Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 02 | Page 31

FEATURE level . “ North Africa , especially Morocco has a lot of competent people on the payment side , and that is a domain we always look at . We have been getting a lot of inquiries from Africa .”
During the early part of their engagement , Business Rules Solutions and OMA Emirates jointly developed a new platform switch in less than one year , that has been certified for global payment systems . Prior to the OMA Emirates engagement , Business Rules Solutions provided payment solutions in North and West Africa .
Explains El Habib Alouah , Managing Director North Africa , Business Rules Solutions-OMA Emirates Group , “ We have products that complement the core switch like Easy Reconciliation , Easy ATM Monitoring . For OMA Emirates , they found a software provider that was professional , that developed in good time and also in good quality , the core switch and switch platform , which is the basis for all OMA Emirates products .”
On the flip side , Habib Alouah is expecting OMA Emirates to help sell its solutions into Middle East markets .
Over the longer term , Sangal expects to build new industry products with Habib Alouah ’ s team based in Morocco and believes the two businesses have a good fit . For OMA Emirates , Business Rules Solutions is now its extension into French speaking African countries . Having established the partnership agreement , Business Rules Solutions-OMA Emirates Group now handles inquiries and
CMS process flow opportunities coming out of this market that were previously directed to OMA Emirates . This saves considerably for OMA Emirates on the cost of following up the inquiries and the complexity of preparing French and Arabic language proposals and documentation .
While entering , Africa is part of OMA Emirates controlled expansion spree , Sangal is aware of the vast differences between the two payment markets . In Africa , cash is king but the same does not hold true in Middle East . As an example , in UAE there are 40 million cards issued against a population of 9 million approximately . OMA Emirates has a market share of 23 % of credit cards issued , which is growing at close to 5 % annually . The growth in card transactions across the Middle East is growing at 9 % annually .
All this contrasts with Africa , where there is a much more conservative outlook towards card based transactions . “ In North Africa transactions , do move but at the end of the day cash is the biggest thing that works . I would not use a card if not required and still prefer to use cash . Usage of cards is not a preferred mode of payment while cash is . The market is very developed , but as Africa people love to be more conservative and they use money than using card . It is the trust that makes a difference here ,” elaborates Sangal .
Habib Alouah from Business Rules Solutions-OMA Emirates Group adds , the demand driver for transactions in
North Africa is cash withdrawal from ATM branches . Issuance and usage of debit cards exceeds credit cards and prepaid and mobile payments are highly requested . This is quite different from Middle East market requirements .
Beyond Morocco With the Business Rules Solutions partnership established , will Sangal now take OMA Emirates into Rest of Africa ? The answer is not so straight forward .
“ For us it can be done by a mass run in all countries . I mean , to have 100 channel partners will take me three months to build as many channel partners as I want . But what is the end result ? I would sell a product but never be able to maintain it .” That is an outcome Sangal wants to avoid . OMA Emirates expansion into Rest of Africa is based on replicating the successful Business Rules Solutions role model established in North Africa . For Sangal , it is imperative that localised product quality , skills , services , are extended further along with their expansion into Africa . Leveraging a pure play channel partner model is not the way OMA Emirates wants to expand into Africa .
However , OMA Emirates does also work with value added resellers in Central and South Africa under certain conditions . Depending on the competency of the value-added reseller , either it is a direct sell by OMA Emirates with a margin for the partner or tripartite agreement with local support by the reseller . In either case OMA Emirates takes a lead role in the engagement till the end .
“ We always sign a third-party agreement with us directly in case the partner does back out . Picking the right guy is very important so we work in understanding what those companies do . We do not just work with any partner that wants to resell our product , because it is more on the payment industry side .”
A significant variation of the vendor channel-partner commodity model practiced by so many , but more than likely to ensure steady expansion of OMA Emirates into the African continent . www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO
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