iAfrica.com

“iAfrica wanted to do a better job, to not drop the ball and to maintain full attention to detail. Through its use of Maximizer, it is now achieving that goal”
– Colin Hastie, Director of iAfrica

Company Information
Industry: Internet
Location: South Africa
Product: Maximizer Enterprise 9

One of the biggest ISPs in South Africa, iafrica.com offers a dynamic mix of content, services, community and commerce. The company delivers over 9 million pages of internet content in an average month to an estimated audience of more than 500,000 individuals. iafrica.com’s core audience is high earning individuals with high internet usage. Through iafrica.com users receive content across 19 different interest areas including News, Business, Sport, Entertainment, Personal Finance and Lifestyle, enabled by advertising support, hosting and ecommerce revenues.

Rapid response unit
As the company – formed in 1997 – grew, it realised it needed to stay on top of its customer interaction history in order to respond promptly to customer needs and enquiries, and to follow a proper sales process. Through its recent implementation of Maximizer Enterprise 9.0, iAfrica is already enjoying faster and improved access to information “It’s great to have the information we need at our fingertips,” comments Director Colin Hastie.

“Light bulb moments”
Colin concedes that there is always a “speed of acceptance” issue with newly introduced IT systems, but has been greatly encouraged by the early “light bulb moments” as the company’s five Maximizer users realise the time and effort the system will save them by giving them easy access to customer histories and information. “It needs to be planned carefully but it’s a very Intuitive, easy-to-use system – a piece of cake, really. It’s also quite bossy and just keeps reminding you until you’ve done whatever it is you need to do!”

History lessons
“It’s a good feeling when a customer calls and speaks to someone who has not dealt with them before and that person can help them better because they have the whole history in front of them. It happened to me and the customer was impressed,” continues Colin, who adds that he is confident that in the next couple of months the system will be an entrenched part of the business.

Any time, any place, anywhere…
Helping iAfrica ease into using Maximizer is Maximizer Software’s South African business partner Max-Active SA. Max-Active SA’s Celeste Clark helped the company look at its business processes and map out how it wanted to use Maximizer prior to installation, and is now available to help smooth over any issues. “We can pick up the phone with any issue, at any time – day or night – and they help us out,” enthuses Colin. With the first implementation phase complete and bedded in, implementation of the SFA part of Maximizer is now on the radar

Final verdict
iAfrica wanted to do a better job, to not drop the ball and to maintain full attention to detail. Through its use of Maximizer, it is now achieving that goal.