FORWARDING COMPANY A Hartrodt is currently evaluating new, custom-made computer programmess for the freight industry.
The reason is that no solutions presently available for the freight industry satisfy their IT needs, says general manager Herbert Muller.
Most systems are outdated and cannot be adapted to individual companies. We need programmes with basic functions for the industry, which can be customised for individual companies to reflect their own identities. All forwarding agents have the same basic needs and work with the same basic data, but they handle clients differently and have different ways
of managing their own
companies.
This reflects their particular identities and presently there is no system available in South Africa to cater for this, he said.
A Hartrodt is currently involved in the development of such systems, as are other forwarding agents, according to Muller. There is a major race among South African IT companies, who have realised for the first time this year the potential in the local and international market for such a
programme. Development costs in South Africa are relatively cheap and standards are high.
Muller believes there is a major need for such a programme, particularly in this country, because of the training requirements in the freight industry. A programme such as this will guide the unskilled employee through the normal procedures of forwarding with relative ease and reinforce the education provided by the training personnel. It will assist management with controls for the handling of shipments, helping them to keep tabs on the company's performance, also providing information on the status of shipments.
It will be adaptable to different environments and companies in a very short period of time with virtually no line of code to be written,. he said.
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