Epicor Software Middle East expands UAE customer base by 25 per cent in 2006

Commenting on the UAE market and its expansion plans with focus on sectors like retail, hospitality and services, Epicor officials said the Company's growth has come as a result of the excellent economic growth of the emirate, which has opened up several growth avenues for enterprise resource planning (ERP) players.
Mr. Basil Daniells, Regional Sales Director for Epicor in the Middle East, North Africa and India, said that the company had added eleven important new logo customers to its current base of global enterprises and midmarket local companies in the country.

"The UAE is a key market for us and we believe we will continue to see growth, in line with continued growth in the emirate's economy," Mr. Daniells said.

"The hospitality, distribution, retail and services sectors will be a strong focus for us, predominantly since these sectors are growing at a very fast pace in the UAE and the Middle East in general. We have strategically updated our regional portfolio of business software products, particularly for retail and services," he said.

This year Epicor will continue to build on the customer base of Epicor|Scala; the iScala solution is the leading business software solution for the booming hospitality and distribution industries in the region. At the same time, Epicor will also focus on the roll out of the new products it launched at GITEX 2006, including Epicor's manufacturing, retail management, and service enterprises software suites.

Epicor, recognized as one of the Fortune's 100 fastest growing companies in 2006, has been present in the regional market for over ten years initially as Scala Business Solutions, which it acquired in 2004 and currently has over 360 installations in the Middle East & North Africa. Its clients in the UAE include Aptec Gulf, Hyatt International, International Cricket Council (ICC), Johnson Controls International, Kone Middle East, Radisson SAS, to name a few.

"Epicor has a wide array of solutions to offer, the first of which were officially launched during last GITEX in Dubai. These solutions have been brought into the regional market after a careful review of the growth patterns. With the boom in sectors like retail, hospitality and services, the market is continuing to offer greater and diversified avenues for growth," Mr. Daniells said.

He also pointed out that according to independent research done by Madar Research, the ERP market in the GCC is poised to grow substantially bigger and the market would be worth US$270 million by the end of 2008.

"As for Epicor, we are also seeing a substantial increase in ERP replacement market as business continues to expand and the need for ERP solutions which offers comprehensive, scalable business process systems at a lower total cost of ownership," Mr. Daniells said.

"Many businesses in the UAE and the region are realising that their operations have outgrown and outpaced the business software systems they currently have in place. They want to move to software solutions that can offer them world-class features, international best practices and reliable support, and this is what is fuelling the growth in the replacement market," he said.

"It is also important to be committed and innovative in the business software market as regional businesses get more sophisticated.
Epicor has always been known for its world-class solutions and leading-edge service and support, which has helped us, sustain a high level of growth since our establishment in this market," Mr. Daniells said.

He said that Epicor, ever since the acquisition of Scala Business Solutions, has posted a solid revenue growth of over 100 per cent since 2003 in the MENA region. "We believe this is a very significant growth for us and it gives us confidence to expand our footprints in the regional market further. We already have thirteen partners in the region and we are poised to grow this community," Mr. Daniells said.

Epicor is also refocusing on India from its Dubai office and has started enhancing its channel partners in that market, he added.