Computron becomes AXS-One

Issued by ITWeb for Computron
Johannesburg, 01 Nov 2000

Computron Software will today be re-named as AXS-One, a move it says reflects its new business focus. The Computron brand dates from 1978, when the company was founded.

The company is to brand itself with the tagline "Access Tomorrow Today" and plans to become more visible in the e-business market.

In SA, as elsewhere in the world, the company will target the hospitality and insurance industries. "In insurance you have big problems for which people are willing to spend large amounts of money," says CEO John Rade. "In hospitality you have a high staff turnover which means a low knowledge base among managers."

One local hospitality project that should be up and running by February is a procurement hub for RCI, the time share and leisure group. SA MD Al Clegg says the hub has gone through its proof of concept and benchmarking phases and should be fully operational by mid-2001. A preferred vendor programme will also be launched on the back of the system.

"Of course we hope that the vendors involved will also adopt our system," says Clegg.

Also on the cards for SA is a "smart city" programme, which Rade says the company is conducting in Australia, the Baltic and the US, among others. Aggregating transactions for the citizens of Gauteng would be equally feasible, he says, although the Northern Hemisphere would lead the way.

AXS-One believes it has something to offer in the e-business field despite facing large competitors such as SAP and IBM.

"What are the chances of having a homogeneous SAP system throughout the world?" asks Rade. "We can`t even get plugs in the walls standardised throughout the world."

He also sees flaws in competitors` strategies.

"The failure [of competitors] is that they simply dump transactions without internal processing. Forbid that you ever need to pay for it and forbid that you ever need to receive it."

He says offerings such as the e-Cellerator solution differentiates itself by using existing systems and infrastructure, saving the emotional investment companies often have in such systems.