Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2005
Esquire Technologies, a leading distributor of computer components, peripherals and lifestyle digital products, announced today the introduction of a fully integrated online ordering system that will serve its reseller community countrywide.
Mahomed Cassim, marketing director of Esquire comments, "We believe this to be the first real online business-to-business system for the reseller market which is fully integrated to a back end accounting system. Other online ordering systems are Web-based and operate on an e-mail basis, whereby a person still has to receive and then place the order in a traditional manner."
With the Esquire Online Ordering System, customers can log into the system, add stock items to their shopping cart, and then place an order. This order then links into the systems' back end and picks stock from the relevant branches, or from an alternative branch if unavailable, and removes the stock item from the inventory, which is checked every 30 seconds. The customer then confirms the order and an invoice is generated. The order is received by our team in the stores department, who pick and sort and prepare the order for collection or delivery.
"What is great about the system is its absolute convenience for the reseller, who can log in from anywhere at any time of day or night and generate an order. If a particular stock item is unavailable, alternative options are suggested to the customer, along with the relevant specifications of the product," adds Cassim.
"Our customers no longer have to undergo the frustration of phoning a sales person to place an order. At the same time, our sales staff can now focus on dealing with other issues, such as quotations for tenders."
Another user-friendly feature of the system is that customers can search for products either by stock code, category or brand. In addition, the order defaults automatically to the branch location at either Esquire's head office in Samrand or at one of the branches, depending on where the customer is based.
"Because our customers have one national account number, they can, for example, order in Johannesburg, but organise delivery for Cape Town. This enables our resellers to operate on a national basis," says Cassim.
Esquire has also integrated the third party improWeb system for its resellers who want to streamline their business and trade in real-time online. The addition of improWeb to the Esquire Online Ordering System allows resellers to import, export and update price lists and create quotations, purchase orders, orders and update their Web sites with correct live prices and available stock.
"This is a great optional value-add for our resellers who get a fully functional e-commerce Web site template to integrate to our Online Ordering System at a small monthly fee from improWeb", adds Cassim.
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