Ray Smuts
ON THE surface, Macro 2000's software systems may look like so many others, but Chris Strachan is passionate about ensuring that customers get exactly what they require.
And that, be believes, is what makes all the difference in this vastly competitive ever-changing business.
Virtually nobody buys a system off the shelf and uses it like that these days, so tailoring to one's specific needs is very important, particularly in industries like logistics where there are no kind of standards, he says.
A former Safmarine software specialist before forming Macro 2000 in 1978, Strachan says: We are small but with a well-defined niche, targeting logistics and warehousing which we are very good at.
The company's customer base boasts leading companies including Sea Harvest, Birkart International and Commercial Cold Storage
A local supplier of logistics, warehousing and ERP software, Macro 2000 recently launched a complete range of sophisticated Internet B2B (Business to Business) solutions which are not only affordable - at less than 10% of the cost of an SAP system for instance - but locally developed and supported.
The B2B software concentrates on the real issues faced by businesses in dealing with customers.
Marketing Manager Anthea van Breemen says Macro 2000's offering is an integrated solution where, for example, logistics companies can take orders via the Internet and provide and deliver documentation including invoicing on behalf of customers.
Similarly, a company using Macro 2000 software co-ordinates the purchsasing, receiving, warehousing and distribution for JIT manufacturing between five different companies in various countries, from source to customer.
There is one very important criterion enabling B2B to be successful over the Internet and that is the integration of backend systems to handle the business logic of services offered over the net. This is the difference between e-business that works and e-business that does not.
Van Breemen says:We would like to see more people take a look at B2B and happily provide demonstrations to show it's less complex and costly than many believe.
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