Customisation is key in software market

If indeed there is one lesson Anthea van Breemen has learnt from years of marketing software in South Africa it is this: You can’t be all things to all people. It is also a lesson soon grasped by Cape Town-based Macro 2000, hence its reputation for specialising. Unlike some international software products on the market, Macro 2000 chose to focus on customers’ needs in certain sectors and it has paid off. “Specialising is what has made us powerful and why we have become good at what we do,” says Van Breemen, marketing executive for Macro 2000. “Macro 2000’s evolutionary progression since founding (by MD Chris Strachan) in 1978 is entirely the result of our customers leading us through every step of our progress and that is why we have moved in the direction we have, nothing else.” A wholly South African product, Macro software, tailored specifically to meet a customer’s needs, comes as one integrated package but with between 14 and 16 different modules available, renting from between R4 000 and R20 000 a month. “When I go into a company the first thing I do is figure out what their requirements are as no two companies use the same modules.” The groundwork is complete, once again the result of paying attention to what the customer requires, and the New Year will see Macro 2000 launching an integrated shipping package, to include LCL (less than container load) and FCL (full container load) software. As incredible as it may sound in this day and age, Van Breemen says it has been known for goods to be erroneously shipped to a destination other than that intended, which may result in the expensive alternative of airfreighting substitute goods. She recalls a true story of a local company opening a container, only to find it contained bread shipped from Germany three weeks earlier. He tracked down the consignee who asked for it to be sent back, raising the question: What to do with six-week-old bread? “That is why one requires the right software – so you will know when the container door is sealed that everything within is exactly as specified in the manifest.” The company still has many small to medium-size warehouses and cold stores on its books but has since moved into logistics, container and shipping management software.