MetricStream forays into Tanzania market

Bangalore, June 18 (IANS) Leading IT solutions provider in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) space MetricStream has forayed into Tanzania to offer its enterprise services in East Africa.

"We will collaborate with local partners to enable businesses in the African country address compliance and enterprise risk management requirements and play a strategic part in their global growth," the US-based company's Indian subsidiary said in a statement here Wednesday.

The company has presence in India with a software development centre in Bangalore.

Coinciding with its entry into Tanzania, the company hosted maiden African GRC conference at Zanzibar with its partner Business Connexion recently for leading banks, oil and gas firms and other enterprises in public and private sectors.

Connexion's chief operations officer for international business Marius Schoeman delivered the keynote address and Bank of Tanzania director Modestus Kipilimba presented a case study on the state of enterprise risk management in African banks at the conference.

With a diverse market, Tanzania offers opportunities for local businesses to pursue their growth prospects.

Constant flux in international and local regulatory policies, however, call for an understanding of the recent changes, trends and subsequent impacts on organisations to survive and thrive in this very challenging economy.

"It is imperative that African enterprises adopt a robust system of resilience to take their businesses forward. Incorporating GRC solution will help them identify and mitigate risks arising from complex business practices, emerging laws and extensive compliance mandates," the statement noted.

In a demanding economic climate, enterprises the world over are realising the need for a cross-enterprise GRC solution to streamline risk management processes to identify and mitigate risks.

"Though we are offering GRC solutions to leading Tanzanian firms in banking and oil and gas sectors, we are keen to extend the product and service offering to other verticals through local partners in the Tanzanian market," the statement said.

The GRC solutions are used by global corporations, including UBS, Barclaycard US, P&G, Pfizer, Philips, United Technologies Corporation, SanDisk, Cummins, and Autogrill in diverse industries such as financial services, healthcare, life sciences, energy and utilities, food, retail, government, hi-tech and manufacturing.