4Sight Holdings has acquired professional services firm AccTech Systems and its subsidiary Dynamics Africa Services, for R120 million and R30 million, respectively. Both become subsidiaries of 4Sight Holdings, effective from 1 April 2018.
4Sight is a diversified holding company that listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Alternative Exchange (AltX) last October. The listing helped raise capital to fund its expansion plans through strategic acquisitions.
According to 4Sight Holdings CEO, Antonie van Rensburg, the buy-out of AccTech and Dynamics Africa Services is an integral step in realising 4Sight's strategic vision.
"Our objective is to provide industry 4.0-related solution services and implement relevant end-to-end technology stacks across key industry verticals, to help companies visualise, digitise, analyse and optimise their data, systems and operations," he explains.
Since its inception in 1994, AccTech has become a leading provider of enterprise applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, human resources, business process management (BPM) and business intelligence.
"The development of our own intellectual property since 1998 resulted in over 33% of our user base adopting these technologies, especially in BPM, to enhance their operational efficiencies, a key pillar of digital transformation," according to AccTech CEO Tertius Zitzke.
Before the advent of cloud computing, these enterprise applications were provisioned on-premises and in silos. However, the digitisation of platforms, communications, systems, services and processes now necessitates the seamless integration of technology stacks, according to 4Sight.
"Due to the inherent complexity of stitching together enterprise applications, cloud computing has become the underlying enabler of this integration, effectively making cloud migration a strategic imperative for companies that want to operate successfully in the fourth industrial revolution," says Van Rensburg.
"Digital transformation is therefore reliant on a series of iterative advances in a company's technological capabilities, with cloud computing serving as the foundation. With this in place, we're then able to build out and integrate IOT, cyber security, operational and communication systems, big data and data science capabilities, mixed reality, and automation," adds Van Rensburg.
Dynamics Africa Systems is an independent software vendor (ISV) that focuses on Microsoft Dynamics NAV and GP enterprise solutions. It is one of the largest value-added resellers for the Microsoft Dynamics channel in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), with a strong footprint in the Southern African Development Community region.
The ISV manages all transactions, on-boarding and licensing for Microsoft on behalf of its channel partners in Africa, positioning it as a key digital transformation enabler for hosted Microsoft Dynamics environments. The companies have a presence in 15 countries, servicing 1 200 customers and over 43 000 users across Africa.
"The accelerated uptake of Microsoft's cloud services and the imminent expansion of the Microsoft Azure data centre network into South Africa has also driven unprecedented cloud migration on the continent, with adoption rates in Africa set to become the highest globally over the next five years," adds Zitzke.
"We therefore invested heavily last year to ready the business for the delivery of the Microsoft Azure stack."
The company believes this early-mover play favourably positions AccTech and Dynamics Africa Systems to facilitate the expectant rise in demand for cloud-based solutions by African businesses, and has helped secure a sales pipeline that will establish the business as the biggest indirect cloud solution provider for Microsoft in the MEA region by 2022.
"The company's established customer base, combined with this growth potential, made AccTech an extremely attractive acquisition target," says Van Rensburg.
Following the acquisition, AccTech will be better positioned to integrate client systems with other industry 4.0 solutions and services offered within the 4Sight Holdings group of companies, explains Van Rensburg.
"By seamlessly converging operational and information systems with data from smart devices, IOT sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, companies can digitise processes to deliver augmented decision support and enable fingertip control of virtual assets, people and projects in various industry verticals.
"Currently, major applications are being seen in mining and manufacturing processes, but e-learning, mobility and property are other key growth areas we've identified. We also envisage the creation of industry 4.0 box-drop solutions for small to medium sized enterprises in the longer term, as our combined teams develop and deploy modular technology stacks in the cloud," Van Rensburg adds.
4Sight has been on an acquisition drive of late, announcing last October the purchase of Age Technologies for R80 million, as well as the acquisition of BluESP Holdings for R54.8 million. In January 2018, it finalised the acquisition of Foursight South Africa and its subsidiaries for R85.6 million.
Earlier this month, it announced plans to acquire a 70% stake in Simulation Engineering Technologies for R53.5 million. Also this month, it announced plans to boost its business in Asia, through a joint venture with Shenzhen Rongmei Science and Technology.
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