E-business solution provider Apshai has launched a unique business model that will allow South African customers to reduce the risk of entering the e-business arena. The company says it will reduce risk by sharing the entry cost of e-business with its customers, instead taking a percentage share of the success that their solutions bring. This also acts as a demonstration of faith in both their own ability and their customer`s future.
Andrew McHenry, marketing director at Apshai, explains: "We believe that the `e-pot of gold` lies in developing lasting risk-reward partnerships that look at more than the short term. We have exclusive access to products for South Africa through select supplier partnerships and a customer model that inherently reduces the cynicism and confusion associated with the e-world at present. We`re specialists at what we do and we put our money where our mouth is."
"This is what separates us from a market made up predominantly of generalists and gives us our cutting edge," continues McHenry. "We prefer to keep set-up fees to the minimum and receive payment by retaining a percentage of revenues generated by our client`s websites, which means we have a real incentive in making a clients investment in e-business profitable."
Apshai splits its business offerings into three sectors: company Intranets, business to business e-commerce, and business to consumer e-commerce. Its approach is to implement each of these elements and ultimately evolve them into one integrated e-business solution.
"Virtually any business can benefit from implementing an e-business solution," comments Apshai`s IT director, Gideon Schachat. "We are creative and flexible in our approach and this allows us to accommodate most prospective clients. We fuse keen strategic insight, compelling interactive design and powerful technological expertise to create successful e-business and interactive solutions for a broad client base. The South African Internet market is reaching critical mass and approaching the long-awaited landmark of one million internet users."
Where other e-commerce service providers simply sell a client a solution, implement it and walk away, "We aim to ease our clients into the global world of e-commerce. We facilitate the development of another channel to do business in. With the e-commerce environment evolving at such a rapid pace, it is comforting for our clients to have a technology partner taking a stake in their e-commerce projects. It is quite a powerful thought to know that we are changing the way South Africans conduct e-commerce," says Schachat.
Apshai specialises in Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition as their preferred e-Commerce platform. Apshai is a preferred e-commerce solution provider for Microsoft, and Microsoft consultants and system architects work directly with Apshai on key projects.
Notes to editors: Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, Apshai is a management buy out from former holding companies TCO Integrators and Dimension Data. Apshai is an e-business product and solution provider. Balisoft Technologies Inc. and Value-Net Corporation, two leading Canadian software development companies, have given Apshai exclusive rights to distribute and support their products as has UK company Mediasurface.
Apshai offer the following services: Development: Microsoft Site Server, vPOS, HTML, XML, DHTML, CGI, JAVA, Active Serve Pages (ASP), Visual Basic, Database Integration via SQL or ODBC.
Design:
Macromedia FLASH 3, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia, Dreamweaver, QuickTime VR, Real Audio/Video. Programmed in native JAVA to maximize speed in design techniques
List of e-business solutions:
Retail e-Commerce
Business-to-business e-Commerce
Company intranet development
Supply-chain management
Content management
Pricing & stock database integration
Secure electronic transactions with online real time credit card authorisation
Requirement wizards to help customers on-line, dynamically choose the most appropriate products or services
Hosting on secure, high speed servers
Ongoing maintenance and detailed statistical analysis
Web marketing, including design and development of one-to-one marketing systems (relationship marketing)
Data Mining
Consulting
Security
LiveContact - online customer management
Share
Editorial contacts