MCi has grown and evolved significantly since it was first founded by Steven Bernard and Droussiotis in 1995. At its launch, the company focused on implementing the Accpac accounting software (today known as Sage) and shortly thereafter, the Adapt Recruitment software. MCi was then approached to develop an interface between the JSE’s BDA system and various Accpac (Sage) modules, to allow stockbrokers to automatically upload and download transactions to and from various Accpac modules and BDA. MCI then expanded its offering to the stockbroker community to include customised trading (TradeCIS), portfolio management (PortCIS) and an online share trading platform (NetCIS). MCI’s newest offering for the wealth and financial services market is its new portal for wealth and investment managers, which is offered on a software as a service basis. The portal integrates and aggregates data from multiple sources and allows companies to upgrade their existing systems to enhance their customer experiences and automate processes. The portal is customisable and includes client onboarding and self-help and allows companies to leverage automation in order to scale up their operations.

Building on a data analytics capability first launched in 1998, MCi’s Business Performance Management Solutions business is proving to be a key growth area for the company. Using a combination of tools including IBM’s Planning Analytics TM1 and Microsoft’s Power BI, MCi is addressing a growing need for organisations to aggregate, analyse and visualise data.

Droussiotis says: “We see a growing need for organisations to get more information from their various systems, and to be able to analyse their data in a user-friendly format. They are looking for unique ways to use their data to address prevailing problems or give them competitive advantage.

“Companies today are facing increasing pressure to deliver exceptional customer experiences, while also ensuring regulatory compliance and maintaining operational efficiency. The focus now is on digitising processes, for example, client onboarding, client self-service and eRecruitment,” Droussiotis says.

MCi’s Direct Hire eRecruitment software, now available through an ISV reseller agreement with Sage South Africa, onboarded close to 200 new clients in the past year. Direct Hire automates and improves efficiency in recruitment, allowing HR to easily advertise positions and quickly eliminate applicants who do not meet the criteria. It also includes video interviewing software for online interviews, a risk assessment module and verification checks, and simplifies compliance and communications.

Droussiotis says: “MCi’s key differentiator is that we provide customised turnkey solutions to suit our clients’ changing requirements – from product development right through to support services. Our services include system development, systems integration and system customisation. For example, one of our PBI clients in the hospitality industry is currently changing over to a new reservation system, and we are able to interface our PBI platform that we built with the new system so that they can continue to get the information they require, which assists their sales, revenue, finance and commercial teams with fast, reliable data, which is enabling not only reporting, but their decision-making process. Building PBI platforms to provide companies with data that is relevant to their business and in their industries leads to long-term partnerships with our clients.”

Looking to the year ahead, Droussiotis says: “With the expected downturn of the economy, I think we can expect businesses to look at ways to reduce their costs by investing in cloud computing and digital process automation. It is also becoming more and more critical for companies to have up-to-date information to better manage their businesses. In light of this, coupled with the huge shortage of IT skills in the market, we plan to focus on staff retention and growth, move more customers to cloud, increase our services in the data analytics space and continue to promote the digitisation of processes.”