BMW South Africa`s groundbreaking Motorplan system, developed and maintained by IT consulting and services company MNR Solutions (Pty) Ltd, has been adopted by BMW subsidiaries in Japan, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.
"Indications are that an increasing number of BMW offices will implement Motorplan," says Konrad Czuba, Group Motorplan, Warranty and Goodwill Manager of BMW South Africa. "We are currently in discussions with offices in the Middle East, Emirates and Taiwan. MNR Solutions has a pivotal role to play in these exciting developments, as they own accountability for the Motoplan system. We view them as long-term strategic partners."
Former BMW employees who initially developed the Motorplan system founded MNR Solutions in 1998. As a result, MNR Solutions continues to have a profound understanding of BMW`s business as well as its customers` requirements.
As Lize-Marie Verhoef, Manager: Business Processes and Systems of BMW South Africa points out "Because MNR Solutions` has been actively involved with BMW South Africa over the past three years, they understand our systems and business processes and are therefore able to offer suitable solutions to our particular requirements."
In addition to the Motorplan system, MNR Solutions developed BMW`s vehicle ordering system. They also support the dealer business management information warehouse and the BMW warranty system.
Pioneered in the late 1980`s for the BMW 7 Series, Motorplan was devised to offer motorists full maintenance and repair cover on their vehicles for up to seven years or 200 000 kilometres. It soon filtered down to all BMW models and grew to become an indispensable record of the company`s customers.
"Motorplan assists us in keeping track of who is driving our cars," Czuba says. "Even in its infancy, it also contained a financial component so that it could be used to facilitate electronic payments to dealers. As such, it was a forerunner to electronic data interchange."
The system is also customisable, which explains its international popularity. It caters for multiple currencies and languages, even accommodating Japanese characters with ease. In Italy, for example, dealers sell customers tokens for services, brake pads and tyres. Motorplan`s modular design gives the corporate customers the freedom to pick and choose.
MNR Solutions uses the Merant tool set to develop and maintain Motorplan. Nuno da Rocha, one of the directors of MNR Solutions, says, "We needed state-of-the-art technology to ensure world-class standards. The Merant tools allow us to develop mainframe-type applications in a PC environment - we have all the power and response of a mainframe but all the graphics and productivity of a PC. The time savings are incredible." "Furthermore, we are able to respond rapidly to demands for new software development. In the international market, that`s crucial."
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