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