Envig, the Paarl-based process and environmental engineering company, has selected Ixchange`s NetChauffeur as its Internet access solution and communications tool. NetChauffeur gives each workstation on the company`s network its own e-mail box, enables reduced-cost electronic faxing, and provides Internet access for up to three simultaneous users - all from a single dial-up connection to Ixchange.
One of the company`s pressing challenges was to find a more efficient way of sharing large engineering drawings with colleagues and clients.
"We literally had to cut up A0 plotted sheets into 16 A4 sections, collate them, and fax them through to our Johannesburg, Botswana and world wide licensees` offices, and further abroad," explains IT manager Glen Tiplady. "Often by the time they arrived, the pages were shuffled, the annotations were illegible, and the pieces simply did not match up." Sending drawings electronically has completely resolved this problem. "This process alone saves the company between three and four hours a day in productivity."
Although Envig had an existing Internet dial-up account, it was insufficient for the volume of traffic the company needed. "Not only did we come up against privacy issues, but the time it took to physically sieve through our mailbox was prohibitive," says Tiplady. "We needed a solution that would give us the benefit of individual accounts, without the hassle of multiple dial-up accounts or the exorbitant costs of a leased line."
The company provides specialised solutions to industrial purification and separation plants. Its water and effluent systems are sold locally and abroad, and are distributed through the company`s network of offices and agents in South America, South East Asia, Africa, the Far East and Europe. They are used for a variety of treatment applications in the petrochemical, food, wastewater and pharmaceutical industries, among others.
"Our drive to deliver environmentally-aware services to our clients begins with our own company," says Tiplady. "In addition to the benefits we`ve derived from company-wide e-mail access, NetChauffeur helps us cut down on our paper consumption, saving us money in the process."
For a company that relies on daily global correspondence, e-mail is important and is becoming more so by the day. "We use e-mail internally and externally, and have come to rely on the speed and simplicity with which it`s allowed us to communicate with our staff, clients and contractors," says Tiplady.
NetChauffeur integrates seamlessly with the company`s existing IT environment, comprising 16 workstations running Windows 95 on a peer-to-peer network. It resides on the central Windows NT server, and allows each user to send and receive e-mail and faxes using his preferred e-mail client. "We did not have to upgrade our hardware, nor did we have to retrain our staff on the new system," says Tiplady. "It`s cost-effective, saves us time and resources, and gives us all the functionality we were looking for."
Jill Holmwood, NetChauffeur sales consultant at Ixchange`s Cape Town office, says that NetChauffeur was sold and installed directly by Ixchange, even though the company has an established dealer network in the Cape. "Our Cape Town office is expanding quickly," she says. "We`re in a position to offer our products directly through our office, or through our dealers, depending on which option is more suitable to the client."
The advantages of being able to communicate directly with clients and distributors, and provide them with up to date information, are paying dividends at Envig. "As part of the NetChauffeur Professional contract, Ixchange will be hosting our Web site, and are helping us create a complete corporate presence on the Web," says Tiplady. "We expect this initiative to open up new markets for us, and extend our position globally.
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