Ease of use and speed are big advantages OPENING OUT into the wonderfully-wide world of Windows.
That's the exciting new product that the freight computer systems specialists, Clearway Systems, has to offer, according to m.d. Pedro da Costa.
We have spent the past two years carefully transferring all our existing Customs-clearance packages into a full-blown, 100%, Windows environment, he said. But, with an estimated 80% of Clearway's forwarding agent client-base still living in the world of DOS, a primary need for the new Windows system has been contained in that word compatability, Da Costa added. Our new system has to be able to talk to DOS users, he said, and them to us. It has been the import section that has been the concentration up to now - with all the Customs clearance, bill of entry and wharfage systems, for example, now into a Windows configuration.
Next in line, said Da Costa, are the likes of our RIB and warehousing systems. All-in-all, the company has 16 modules in the conversion process, but all will be full-blown Windows in the next 8-12 months, according to Da Costa.
Imports have been the first step, he said, but also the most complicated of our procedures. Now that this has been suitably reconfigured, the conversion of the other, less-complex modules will be a simpler process. The big advantages of Windows, added Da Costa, are the ease of use, speed and the vastly increased sophistication of the new Microsoft replacement for its older, more-cumbersome DOS system. All this, he said, while also being almost foolproof, even in the hands of the most novice of users. You can be running three-to-four programmes simultaneously - quite comfortably and fairly fast.
This converts to a true time-saving for all the users. Said Da Costa: On a multiple entry of say 300-400 lines, you can have an entry saving of about an hour over the older systems. All this adds up at the end of the month to vastly-improved productivity, and a noticeable time-cost saving. And, he added, Clearway is ready to help all its clients upgrade their own systems to the new environment.
We will instal the software and train our clients on how to upgrade their systems - entirely at their own convenience, Da Costa said.
