Magic Software Enterprises has signed a deal with Budget Rent-A-Car Corporation to license and install RentPro, Magic`s full-service business solution for car and truck rental companies, in Budget`s European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian Pacific corporate branches.
The solution, developed by Magic`s 75%-owned subsidiary, Magic Rental Technologies, is also being offered to Budget`s licensees in those territories.
Under the contract, Budget will introduce RentPro into its operations under the label "Budget Line". Initially, the contract is valued at more than $2 million. However, Budget has also obtained an option to license the solution for use in the rest of the world for an undisclosed sum.
In addition to the licensing provisions contained in the contract, MRTI will be responsible for handling the first three installations of the Magic-based solution, scheduled for Switzerland, France and England. MRTI will also act as a consultant on three additional installations, providing Budget the ability thereafter to install the solution and train its own users.
Work on the first six installations is expected to begin during the second quarter of 1999. Ultimately, it is anticipated that more than 2 000 users will be connected to the system. MRTI will also provide technical support to Budget.
"The decision to proceed with Magic followed several months of rigorous evaluation," says Jeane Claude Ghiotti, president and CEO of Budget International. "Ultimately, it came down to the fact that Magic`s functionality, scalability and modularity, which would enable each client to easily customise the solution to fit its own particular requirements, was unsurpassed by the other products on the market."
RentPro, originally developed by MRTI, is an enterprise solution containing more than 2 000 programs, including more than 90% of all of the functions handled by car and truck rental companies with multiple facilities worldwide. It can handle such varied functions as the purchasing and sale of vehicles, reservations management, leasing and rental arrangements, and fleet control and management. In addition, RentPro can interface with virtually any accounting system.
The solution is multilingual, enabling the operator to communicate in their own language on the screen and in reports, while rental agreements and invoices are generated in the language of the customer. All translation is transparent to the customer and the user. In addition, because RentPro is Magic-based, it can operate on multiple platforms and integrate with most commercial databases.
"Using Magic, we were able to develop a powerful car and truck rental company solution that easily integrates with existing systems," says Stan Kalman, Managing Director of MRTI. "The Budget solution will run on a client/server architecture supported by an IBM AS/400."
In July of 1998, Magic purchased an initial 19% interest in Rental Technologies, the Israeli company that originally developed RentPro using Magic`s highly productive application development technology. Recently, Magic increased its holdings in the company, renamed Magic Rental Technologies to 75%.
"The investment in MRTI fits well with Magic`s strategy of becoming a high-quality business solutions, as well as technology, provider," says David Assia, executive chairman of Magic. "It was the first of our branded Magic applications, and is representative of the quality and productivity Magic brings to all of its solutions." Magic is distributed in South Africa by Magic SA, a division of MGX Holdings company Exsol.
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