InfoFlow, a KID group company, has been named Informatica Partner of the Year for Customer Success at the South African leg of the Informatica World Tour in Johannesburg.
As Informatica’s longest-standing partner in South Africa, with a partnership spanning around 15 years, KID and InfoFlow have numerous partner awards to their credit, but the latest award is particularly gratifying, says InfoFlow MD.
“The Partner of the Year Award for Customer Success is a new Informatica partner award in South Africa, and winning it proves to us that our strategic focus on helping customers do business better is paying off,” he says.
The award considers success stories in which Informatica customers have been able to turn around or maximise their implementations for significant business benefits.
With up to 10 major enterprises currently being supported, InfoFlow believes certain case studies in the financial services and oil and gas sectors contributed to their being selected for the award.
One customer, a significant oil and gas player, was not reaping the benefits of their investment in the platform when InfoFlow was contracted to turn the situation around.
Kalanjee says: “We went in with four senior Informatica consultants, all of whom were highly skilled technically, but also experienced in managing expectations and delivering tangible results in line with the business’s needs.
“They basically had to start at ground zero, rebuild trust and relationships within the account, show the value in small steps, clear up misconceptions around the platform, and actually deliver on what they evangelised. Within six to eight months they had turned the account around, and the customer is now planning to expand its implementations and considers us to be trusted advisors in this space.”
InfoFlow has similar case studies within major financial institutions, where customers struggling to realise value from their data management solutions now plan to expand their Informatica platform investments and implementations.
“I believe Informatica is still the only independent enterprise grade data management software provider out there with this level of robustness and innovation,” says Kalanjee.
“What we bring to the solution is extensive, in-depth understanding of the solution and a commitment to help customers maximise their investment to improve their
business. We help customers drive their data management through our thought leadership; and meet with user groups regularly to discuss ways they can leverage their existing platforms to deliver more and support new initiatives.”
InfoFlow’s support services and thought leadership are helping customers overcome pain points such as cost control, maximising existing investments, and delivering on data management priorities.
“We also see growing interest in cloud integration, which is an area we are focusing on currently.” he says.