Software Design Consulting Group lands Grome deal

The deal, which was signed in 2007, took SDCG three months to complete.

Grome handles the marketing and sales in the Middle East, East Mediterranean and Africa on behalf of GROHE AG & Co. KG of Germany, the leading exporter of sanitary fittings in the world. Visual Dolphin was selected to optimize this process. Based on Grome requirements, the software was customized and configured to integrate seamlessly to their existing systems.

Grome is based in Nicosia and operates as the Middle East subsidiary of GROHE which, as one of the biggest manufacturers of sanitary fittings in the world, has around 8% of the market share. It is headquartered in Hemer (Germany), and currently employs some 5,200 people worldwide. Grome is responsible for strategic planning, expansion, and product intelligence for the vast geographical area it covers.

This regional dimension was a key factor in the deal. With offices covering the MENA countries, SDCG demonstrated its ability to support Grome's regional operations.

"One of the key reasons behind adopting Software Design is their ability to support us in any country where we are present. We were also impressed by the fast track their consultants followed to guarantee we were up and running with very short delays, while they were foreseeing and solving all sort of problems that normally happen in any software project implementation" explains Mr. Selim Semaan, Regional Marketing Director for Grome.

Grome was also convinced by the functionality and ease-of-use Visual Dolphin offers. The standard features supported by the solution provide a set of tools that enables Grome's users to acquire the system very easily, despite country-specific constraints. With multi-currency support, full Euro-compliance, support for value-added taxes, combined with an extensive array of international management features - from consolidation routines to automatic generation of inter-company transactions - Visual Dolphin delivers the power to manage an enterprise while complying with a wide variety of national accounting standards worldwide. It is designed to satisfy the most demanding international requirements.

"When compared to other ERP's, we realized that Visual Dolphin was conceived with consideration and flexibility to adapt to any operating configuration, whether dictated by the regulations of the country or the company. The software setup in each country has certain specificities while it maintained the ability to share and exchange information between all entities at a company level. The modular structure and expandability of the solution set was also an important feature in choosing Visual Dolphin" continues Mr. Semaan.

The magnitude of the deal and the standing of Grome confirm SD's intention to aim for both regional and international markets and a real determination to attract international clients.

"We believe that our solution has great potential. The situation in our country made us rethink our development strategy years ago, and we insisted on ensuring proximity support to our clients' network in the Middle East. We started in 1998 by opening our first office in Dubai, just when the Emirate was beginning to attract tech companies. Now we are present in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries will follow." says Mrs. Raymonde El Hayek Warde, General Manager of Software Design Consulting Group.

And this deal also bodes well for Lebanon, showing its software solutions are not only capable of competing with international ones, but can take the lead in the international arena. It proves that size and limited resources are not a barrier to creativity and determination.