The forecast that South African consumers will spend R2.7-billion over the Internet this year while business-to-business e-commerce transactions worth some R4-billion will take place, adds up to a huge opportunity -- one which accounting software specialist Pastel Software is seizing with both hands.
Pastel Software International CEO Ivan Ferrer, who is also a director of Pastel's holding company Softline Limited, has announced the launch of "PlanetPastel", a simple and cost-effective e-commerce solution for existing users and potential users of Pastel Partner V5 accounting software.
"We are creating an entirely new virtual world called PlanetPastel at (www.planetpastel.com). Our goal is to make PlanetPastel the definitive business information source, shopping mall and business park for small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa," said Ferrer.
"There is seamless and complete integration between the electronic store and Pastel Partner V5 and it is so transparent and easy that a Pastel user can be trading electronically within a couple of hours. No technical knowledge is required and no additional equipment needs to be installed.
"The benefits of full integration into the accounting package are substantial. Firstly, there is no need for the Pastel user to recapture orders placed via their electronic store. At any time they can synchronize with their site by connecting to the Internet and pushing a button. This imports directly into Pastel all orders from the web and exports directly to the electronic store, details of any new items, customers, price changes, the status of orders placed on the site and so on."
The second major benefit of full integration into the accounting package is the ability to do business-to-business e-commerce with critical business elements like customer-specific price lists and volume discounts per customer category and product group being automatically carried through from the accounting package to the e-commerce site.
"When a customer of a Pastel user enters an order in the electronic store, it will display that customer's prices, just as if the order was being captured directly into the accounting package. Other electronic shopping malls do not provide integration to an accounting package and therefore cannot provide business-to-business e-commerce," Ferrer added.
PlanetPastel consists of three elements - a shopping mall, a business park and a content section.
"In the shopping mall we will rent space to retailers of any description wishing to trade electronically. In the business park we will rent space to Pastel users who wish to conduct business-to-business e-commerce with their existing and potential customer bases - and also sell to casual shoppers should they wish," said Ferrer.
The shopping and business elements offer users three rental options. The first is a catalogue only option that allows the display of products, descriptions, pictures and prices. The second option adds a facility for order entry and the third provides a facility for secure on-line payment as well.
The content section provides facilities for SMEs to obtain pertinent, expert advice and information on a wide range of business issues including labour legislation, legal matters, accounting, technology and many others. In order to increase the traffic on the site, there will also be a large amount of general content such as local and international news, business news, sport, entertainment and weather.
"Through PlanetPastel we shall provide SMEs with a one-stop gateway to online information and services that are relevant to their business lives, as well as a high-traffic gateway to the business area where their products and services will be on show. We intend to make PlanetPastel the definitive information portal and shopping mall in South Africa."
Ferrer added that the e-commerce solution currently works with Pastel Partner V5 and will also be extended to Pastel SOHO V2 for Windows, due to be released in the first quarter of 2000.
To make use of the PlanetPastel shopping mall and business park, users of Pastel Partner V5, and in due course users of Pastel SOHO V2, will be able to install an e-commerce plug-in.
The plug-in enables users to select items from within their inventory file that they wish to sell in their online store; enter a shopper-friendly web description of up to 2000 characters for the selected items; categorise the selected items into display categories (aisles); and select those customers from within their customer file whom they will allow to make purchases in their online store. Having done this, users then simply click on a button to automatically populate their online store and they are ready to trade.
"It simply means that any person in South Africa can walk into a retail store, buy a Pastel Partner V5 program and be on the verge of creating the next online e-commerce success story," said Ferrer.
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