Softline has appointed The IQ Business Group as its technology partner in the launch of an SMS messaging service for its Pastel Accounting clients.
Edge-1 Commerce, a Softline company, has integrated Internet and mobile technology with Pastel to generate an SMS service allowing users to send messages directly from within the Pastel V6 and Pastel Xpress systems to customers, suppliers and employees.
Edge-1 is also developing the same service for Brilliant Accounting and VIP HR, two other Softline packages.
Aimed primarily at the small and medium enterprise (SME) market, the software can be used to send bulk personalised communications to customers. Conceived as a means of sending out overdue notices on customer accounts, the system also enables marketing and promotional communications.
Edge-1 Commerce MD Claude Chesselet says there are 10 million cellular phone users in SA but only two million e-mail users. In the SME sector in particular, the bulk of a company`s customers could well be without e-mail, whereas most would have cellphones.
The IQ Business Group`s multi-protocol gateway is at the heart of the partnership between the two groups.
The gateway facilitates the transfer of content from a company`s back-end information sources, such as legacy, enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management, to any mobile device.
The gateway, combined with a middleware suite, facilitates the delivery of content via a host of bearer technologies.
The venture with Softline is being rolled out through IQ`s office integration and technology arm IQ Works, the joint venture established in August 2000 between The IQ Business Group and Reunert.
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