WINDHOEK, Namibia — Growing a small start-up operation of only 10 staff into a national powerhouse with a multi-billion dollar loan book that finances some of Namibia’s most important businesses and infrastructure development initiatives requires smart, dedicated partners and a technology platform that can adapt as the business grows.
This is certainly the learning for Brad Scott-King, Director for IT Advisory at EY Africa, who was instrumental in implementing the technology platform that enabled the stratospheric growth of the Development Bank of Namibia. “With the support of the SAP Business Suite for Banking platform and close, long-standing relationships with the client, we have seen their business grow and evolve to become one of the leading forces shaping the Namibian economy.”
Scott-King and his team started their partnership with the Development Bank of Namibia at the organisation’s early stages, implementing a finance and loans management platform to improve the running of its loan book. By the time the Development Bank of Namibia celebrated its 10th birthday in 2014, it boasted a loan book of N$3-billion and employed close to 100 staff members.
“Over the last few years, we have enhanced their loan platform to be able to deliver a myriad of different offerings. Recently, we implemented the SAP Business Warehouse platform to improve the delivery of dashboards and reports on their business operations. We are currently involved with the automation of the bank’s cash management and Asset and Liability Management requirements on the SAP platform.”
Scott-King says that implementing continual improvements to the Development Bank of Namibia’s systems has been a key to success. “It’s not necessary to follow a big bang approach to implementing an SAP system. It’s more a matter of understanding the roadmap of the business and having a relationship that enables us to effectively deploy functionality as and when needed. This has allowed us to support the business throughout its growth path.”
Renier van Rooyen, CFO at the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN), says: “Flexibility of the system and quality of support were key considerations when we decided to go with SAP. Having a good relationship with our implementation partner ensured that the DBN never “over-invested” in technology but could still gradually grow our management information system to where it is today. With the modules already implemented such as loans management, finance and treasury, we arguably host one of the best possible banking solutions available for Development Finance Institutions.”
Brett Parker, Managing Director at SAP Africa, adds: “Strong, robust and flexible technology platforms that are able to adapt to the needs of a constantly changing business environment can mean the difference between success and failure in the Digital Economy. By building strong relationships with our customers and partners and deploying the correct technology solution at the correct time, we build trust with our customers that quickly produces tangible and lasting benefits to their businesses.”
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