Curve Group to expand services offering in South Africa, Tanzania
Curve Group has acquired Paperless Software Solutions, a developer of integrated solutions that cut down paper-based admin in virtually any business process. As part of their strategy, the pair has plans to expand into retail in South Africa and the mining sector in East Africa, Tanzania.
The combined Curve Group and Paperless Software Solutions portfolio aims to run every single element of an industrial, mineral or heavy manufacturing business at roughly half of the cost of traditional fragmented vendors. Curve Group will also increase the number of engineers for Paperless Software Solutions. They will be based in South Africa and will help accelerate future innovation from Africa to the group’s customers around the world.
“Paperless is critical for the growth strategy in our technology business,” explains Fred Baumhardt, CEO of Curve Group. “Paperless has been selling a compelling set of solutions specifically to mining and industrial customers and in today’s environment the increased need for automated process efficiency and compliance is huge across many markets. This is especially true in the financial services industry, where we will look to leverage this expertise across our client base, as well as expand the relevance of Paperless to its current customers by giving them a much wider selection of cost efficient services from the broader Curve Group”.
Paperless Software Solutions, founded a decade ago, takes companies from being manual process and paper-consuming corporates to being able to benefit from highly efficient digital processes that deliver, collect, report on and analyse large volumes of data in a few clicks.
“We were progressive in our thinking and created a service that no one else was offering at the time. It has enabled us to deliver a niche service in key sectors and build a strong brand identity in the market,” says Patrick Schoeman, managing director of Paperless Software Solutions.
The acquisition combines the strengths of Paperless Software Solutions, with Curve Group’s global network, engineering and management resources. It will fast track Paperless Software Solutions’ offering to its current clients and broaden its value proposition to future customers.
Africa growth strategy
“We are approaching the final stages of expansion into Tanzania, where we will be taking the paperless technology into the region’s mines, and heavy industries. We will be able to provide holistic and integrated solutions to address various issues that African companies face.
Where other companies operating in the same space would be charging 60% to 70% premium for providing inclusive services, Curve Group is entering the market at a discounted rate, which means that we will be 50% cheaper than the average competitor across the portfolio of services. This is crucial for our African growth strategy. The disruptor is breaking the price/quality assumption of older less efficient vendors. It’s very possible to deliver cutting edge process efficiencies to African business that use modern process with double the efficiency at half the cost if the solutions are tightly integrated. That’s exactly the synergy we’re after, and the customer benefits,” says Baumhardt.
Going beyond mining and industrial sectors
As the newly appointed group sales director for Curve Group, Schoeman will work not only alongside his retained team from Paperless Software Solutions, but also newly gained resources from Curve Group to expand the company’s product offering to other key sectors in South Africa and the rest of the continent.
Curve Group plans to expand the Paperless Software Solutions brand into financial services, logistics, and retail in South Africa to facilitate and automate paper processing for major institutions. It also plans to take the solution to commercial and public sector customers that need efficiency and service delivery improvement.
