Compu-Clearing sets up support centre in Cape Town

The freight system specialist Compu-
Clearing is set to reappear on the
business stage in the Western Cape,
according to chairman Arnold Garber.
And it is changing technology that has
driven the ‘in-out-in again’ history of the
company’s presence in the Cape province.
“It was technology that made us close
the original Cape Town office,” Garber told
FTW, “and it is technology again that makes
us re-open it.”
Back in the 1980s, Compu-Clearing
decided to open an office in the Mother City
for two reasons.
“The first reason was because – for
our customers to be connected to Compu-
Clearing main-frame servers – they needed
to have a Diginet line all the way to
Johannesburg,” said Garber.
“This made sense to the companies that
had branches all over the country. But,
for enterprises that only had an operation
in Cape Town, it made no sense. So we
decided to set up a server room there.”
The second reason was that the company
wanted to have a help desk there.
“Back in the 80s,” Garber added, “the
concept of phoning a Johannesburg number
– or even a toll-free number – and speaking
to someone in another city, was first of all
expensive. It was also problematic and not
the order-of-the-day.”
But then technology changed.
Firstly, Telkom introduced its ‘frame
relay network’, and customers in Cape
Town only needed to have a line to the
nearest node – which was usually in the
same suburb where they had their offices.
“That,” said Garber, “eliminated the need
for having a server in Cape Town, and we
could concentrate all our computing power
in Johannesburg.
“As far as the help desk was concerned,
because the one in Cape Town was
necessarily smaller than the one in
Johannesburg, many of the queries where
simply referred to Johannesburg and the
Cape Town help desk became a staging
post. This introduced potential delays and
loss of information on the way.
“At the same time, customers began
to directly phone our help desk in
Johannesburg and so there was no need for
a help desk in Cape Town.”
But now there has been a new
technological development which has made
Compu-Clearing again look at opening an
office in Cape Town.
This is due to the development of the
Internet and of programmes such as
‘Go To Meeting’ or ‘Team Viewer’,
according to Garber.
“It is now perfectly possible to run
training for people in Cape Town with the
trainer being in Johannesburg,” he said.
So Compu-Clearing has set up a training
and support centre in Cape Town - which
will run all the company’s courses, but with
the trainers in Johannesburg.
“It works fantastically well,” said Garber.
“You sit in a boardroom in Cape Town with
a big screen and with loud speakers – and
you can converse and interact with the
trainer without any difficulties.”
The official opening of the company’s
centre in Cape Town is still waiting for
air-conditioning to be installed and some
partitions to be sorted out, according to
Garber.
“But, as soon as everything is ready,
Compu-Clearing will do what it does when
there is something happy happening –
have a party!”