"This broadens our Y2K solution considerably, giving our resellers and dealers a very powerful yet inexpensive toolkit for customers to ensure that their PCs can function properly after the Year 2000," says Anton Herbst, general manager SDD Software.
"It`s a massive market for our Channel partners to focus on in the coming year. It`s estimated there are in excess of 2.5 million PCs in South Africa that are not Y2K compliant yet."
Date-A-Fix is a universal automated Y2K test and fix toolkit that users need to make sure their PC`s Real Time Clock (RTC) and BIOS (the set of encoded read-only programs that control hardware devices) will continue to function properly after the Year 2000.
"It`s proved to be a very popular solution in the UK where numerous Financial Times 500 companies customers are in the process of deploying the Date-A-Fix solution," says Owen Francis, managing director of Sizwe Information Holdings which recently secured the rights to replicate and distribute the software in South Africa.
"We appointed SDD to distribute Date-A-Fix because of the size of its Channel and because it is considered to be a distributor that brings considerable value to the marketplace particularly in the support it gives its resellers."
Date-A-Fix is a device driver solution rather than a TRS solution such as is the case with most similar products in the field. This means that it cannot be automatically disabled by Windows 95 and 98 to free up memory - something which can render PCs temporarily non-Y2K compliant again with potential catastrophic consequences.
Date-A-Fix software, which has been awarded Five Stars by Secure Computing for overall performance and Full marks by Solace Consultants in their analysis of Year 2000 Hardware Analysis Tools and Solutions, works by constantly monitoring the PC`s usage of the RTC and BIOS and adjusting outputs as necessary. The toolkit also audits a PC system`s software library and scans programs individually for potential RTC usage.
"Despite being a very sophisticated Y2K solution, the desktop version retails for less than R300. We`ve been able to keep costs low because we have replication rights on both the desktop and network versions," says Francis.
"As a black empowerment company and as our contribution to the Government`s Y2K initiative, we`re offering special preferential prices, via the reseller channel, for those small to medium sized (SME) companies that are utilising the Government`s Y2K support centre facilities to ready themselves for the Year 2000."
In addition to the SME market, Date-A-Fix`s market base worldwide includes the insurance, Government, public and local authorities, utilities, shipping and transport, consultancies, telecommunications and retail sectors.
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