Johannesburg, 19 May 2000
With technology becoming more and more complex, it is becoming increasingly difficult for organisations to exploit the potential of their IT systems.
Meryl Malcomess, marketing director of Syspro, says there is widespread confusion over the implications of the latest technological concepts. "Acronyms abound," she points out. "B2B, COM, XML - these terms appear to thick and fast it can make your head spin.
"Any organisation's priority is to achieve its business objectives, not to waste time and effort on understanding the technology which helps it do so. By removing the complexities of the electronic age, Syspro makes technology transparent, enabling people to get on with their work instead of pondering the relevance of XML."
The hype and inevitable buzzwords surrounding the Internet and e-commerce have caused incredible interest and enthusiasm. According to Malcomess, the reality is that e-commerce will bring benefits to some organisations and little or no benefit to others. For example, it will have a far-reaching impact on the ability of organisations to trade in electronic marketplaces.
"E-commerce is simply another technology to support a medium-or long-term business strategy -- don't let anyone tell you otherwise! It should be implemented to support and extend current business processes," she says.
"If you are going to transact business over the Internet, it's critical that the entire history of each transaction is reflected in your accounting database. To protect everyone involved, trading over the Internet must be as secure as more traditional methods. This means that any web-based solution needs to fully integrate with the back-office solution without threatening the integrity of your ERP database."
Syspro recognises that customers need to construct purpose-built web applications, and that its IMPACT Encore ERP system needs to exchange documents seamlessly over the Internet with other ERP products. The company devised a long-term strategy to make this possible, part of which entailed committing product development to two key Microsoft technologies - COM and the BizTalk initiative.
"COM (Component Object Model) allows massive flexibility when it comes to automating processes in IMPACT Encore. And BizTalk provides a framework to send and receive documents across the Internet," Malcomess says. "Clearly, both these technologies are critical to keeping IMPACT Encore at the forefront of development."
Already, there are web applications which integrate tightly with IMPACT Encore. These systems enable sales orders to be placed, and the status of sales orders and statements to be queried, over the Internet.
"All of this - and more - is already available Version 5.0, the latest release of IMPACT Encore. We will be conducting full demonstrations of Version 5.0 at Computer Faire," she says.
"Other exciting features of IMPACT Encore Version 5.0 include support for Microsoft's SQL Server, tight integration with Microsoft productivity tools, improved adherence to Windows standards - and we will run your business too!
"Version 5.0 sets the standard for future versions of IMPACT Encore. Technologies such as COM allow for far greater connectivity possibilities than ever before. The BizTalk initiative, aimed at enabling business-to-business e-commerce, is only possible with a component framework such as COM. Customised web applications, also, will be based on COM technology -- yet another reason to remain on the latest technology."
IMPACT Encore is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system designed by leading local software house Syspro. A 22-year-old company with a track record of supporting its customers' business objectives, Syspro's accounting, manufacturing and distribution products are used in more than 45 countries.
IMPACT Encore enables a company to exercise complete control over the planning, forecasting, management and distribution facets of the business. It is a comprehensive solution which is simple to maintain, thereby maximising time for business management and profit generation.
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