"Taking the pain out of office stationery purchases," is how OfficeMart Managing Director Philip Katz describes his company's new web site. Designed and implemented by Intekom, the site comprises a real-time catalogue of some 4,500 office- and related products, which is tightly integrated with OfficeMart's internal retail management, inventory and accounting systems to expedite orders placed on the Web. This means, for example, that changes to stock codes or prices can be reflected immediately on the Web site.
For Philip Katz and OfficeMart's "Web Mistress" Alison Mills-Daggatt, the development of the web site is the culmination of months of effort to streamline the company's operations and to expedite the purchasing and delivery process.
The Bidvest Group bought OfficeMart together with Waltons Office Supplies last year. The purchase was followed by a season of internal restructuring, the closing of several stores, a reorganisation of business systems as well as a refocus of the company itself.
Bidvest is now the biggest office products group in South Africa. According to Katz, the Intekom-developed web-site fulfils the very essence of the 'new' OfficeMart philosophy - that is to be the lowest cost provider in its sector as well as a people's- rather than a product company. "The web site provides a platform for both. Our sales and operating overheads are obviously much lower on the web, and we expect these to be reduced further as the number of purchasing transactions increases over the web site. These savings will be passed on to the customer," he said.
The company is currently investigating the possibility of including transaction processing on the Web site itself, whereby clients can settle payment using their credit cards directly after selecting their goods. Once this facility is in place, Katz and Mills-Daggatt estimate that within two years, close to 20 percent of OfficeMart's business will be conducted over the Web, and will increase rapidly thereafter.
"The Web is an extremely functional, yet personal medium to communicate with our customers," Mills-Daggatt said.
"Apart from the product catalogue and purchasing mechanisms, we have included an informative guide to each product sold as well as advice on what products to buy, given certain usage criteria, and how to use them," she said.
She added that the Web site is designed to take the hassle out of the purchasing process.
"Corporate stationery purchasing is a routinely boring task, and our site aims to make the purchasing activity an interesting outing. Orders can be placed any time of day, without the difficulties associated with switchboards or getting hold of the appropriate sales representative," she added.
Katz believes that the opportunities to extend the personalised approach will increase as individual clients' buying patterns are noted. A personalised shopping list facility is to be included on the site which can be accessed by frequent customers and account holders. Once an order has been generated on the site, purchasers can track its progress and monitor the delivery process.
"The site has essentially been designed with the customer in mind, rather than a mere list of products," he said. Katz's comments are supported by Intekom's Corporate Product Manager Chris Lazarus.
"The characteristics of the world wide web are such that it has the capacity to deliver the "warm fuzzies" of one to one marketing to a mass audience," he said.
"As such the Internet has the potential to make a powerful business impact on individual companies that correctly harness its unique capabilities, particularly in respect of relationship building," he says.
The OfficeMart Web site is to be rolled out in two phases. Phase one will make the ordering and invoicing facility available to a sample of 500 account holders. Phase two will extend this to the man-in-the street. While the site will go live on December 1 this year, the entire project is expected to take two years to complete.
"We have been extremely fortunate in our choice of service provider in Intekom. The company has demonstrated a sincere understanding of our business and the web site is a reflection of our successful working relationship," Katz said.
He added that OfficeMart web site had been replicated on the company's intranet to facilitate telephonic orders and enquiries.
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