Local software developers are hoping to see more work come their way following a merger between Indian company Visualsoft and US-based Applabs Technologies, which also has offices in India.
As a result of the merger, Visualsoft`s development partner in SA, UCS Software Manufacturing (UCSSM) - the outsourced retail product development arm of JSE Securities Exchange listed UCS Group - is collaborating on major retail software projects with Indian developers.
The merger has turned the company into a combined entity with a development-focused workforce of 1 800 employees.
Speaking on his return from a visit with Visualsoft in Hyderabad, India, UCSSM CEO Neels van Tonder said: "This is a major step forward for us as a domain-specialised product development outsourcing software company, as it gives us direct access to far more developers with a broader technical skills-set.
"This merger will fast-track development work being done on our existing retail-focused outsourced software product development contracts. Visualsoft is extensively making use of our ActiveStudio rapid application development tool set, optimised for retail application development," he said.
Van Tonder said his company has enjoyed "a very strong and symbiotic" partnership with Visualsoft for the past two years.
"We have built a good platform with them in India and this is a strategic launch-pad for our drive to be a cost-competitive production unit," he said.
The local and Indian developers work together on new releases and are tightly integrated "insofar as the management system, practises and use of our CMMI certified process framework. Their developers have also been cross-skilled on the use of ActiveStudio - the same domain-specialised architected rapid application development tools used by our local developers."
He said the teams are collaborating on major releases of x3 product lines: ActiveRetail 4 Ultisales 3.0, ActiveRetail 4 myEnterprise 4.0 and ActiveStudio.
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