Nearly three months into his new role as IFS South Africa MD and country manager, enterprise software veteran Mohamed Cassoojee has his eyes firmly focused on growing the global group’s local presence in large enterprise accounts, as well as expanding its ecosystem of top-tier consulting and implementation partners.

There are “significant” plans in place for growth in South Africa over the next three years, he says, telling Engineering News of expectations of four to five times growth as the South African operation expands its local footprint, customer base and employees in a structured approach.

“IFS’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), project management and enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions are a perfect fit for South African organisations that are looking for robust applications to enable them to enhance their agility.

“I see excellent potential for IFS to grow its market share in South Africa,” he says.

His appointment in July signals IFS’s “confidence in the potential” of South Africa’s enterprise software market to grow, particularly in areas where customers are seeking configurable business solutions that allow them to rapidly realise value.

IFS boasts a strong combination of ERP, field service management and EAM – and a platform to enable it to play a dominant role in the enterprise software industry, he says.

“The recent launch of IFS Applications 10 offers opportunities for IFS to expand its presence in medium-sized and large South African enterprises in sectors such as resources, manufacturing, construction and utilities.

“Built to help customers capitalise on disruptive industry trends, such as automation, connected devices and servitisation, the new version helps companies connect their business to a digital backbone,” he adds.

He explains that many IFS customers have implemented traditional ERP vendor solutions that sometimes cost up to 80% of their information technology budget to maintain.

“For them to actually now transition into a digital business, they need to look at alternatives, and we can actually plug in the gap,” Cassoojee assures, reiterating IFS’s offerings of quick implementation and building on the new digital market.

“IFS can provide a sensible alternative to what has been historically available,” adds IFS Group CEO Darren Roos.

There is an ever-increasing need for companies to find more efficient ways of operating, including the consumption of supplies and product delivery, while leveraging economies of scale.

“We can deploy very complex, highly functionally rich applications that are easier to use and faster to deploy than our competition.”

Roos was appointed in April as group CEO to lead the global enterprise applications company into its next chapter, succeeding Alastair Sorbie, who retired at the end of the first quarter of 2018.

IFS has entered an era of “real opportunity” to generate further momentum in the sector and extend its leadership position.

“I plan to bring my experience and skills, specifically around scaling companies, building cloud businesses and establishing high-performing teams, to enable the 35-year-old company to continue to flourish,” Roos said at the time of his appointment.

“We have a huge advantage in that we are small yet big enough to have financial security, financial robustness and global operation backed by a large private-equity firm,” he tells Engineering News.