RAY SMUTS ANY NEW software package should fit the business, not the other way around, hence the necessity for good project planning and management when deciding to go that route, says Macro2000 marketing executive, Anthea van Breemen. By way of example, she mentions that a Macro2000 software package running about five users in a 3 000-pallet cold store, takes around a week to install, customise implementation and effect the necessary training before the company is able to start receiving, issuing and performing other tasks on the system. “A typical business system involves going through the business processes in place at the customer’s site and then translating these onto the computer system. “Once the processes are in place, the next stop is training which tends to be done in a test system on-site, using daily transactions so that the operators become accustomed to the system within their working environment.” Normal practice, explains Van Breemen, is to allow the test system to run for two weeks so that operators become comfortable with it before Macro2000 staff return. The next step for commercial warehouses is setting up the charge-out module, which automatically calculates storage and any additional charges at month’s end, at the same time creating invoices. In a recent Macro2000 commercial cold storage implementation, the warehouse manager was fully involved with his operations staff in managing the set-up, resulting in a record three-and-a-half days before ‘going live’.
