Targeting Africa is a key growth strategy for South African headquartered HR and payroll management software firm Sage VIP, as 20% of its new business is coming from the continent.

This is according to Sage VIP’s managing director Anton van Heerden, who spoke to ITWeb Africa on the sidelines of a press briefing outlining how his company’s software for personnel performance management has been implemented for South African cricket team, the Unlimited Titans.

Sage’s van Heerden told ITWeb Africa that as South Africa’s business market has matured with regard to HR and payroll software, his business is looking to other opportunities to drive growth.

The company; therefore, is looking to drive its growth within South Africa, specifically, by selling to startups, entering new market segments and adapting its solutions for top technology trends such as cloud services, van Heerden told ITWeb Africa.

However, Africa is also fast becoming a key growth strategy for the firm as Sage has invested in setting up office presences in Nigeria and Kenya.

“If you measure the African revenue as a percentage of total (sales), it’s maybe 3 or 4%.

“But as a percentage of new sales it’s already up to 20%,” said van Heerden referring to Sage VIP’s previous financial year results.

Sage VIP is expecting African customers, outside of South Africa, to make up a greater share of its business in the next few years, van Heerden said.

He also added that selling solutions such as performance management software to more South African, and even African, sporting administrations is also on the cards.

“We are fortunate in that a lot of the big sporting bodies in SA already use our payroll. So, it shouldn’t be that difficult to get our performance management systems in there if they decide to go the same route.

“It’s a trend that the Titans can set.

“I also see huge value in being associated with those brands,” van Heerden said.