As part of plans to spread its wings internationally, IsoMetrix, a South African-based tech firm that provides governance, risk and compliance management software mainly to the mining industry, has opened a Canada office and partnered with a Peruvian firm. By Gugu Lourie
The move is aimed at expanding IsoMetrix services to South and North America.
IsoMetrix, which has customers in 20 African countries and expanded into Australia two years ago, has set up an office in Toroto, Canada, to tackle the North American market.
“We want to spend a lot of our effort growing the North American market. It is gigantic. At the same time, it is very competitive. We think now that we have big American customers like ExxonMobil it makes it easy for which has so much opportunities. From Canada, we will be able to sell into the USA,” says Paul Marketos, a director and co-founder of IsoMetrix.
“Our office in Toronto allows us to focus on building our customer base in oil-centred cities such as Houston and Calgary, as well as mining hubs such as Denver and Toronto itself. We are confident that the strengths of our software: its agility, dashboards and the breadth of solutions we have to offer, will allow us to expand our existing North American customer base, and to recreate the success we have experienced in the natural resources sectors in Africa and Australia.”
IsoMetrix, which was founded by the brothers Paul and Dennis Marketos in 2003, enables mining and oil & gas firms to replace a myriad of point solutions and paper spreadsheet-based systems, with a fully integrated, web-based solution that provides comprehensive dashboards for clear visibility over areas of risk and non-compliance.
According to independent research firm Forrester, organisations face threats in all aspects of their business and ad hoc management of those crises leaves them more vulnerable to impacts to their revenue and their reputations.
There are more than 40 000 users of IsoMetrix globally in extractive, construction and energy sector. They include Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Anglo American, AngloGoldAshanti, Anglo Platinum, Murray & Roberts, Ophir Energy, Sasol and Vivo Energy.
To boost its activities in Latin America, IsoMetrix has also partnered with CCPM, a Peruvian consulting firm specialising in the management of social issues.
Peru ranks fifth worldwide in gold production (first in Latin America), second in copper, and is among the top five producers of lead and zinc.
Paul Marketos said CCPM would become a value-added reseller of IsoMetrix products in Peru.
“This partnership in Peru is very strategic for IsoMetrix. The Peruvian market has tremendous potential for us and Lima is a central location for South America. We consider CCPM as the missing piece of the equation to our local development in this region. Our latest version is also fully available in Spanish and represents a great asset for this market.”
When asked whether the African and Australian footprint, and the expansion into Latin and North America position the company as a global firm, Paul Marketos said: “We are competing with international firms and beating them. We think the time is right for us to start spreading our wings and become a strong player.”
IsoMetrix competes with bigger rivals such as Enablon, a French-American provider of sustainability, EH&S and operational management software, and Canadian-based Intelex, which recently secured $CAD160 MILLION in strategic growth investment led by JMI Equity.
But Paul Marketos said he still believes that IsoMetrix remains competitive despite bigger rivals such as Intelex with access to bigger funds to compete.
“We have managed to win deals against them due to the fact that our software is faster and agile.”
Last week, IsoMetrix was named as a Challenger in Verdantix’s Green Quadrant for EH&S Software. IsoMetrix was lauded because it enables its customers to develop process-specific applications.
Commenting on rivals, especially in Canada and the US, Paul Marketos said: “We are currently using our own money. So what we are thinking is that we at an inflection point to grow properly we do need some private equity or other funding. We are looking for either a private equity or an IT company, which got distribution channels”.
Paul and Dennis Marketos are alumnus of Endevour Entrepreneurs that includes Bruce Morgan of GreatSoft, Adrian Gore of Discovery, Vinny Lingham – who sold his virtual gift card service, Gyft, for $52m – and Taste Holdings’ Carlo Gonzaga.
Paul Marketos believes that being part of the Endevour Entrepreneurs, which is supported by First National Bank, enables one to think that it is possible to achieve the impossible.
“It (The Endevour programme) has been an inspiration in that way and made us to think bigger that we were prior to being part of it,” explains Marketos.
With customers across the African continent, Australia and now moving into Latin and North America, IsoMetric is continuing to spread its wings as it conquers bigger rivals with its agile software.
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Nice Article Gugu , it is good to see South African companies building global businesses
Bruce Morgan, its really encouraging to see local IT firms expanding globally and bringing the foreign currency back to South Africa. It really shows that we have the expertise, experience and the talent to make an impact in the global space