Meet the Absa Small Business Friday featured Small Business of the week – Niche Integrated Solutions.
Niche Integrated Solutions is a 100% women-owned company that specialises in emerging technologies. Their offerings include ERP end-to-end, banking end-to-end, robotics, automation and other emerging technologies talking to 41R (Fourth Industrial Revolution).
They offer software as a service, implementation services, support and training. In a male-dominated industry, they pride themselves on being at the forefront of 4IR. Furthermore, they work in industries like aerospace, mining and defence, and drive disruption through emerging technologies. They offer a distinct differentiator to organisations keen to adopt digital transformation.
Niche Integrated Solutions was started purely by coincidence. Nisha Maharaj, a founder of Niche Integrated Solutions, decided to become a consultant to have a varied paycheque as a single-parent entrepreneur. Tired of just one salary, she assumed that consultants could pick up multiple roles and create a more comfortable life for her family. She was a lending specialist at the time and one of her clients was looking for a lending solution. Through this, Nisha began to learn about global best practices in technology and innovation and the role of software in meeting organisational transformation needs. This is where her career began, and the journey has been exhilarating.
The business started with no capital. This has enabled them to learn the true spirit of entrepreneurship – the difficult way. Having this experience has made them resilient in the face of challenges and they have developed a never give up attitude. As a result, they remain standing after two years of COVID-19 even though their company was propelled backwards at the exact moment that the company broke even before lockdown.
After overcoming the lockdown, Niche Integrated Solutions continued from where they left off and as the markets started opening, they very quickly started recovering and reached the turnover they had before COVID. From here on, and given their pipeline, they have no hesitation to say they will double their turnover year on year for years to come. This has been the most painful ride they have ever experienced with the greatest amount of pride, joy and excitement.
Recently, Niche Integrated Solutions was invited to India to work on a high profile project to assist with custom developments within ERP. This was a great achievement for an African women-owned company to participate in custom development for an Indian company.
In the future, they would like to take their company global. Now, they work with clients in the Middle East, Europe and Africa but would like to open niche branches in every part of the globe.
They see themselves creating jobs in niche skills and obtaining more certifications in highly specialised areas of ICT, thereby reducing the skills gap and deficit of ICT skills in Africa.