INF 370 Capstone · Team 35 · University of Pretoria

One system for the work beyond corporate purpose.

We are building the Integrated NGO Project Portfolio Management System, which brings Group Elephant's conservation and community work into one place: rhino and elephant relocation, rhino dehorning, K9 anti-poaching patrols, and bike drops, all planned, funded, staffed, and reported from the same system.

Explore the system Documentation

Black rhinoceros cow and calf in tall grass

1983Founded at the University of Pretoria

42Countries of operation

4 200Employees across 20+ brands

1%Of project revenue funds ERP

EPI-USE Africa

EPI-USE is a global SAP HR and Payroll firm and part of Group Elephant, a mini-conglomerate of over 20 brands with roughly 4 200 employees across 42 countries. It was founded in 1983 by a University of Pretoria professor to help fund computer equipment for the Computer Science department, and early adoption of SAP's enterprise resource planning engine grew it into the largest independent SAP specialist in the world by the early 2010s.

Group Elephant is built on going beyond corporate purpose. A hybrid business model channels 1% of revenue from every project into its corporate responsibility arm, Elephants, Rhinos and People (ERP), which funds and operates non-profits and impact businesses.

South Africa's boutique SAP consulting market is crowded, with 73 SAP partners nationally, so EPI-USE competes on service quality rather than price. ERP is a distinctive part of that, both for its conservation impact and for how deeply it involves employees. We are building the system for that side of the business.

EPI-USE Africa
46 Ingersol Road
Lynnwood Glen, Pretoria, 0081

Adult rhino and calf walking a dry scrub landscape, giraffe in the distance

Contact persons

Dané Coetzee SAP & SuccessFactors Functional Associate Consultant M.Com Informatics, University of Pretoria
Antonia Michael SAP & SuccessFactors Consultant M.Sc Computer Science, University of Pretoria (2020)

The problem

We found ERP running its conservation initiatives in a decentralised way, on spreadsheets, written documents, and WhatsApp messages. That covers rhino and elephant relocations, rhino dehorning operations, K9 anti-poaching patrols, and bike drops to rural communities. We traced six problems back to it.

Difficulty tracking progress and budgets across different initiatives
Inefficient allocation of resources and volunteers
Little visibility into project delays, budget overruns, or risk
Difficulty generating financial and impact reports
Data inconsistencies and no central repository
No way to compare initiatives against one another

Who it affects

Project managers cannot reliably compare one initiative against another.
Project managers lose time to manual tracking across documents and chats.
Volunteers face unclear task assignments.
Finance struggles to consolidate budgets across initiatives.
Sponsors experience delays and limited transparency into project impact.

The solution

We designed the Integrated NGO Project Portfolio Management System (INPPMS) around that. It handles project and budget planning, resource and volunteer allocation, and impact measurement, and we layer AI-driven predictions and analytics on top.

Users & roles
We let administrators build custom roles from scratch with their own permissions. Unlimited roles are allowed.
Project management
We track deadlines, permits, and inventory allocations against each project.
Budget & resources
We hold budgets, expenses, inventory, and warehousing per initiative, and warn before a budget runs over.
Volunteers & staff
We keep detailed records per person: their skills, the groups they belong to, and what they are assigned to.
Reporting & analytics
We report portfolio health, finances, and impact, and let managers compare initiatives side by side.
Notifications & alerts
We raise deadlines and budget cautions before they turn into problems.
Vendor management
We keep vendors and vendor types on record so projects draw on one approved list.
Machine learning
We predict financial risk and completion risk on all projects.