africa.
Danéel van Eck, director strategy at epic ERP, says: “Epicor ERP is a great fit for growing midmarket companies in Southern Africa and this presents enormous opportunity for growth. It would not be possible for the current number of resellers in the territory to properly support the envisaged growth of Epicor ERP. We see most of the growth primarily in South Africa over the next twelve months and then expanding rapidly to take advantage of the increasing maturity in the rest of Africa.
“We view Epicor as a very competitive solution, being able to use its modern architecture has enabled our customers to take ownership of their systems and prepare for challenges ahead, such as digital transformation and Industry 4.0. Our vision is to enable our customers to grow business, not software. This allows us to be involved in higher value activities.”
Sabby Gill, executive vice-president: international at Epicor Software, comments, “To make an impact on the African market takes investment and infrastructure. By partnering and working with epic ERP as a distributor we increase our footprint and are able to penetrate larger organisations. This is a new business model for Epicor and it enables us to have a substantial team on the ground to promote further international growth.”