Global Software Partners with Navigor in South Africa

Published: November 20, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Global Software continues to live up to its name, and last week the Raleigh, North Carolina, company announced that it has partnered to bring its Spreadsheet Server reporting and analysis tools for popular OS/400- and i5/OS-based ERP suites to South African companies.

Specifically, Global Software has partnered with Navigor, a subsidiary of EOH, a public company that is traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. EOH is one of South Africa's largest technology companies, and through its subsidiaries it is engaged in IT consulting, business process engineering, sales of ERP systems and their extensions (supply chain, customer relationship, and other management modules), and outsourcing. In its year just ended, EOH posted a 20 percent revenue increase to 503 million Rand (about $68.9 million at last week's exchange rates with the U.S. dollar), and an operating profit up 53 percent to 56 million Rand (about $7.6 million). EOH has over 1,000 employees and over 2,000 customers in South Africa.

The Navigor subsidiary of EOH is an Oracle business partner, and its name is short for "Navigating Oracle." (Someone at the former PeopleSoft probably wishes it had done a better job at.) Under the agreement, Navigor will be able to sell Global Software's Spreadsheet Server and Executive Dash for use the J.D Edwards ERP suites. By virtue of Oracle's hostile takeover of PeopleSoft nearly two years ago--which had previously acquired J.D. Edwards--Navigor now serves JDE customers.

Global Software was founded in 1973, and is one of the oldest companies in the IBM midrange market. The company has over 2,000 customers and 4,000 installations of its software worldwide.