Johannesburg, 07 Mar 2002
Autopax Passenger Services, a newly formed company that operates the Translux and City-to-City bus lines in several of South Africa`s neighbouring countries, has completed a significant upgrade to its information technology (IT) infrastructure in a move to enhance its business administration, human resources, payroll, training and other systems.
The Translux network extends to more than 100 destinations domestically and to major cities in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In December Autopax opened a new arrival and departure facility for its budget City-to-City operation at Johannesburg`s Park Station, handling an average of 35 000 people each month. At the same time, the company took delivery of the first of 63 luxury coaches.
Central to the IT upgrade is an Oracle e-business system, implemented by Software Futures, an MGX subsidiary and Oracle business partner in South Africa.
Danie Wienand, principle consultant at Software Futures, says the Autopax solution was designed to meet three key criteria - functionality for inter-company transactions; protection against data loss; and high availability to minimise costly down time.
"Central to the success of the implementation was the underlying Oracle technology platform, which will enable Autopax to re-develop their other sub-systems in an integrated manner over the next two years," he adds.
The system encompasses Oracle`s financial management, procurement, inventory control as well as human resources and payroll e-business solutions.
According to Autopax IT manager Carl Langevelder, the new systems have significantly enhanced the company`s ability to manage its resources, while streamlining its accounting and other key business processes.
"Our HR department needs a system to facilitate communication between various offices throughout the country, while meeting the South African legislation requirements. The Oracle system we have commissioned will meet these needs, impacting on the day-to-day business activities of around 1000 Autopax employees as it does," he says.
Langevelder says the Oracle systems have also met Autopax`s unique requirements in areas such as store and stock management, allowing the company to more efficiently plan for future spares usage.
One of the key reports provided by the Oracle system is profit analysis. "Critical to the management of our company is the accurate tracking of expenditure and revenue streams for the many hundreds of buses in the Translux and City to City fleets.
"Based on the statistics provided by the Oracle system, management can perform a profit analysis for each bus, on a per-route basis, on a daily basis if required," he adds.
Autopax has also opted for a full training and development programme to be run by Software Futures for its users and technical support staff.
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