|
Background
Camsoft specifically chose Maximizer Software as a partner
for their CRM solutions as a result of their own extensive
investigations into suitable best-of-breed suppliers of CRM
software. Maximizer has proven to be a very successful and
major part of Camsoft's business. Camsoft have proved their
success with Maximizer since they have achieved some of the
top awards for sales of Maximizer in the whole of EMEA,
against stiff opposition from the UK and Mainland Europe. Staff at Camsoft have collectively more years experience in
CRM than almost any other local provider and stable management
structures in the business have resulted in the retention of
key staff for many years. Camsoft solutions have also
achieved the highest product authorisation status with
Maximizer and the company is amongst the top sales
organisations representing Maximizer. Camsoft have a "CRM
fast track" option to enable users to gain rapid benefits
from CRM, whilst running a full project solution
implementation alongside.
Camsoft clients using Maximizer, range in
size from SOHO users to large corporates with several
hundred licenced users. This experience has enabled Camsoft
to assist customers in achieving a much faster ROI.
The company has Black Empowerment status.
Office locations
Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban
Territory covered
South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria.
Midmarket CRM is
complex
The South African economy is, in
many ways, dominated by smaller companies. These smaller
companies have generally been slower than enterprise competitors to
embrace certain aspects of customer management. This means
that something of a gulf has opened up in terms of IT
infrastructure and capability between the largest organisations and smaller rivals who must rely on other
elements of competitive advantage.
It
is well understood that smaller companies do not necessarily
have smaller problems (other than integration to legacy
systems where there are often far fewer to deal with) in
terms of how they service their markets. They need to
provide levels of customer access and response that are
comparable with their bigger competitors. In a multi-channel
world it is not be good enough to offer disconnected and
incoherent experiences to the customer. Nor can
organisations function properly if their data is not
controlled, and internal processes are historical anomalies
that foster waste and fail to identify or capitalize on
opportunities.
To remain competitive, smaller companies must
adopt increasingly sophisticated solutions. The challenge is
to acquire and implement the appropriate systems at an
acceptable cost, within an acceptable time frame and with
the correct alignment to business strategy. The history of
CRM tells us that getting it right involves considerable
thought before hand and expert assistance during the
implementation.
Company Capability
Camsoft's integration capabilities and
development expertise are significant among CRM partners of
both Maximizer and other CRM products in that these
added-value services allow Camsoft to differentiate
themselves from the competition and provide additional
customized solutions where other companies are unable to. Camsoft has a team of developers who provide custom-written
add-on software to Maximizer in addition to "off-the-shelf"
solutions, such as applications that integrate Maximizer CRM
with Accpac and Pastel Accounting and SAP, among others. One
particularly successful add-on application to Maximizer has
been Camsoft's MaxSMS, a bulk SMS messaging solution.
A key aspect of Camsoft's offering is the
company's CRM Web Portal capabilities. An increasing number
of customers are demanding a Web-based interface for their
CRM solution, whether this is for their internal employee
interactions or dealings with their customers. Camsoft's
strength is in being able to provide these solutions, as
well as add-ons and customized developments, putting the
company in a good position with these customers.
Camsoft also differentiates itself from other
Maximizer and Competing CRM solution providers by offering
free electronic and telephone technical support for the
lifetime of the products purchased. This has proved popular
with customers and the excellent service provided to clients
by Camsoft is borne out by a recent Customer Satisfaction
Survey* conducted by Maximizer Software where by it was
revealed that 88% of Camsoft's customers that responded to
the survey found no complaint with Camsoft's service.
*This was an independent survey conducted by
Maximizer in 2005.
Camsoft offers integrated CRM solutions to a
wide range of companies of all sizes, from multinational
corporations to small, local family-run businesses and
Camsoft's expertise in vertical markets include sectors such
as IT, Manufacturing, Recruitment, Banking & Finance. As an
IT company itself, Camsoft has a good understanding of this
sector and has numerous customers in the hardware, software
and IT consulting and services business. Being a
technology-driven sector, Camsoft has been required to
provide innovative and advanced solutions to these companies
which usually include a strong web-based component to their
CRM solutions. Many of these IT customers do business with
each other and rely on standardized forms and back-office
processing systems to integrate their systems. Camsoft
understands the challenges this presents to a CRM system
from having worked extensively on such projects.
Most of Camsoft's business is derived from
referrals, and being aware of this, management makes every
effort to ensure that the customer’s experience is a good
one from the very beginning. This starts with the initial
contact with the customer in that every meeting is properly diarised and logged, and the customer is kept informed at
all times as to how their enquiry is being managed and who
at Camsoft is assisting them. This is important in order to
manage the customer's expectations and ensure that Camsoft
understands their needs at all times. The customer is also
made aware of all the services that Camsoft can offer them,
what they entail and what investment is required by the
customer to avail themselves of these services.
A customer manager is always assigned to the
customer who will then be the first contact at all times
wherever possible, with all interactions recorded in
Camsoft's in-house Maximizer CRM system to ensure that
should the customer's contact at Camsoft not be available
for any reason then another person can assist them with the
full knowledge of the customer's history of interactions
with Camsoft. Every aspect of the implementation of
Maximizer for a customer is project-managed and the client
is kept informed at every step with escalation of
outstanding tasks to senior management at Camsoft to ensure
that there is seamless service.
Telephonic and electronic technical support
is free and available most hours. For customers requiring a
24 hour SLA this is also made available. Should a customer
feel that they are not getting the service they deserve
from Camsoft they are encouraged to bring the matter to the
MD's attention or Maximizer Software themselves who will
then assist in ensuring the problem is resolved. Other professional services offered by Camsoft include installation and maintenance services, user
training (both at the client's premises and an off-site
training facility), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), free
telephonic and electronic support, CRM consulting
services, pre- and post-installation, on-site technical
support services, custom solution and product development
and integration into other systems. Examples of product
development include Camsoft's free MaxSMS utility that
integrates seamlessly with Maximizer and the company's integration
application toolkits for Accpac and Pastel Accounting.
Camsoft has also provided numerous custom Integration
solutions for various other platforms, such as SAP, and has
voice telephony and Website solutions for Maximizer's CRM
range of products.
Key Personnel
Grant Chapman,
Managing Director
Introduced to programming while completing
his MSc in Engineering at the University of Cape Town, Grant
started Camsoft shortly after graduating and has maintained
a hands on approach in all aspects of the business during
its 12-year existence.
Mercia van der Westhuizen,
Financial Director
Has been with the business for 7
years. Previously disadvantaged prior to democracy in South
Africa, Mercia's management of Camsoft's finances has
contributed to the debt-free financial status the company
enjoys today.
Mark Annett,
National Sales Manager & Gauteng branch manager
Has been actively involved in the software
sales and CRM Business for 8 years. Mark's ambition and
drive has resulted in a major expansion of Camsoft out of
the Gauteng office and an increasing amount of business
throughout Africa.
Yatin Narothum,
National Technical Manager
Provides high-level support to Camsoft's larger clients and
is especially skilled on Microsoft's SQL database. Yatin has
a wealth of experience on the different platforms that
Maximizer supports and his networking and client/server
environment knowledge has proved invaluable.
Sue Fester, Sales
Manager
Is the longest serving staff member at Camsoft, having been
with the company for 11 years. Sue specialises in managing
Camsoft's reseller channel and has been a mainstay of the
business with her expert client relationship skills in both
the CRM and Data Security divisions of the business.
Nelia Roberts,
Senior Training Manager
Has completed numerous training programmes in her quest to
provide Camsoft's clients with the best training possible.
Nelia has been with Camsoft for 5 years and in addition to
her exceptional product knowledge on Maximizer, Nelia has
very strong project management skills.
Anthony Cowie,
Regional Technical Manager
Has been with the business for 5 years.
Anthony has extensive Data Security and CRM experience and
can be relied upon to resolve some of the seemingly most
intractable technical problems. Anthony has proved very
popular with customers that have SLAs (Service Level
Agreements) with Camsoft due to his attention to detail and
thoroughness in ensuring maximum operability of the customer's Maximizer
installation.
John Lombela, Head
of Integration and Development Team
John puts his extensive programming graduate
skills to use in Customizing Maximizer's CRM solutions and
integrating the CRM into other back office systems such as
SAP, Pastel Accounting and Accpac. John also has much
experience with Web Forms.
Graeme Niss,
Has an MCSE and contributes a wide range of
IT skills to Camsoft's technical services team. Originally
an electrician by training, Graeme has strong hardware and
networking knowledge that compliments his software skills
for a turnkey approach to problem solving.
Customer Management
Methodology
Camsoft recognises that every time the
company interacts with a customer, the customer's experience
with dealing with the company leads to an enriching or a
deterioration of that customer's perception of the company.
This perception is what motivates the customer to refer new
business, purchase additional products and services or
conversely complain and take their business elsewhere. It is
for this reason that Camsoft continuously monitors the
customer's experience when dealing with the company, and
tries to identify what is most important to that customer to
ensure that the company and its people, products, processes
and culture are aligned across all of these "touch points"
to best serve the customer. This information is all managed
through Camsoft's in-house Maximizer CRM solution so that
every person interacting with a customer has all of the
necessary information at their fingertips. This helps to ensure that
the customer's experience continues to be a good one. By
doing this the company can also manage the optimal future
experience for individual customers, to the benefit of the
customer and ultimately the company through providing the
appropriate responses to the customer's requests. Management
continuously strives to make staff aware of how important
the customer experience is and in addition to regular
feedback sessions individual customers are contacted from
time to time to determine what their experience has been.
This has been particularly important and part of Camsoft's
culture for some time in their technical services department,
where it has been important that customers receive the
appropriate technical support and are happy with the results
of the work done. To this end Camsoft has implemented
standards and performance measurement to ensure that the
desired customer experience is effectively communicated and
sustained throughout the enterprise. The aim at Camsoft is
for the entire organisation to have a share division of the
optimal customer experience, where "random" experiences give
way to carefully planned, repeatable and exceptional
experiences.
Training
Camsoft offer straining on all of their
solutions in the main centres of the country and can provide
on-demand client specific training in outlying areas.
Camsoft's trainers have received certifications in the
highly regarded Train-the-Trainer programmes, and where
required, custom training can be provided on request.
Management are firm advocates of providing new customers with
training on product use wherever possible to ensure that the
customer reaps the most reward from their software
investment. This has been borne out by the experience that
the most satisfied customers have usually been those that
took the time to properly familiarize their staff with the
new software solution when purchasing Maximizer.
Technical Options
CRM Solutions:
Maximizer Professional Edition
Maximizer Enterprise CRM
Maximizer eCRM
Other CRM solutions provided by
Camsoft include,
MaxSMS and MaxToolkit for the integration of
Maximizer with accounting solutions such as Accpac and
Pastel Accounting.
Data Security Solutions
provided by Camsoft:
Anti-Virus & Anti-Spam Solutions:
Microsoft's Forefront for MS Exchange,
Sharepoint, SMTP
Commtouch's Advanced Spam Defense
F-Secure for workstations, servers and mobile
devices
Aladdin eSafe content security
eScan & Mail Scan
IQBate's Adonis and Meridius content security
appliances
NetWhyz Network Auditing Solution.
Awards
Camsoft is also a Microsoft Certified
Security Solutions partner.
Hewson Assessment
In our view Camsoft have established
themselves as a CRM Leader in South Africa. Their approach
to understanding the Business needs of their customers is
well thought through and works in practice. The company has
a good depth of technical strength and a good track record in
delivering projects. In particular, we believe that Camsoft's involvement in data security technology will be a
valuable platform for providing necessary skills and
services as CRM projects become more complex and demanding
on supplier abilities.
We believe that Camsoft superior knowledge of
CRM theory will continue to give them competitive advantage
in the South African market despite much increased
competition as CRM penetration in South Africa accelerates.
About
Hewson Group
Through research and publications, Hewson
Group became perhaps the best known CRM analysts in Europe
during the nineties. Amongst their publications were The
Impact of Computerised Sales and Marketing Systems
(1991); Emerging Information Technologies (1993, with
Professor Malcolm McDonald and Dr. Hugh Wilson); Towards
Excellence in Marketing Strategy (with W Hewson, Professor
Malcolm McDonald and Dr. Hugh Wilson); The Business use of
the Internet (1997). Also established were the Sales
Productivity Benchmarking Group with PricewaterhouseCoopers
and Sistrum - a Europe wide CRM forum.
In the last five years Hewson Group has reinforced
it’s reputation for accurate market size and trend
information and has been involved with some of the world's
largest vendors for both strategic advisory work and for
Merger and Acquisitions assignments.
In 2001 Hewson Group became involved in
leading edge work in two areas: Public Sector and Corporate
Reporting standards. Hewson published CRM in the Public
Sector in 2002 followed by Towards a Citizen Centric
Authority: Beyond CRM, E Govt and The Modernizing Agenda (W Hewson, A Meekings;
May 2004).
Hewson Group
Carlton House, Market Place
Reepham, Norfolk,
NR104JJ
Tel:+44 (0)1603879191
nick@hewson.co.uk
www.hewson.co.uk
Maximizer Customers
Maximizer has 2780 Enterprise customers in
the EMEA region with a total of 32,400 seats installed.
Implementations cover all sectors, including the public
sector, and there is over 140 customers with 50 plus users.
Projects range from 5 use systems in quite small companies
to substantial projects with well known brands such as
Scottish Water and Waitrose.
Maximizer Contact Details
Maximizer Software Ltd
Bridge House
Bridge Avenue
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL61RR
United Kingdom
Tel:+44 (0)1628587777
Fax:+44 (0)1628587778
info@max.co.uk
www.max.co.uk
Camsoft Solutions Contact Details
Camsoft
Solutions (Gauteng)
40 Eighth
Avenue, Woodmead Ext, 2146
Gauteng, South Africa
Tel:+27 (0) 11 803 3269
Fax:+27 (0) 86 618 3091
Camsoft
Solutions (Cape)
40 Bayview Road, Wynberg, 7800
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel:+27 (0) 21 797 4845
Fax:+27 (0) 21 797 4744
info@camsoft.co.za
www.camsoft.co.za
 |
