Datasoft has chosen the COMDEX South Africa 2000 event as the venue for the launch of its new `Release 2000` of its successful "Compact" ERP package which will place it firmly at the leading-edge of the rapidly growing e-commerce market.
Datasoft has positioned Compact to provide the leading ERP solution in SA. It has embarked on an aggressive marketing program (THE ERP SOFTWARE FOR CONTROL FREAKS!) and aims for an increase in market share of 50% this year.
Voted as one of `The Best IT Companies in South Africa` in research by The Corporate Research Foundation and included in the recent Top 300 Companies in South Africa publication, Datasoft has built an enviable reputation for product and service excellence among its user base of over 90 clients with some 5000 users. A member of the JSE listed Datatec group, Datasoft has taken on 10 new clients for its locally developed Compact ERP software in only the last year, including Lion Match Company, Kohler Flexible, Seagram Africa, Orthomedics and Federal Marine. They join over 90 existing Compact users like Nampak, BIC, Carson Products, Protea Chemicals, Oceana Fishing and Kohler.
Having proved itself over the past 16 years against stiff competition from international ERP vendors, Datasoft is excited about its current developments. Says Marketing and Sales Director, Roger Strain, "Our next release of Compact will be out in the next 2 months. It includes some very exciting features. One of these is an enhancement to our current integrated ERP and Business Intelligence offering. It allows the user to explore Compact`s automatically generated OLAP (online analytical processing) `PowerCubes` using the latest version of Microsoft Excel as a front-end tool. This means that the user is able to analyse their corporate data, drilling down to uncover trends and highlight exceptions, all from within their familiar Excel environment, and even over the internet!"
There`s a growing trend towards software rental, and Application Service Providers (ASP) that host software over the Internet have been springing up in the US and Europe. Here in South Africa, Datasoft has launched what it calls its `Compact Community`. Because they already support their clients` server hardware and infrastructure as part of their total solution approach, and with their Datatec parent company`s focus on the Internet and networking, Datasoft is in the ideal position to offer its own ASP service.
Datasoft Managing Director, Davide Hanan, explains, "In the Compact Community our clients simply pay a monthly rental, which includes space on a hosted server, all of the software and a management fee. We also keep our clients running on the latest technology and software versions. Currently we have 6 such rental clients already installed. But what really differentiates our offering is that you`re still dealing with one company, Datasoft. And this allows us to offer a whole range of outsourcing services like disaster recover services, e-commerce, facilities management, application outsourcing, and even auditing automation facilities."
"Our e-commerce offering for our Compact Community is unique in ERP." says Hanan. "Yes, we offer end-to-end business to business e-commerce, but we do more. We also provide a central messaging gateway, called the Compact e-Gateway, that allows our users to communicate with their partners by providing a single communications interface, managed by Datasoft, that centralises access to multiple VAN`s and third party services over the internet. This gives our clients full e-commerce at the minimum cost and least effort."
Datasoft`s web site is www.compact.co.za
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