SMS keeps customers in touch with unpack info

RAY SMUTS KEEPING ABREAST of the latest communications technology is key when fielding a customer base that reads like a blue chip Who’s Who, a reality SACD marketing director Geoff Popple is all too keenly aware of. Certainly no slouch in the IT stakes, the formidable Bidvest subsidiary continues to invest substantially in this crucially important sphere. “If you are a supply chain management specialist, which we profess to be, you cannot lay claim to that without the necessary IT,” says Popple. With a customer base that includes Huletts Aluminium, Sasol Polymers, Highveld Steel, Winecorp, Maersk Sealand, Safmarine, P&O Nedlloyd, Hamburg Süd, Mitsui O.S.K (MOL), UTi , CFR Freight and Safcor Panalpina, SACD has for the first time embarked on a major South African advertising spend to boost company image. In another ‘first’, SACD is courting potential international customers via a website (www.sacd.co.za) which has attracted well over 20000 ‘hits’ in the early weeks of operation. “We are receiving a lot of enquiries,” acknowledges Popple. Kevin Charleston, the company’s e-commerce project manager, says the website is currently in its first phase, restricted purely to marketing information. “Due to go live this month is the data access portion which will enable customers to log in, register and obtain information about containers being unpacked, cargo tracking and so forth, part of what is to be a multi-phase programme.” Up and running since May is a facility whereby SACD notifies customers by SMS of containers being unpacked, to be website-linked from next month.