Karl: First and foremost, I'm an optometrist, and the partner of a small chain of eye care practices in South Africa. I also co-manage community based project in several African Countries called SeeVA.org.
This project consists of doing thorough eye examinations for both children and adults, as well as, making, and assembling optically compliant eye wear in rural areas. In South Africa, we have 15 branches across the country in the three provinces, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape, the three largest provinces in Southern Africa.
Interviewer: Initiating the Moffatt Optical Eyecare Group was an awesome idea, Could you tell us about when the company started, as well as how your company has grown as a firm in terms of the number of customers?
Karl: We started the company in 1980, and with the help of our customers and employees, we've been able to face and overcome many
challenges. Initially the Optometry firms in South Africa are often complex because it is a complicated field. Optometry is a blend of retail and clinical medicine with a service and product component.
Underpinning this is the need for good customer care and communications. We are bound by several national regulations governing the health professionals. By following the rules, we've built trust in the South African market and will continue to innovate our offering.
Currently we are planning the 2023 year with an eye on customer being at the forefront of our focus. We envisage that we will more than likely leapfrog our competitors through technology and product innovations.
Interviewer: Awesome, It’s an nice journey and service. Finding the ideal approach to process management in the present internet age is a concern. Kindly explain to us the software that was in place before the Zoho application was implemented.
Karl: Yes, It is. In the initial stage we have used legacy systems in the industry. These legacy software systems are installed on workstations via a server located in the same physical location. And we began to realize this was becoming a significant issue because we had to maintain and upgrade the servers, manage delicate network infrastructures, and install large backup power supplies to ensure the infrastructure remains running during the ongoing-rolling-blackouts we are experiencing.
As the company grows, one spends more time on the servers and the back end, than you are really assisting clients or expanding the firm.
During the last decade we determined it was time to build a solution on good technology that works and is proven, that I can work with a team of people who can sustain the way I work and to help improve the business's performance. Therefore, we started to develop other technology.
During 2015, We started research on an ERP-type system. We ultimately developed and spent two years developing a major ERP solution.
Interviewer: Thank you for sharing with us why you went with the first application. What was the hardest part you had with the old software, and what about it made you think about switching to Zoho Application?
Karl: We worked on the system for about two years the system was just not working the way that we needed to work, we felt that the
architecture of the system was probably not that compatible with our needs. The developers and partner didn’t fully grasped the financial risk we undertook to implement this system, in a company like ours the relationship with our customers is important and implementing a system that wasn’t fully tested created enormous risk to the customer relations and financial position of the company.
In the end we sustained huge damages to and abandoned the project. Initially we were only utilized Creator and Analytics to interface with our legacy systems. At that time, I was introduced to Veera, who introduced me to Zoho one. I stopped using every other email provider and switched entirely to Zoho One. We ended our service relationships with major software companies like Google, Microsoft, and Mimecast in exchange for Zoho One.
We switched over to using Zoho one for all our needs, email, domains, mail hygiene and so forth. We then started to explore the Zoho one's
capabilities. while we were doing that, I was talking with Veera about the possibility of rebuilding our own system. He explained about vertical CRM which we could personalize to our industry's demands.
Interviewer: As you have explored and utilized several business applications, what is your favourite feature that differentiates Zoho applications is unique to previous software?
Karl:We want to be in the cloud, this creates an opportunity to scale effectively while reducing costs and risk. Cloud offers a large variety of
providers such as AWS, AZURE and so forth. We love that we don't have to be tied down by Ethernet and network cables, which is cumbersome, untidy, expensive and an issue when building a new branch.
We were able to run the system off a reasonably fast internet connection, Wi-Fi, and a device, laptop, or phone. So, the best thing about Zoho-like products is that they are based on the internet's cloud, and we can start freeing up money right away. To give you an idea, when we open a new practice or branch, we spend anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000 to set up the internet and networking infrastructure. With Zoho One, all we need is a good Wi-Fi system and a 4G/5G or high-speed fibre connection that comes into the router which is much cheaper and easier to deploy and maintain. In the event of a problem, there will always be a backup router or internet connection which is great for redundancy.
The other thing is that, since it's cloud-based, we're getting rid of all the servers in all our branches. We can have cloud printing, devices in the branch, better reporting, and track the business's performance more accurately and in real-time.
This means that we can see how the business is doing every day without having to connect to a server, download reports, and then combine the reports for each branch.
Everything is real-time and, on the fly, – so to speak. You know that as a business grows, it needs better technology, we know the cloud system is the best way to go in terms of scalability, so it's easy for us to grow the business.
Interviewer: Great to hear about the uniqueness of the Zoho Application from you. So, how did implementing the Zoho product enhance your business process?
Karl: We have used Zoho One for over four years, we've quietly introduced tools like Zoho desk, campaigns, and marketing. The end-product we're producing with really excites us. We assume that once the front-end system is complete, we will be able to use all of its features, and I believe our team is excited to bring this into the company.
From a consumer perspective, desk or cliq or any of the services even email is simpler to communicate directly with branches. Customer relationship improves with every step of implementation. We're not using crm yet, as we are waiting the completion of the new front-end, currently we are utilizing other Zoho One's apps. Still we're witnessing a great performance.
In our industry, we require proper billing, reporting, and internal controls inside a practice or office. Thus, our challenge was to centrally manage all orders and verify that everything was invoiced without "work falling through the gaps" or "money sliding through the cracks" (i.e., money being lost).
We contacted Veera to create a unified ordering system. This has been running for four years. This solution improves organizational reporting and ordering controls. These ordering mechanisms let us track firm performance. Because it easily links to analytics and gives us the necessary business intelligence. The BI through Analytics has allowed us to spot opportunities and help us make strategic decisions that have paid off over the last year.
Interviewer: Where did you hear about Senthuraa Technologies and what prompted you to choose our service?
Karl: I needed somebody to help me with Creator for complicated scripting that needed to be done at the backend of the application. And some of the architecture was sort of out of my scope of abilities. I obviously didn't know the product at the time and felt that I needed to get hold of somebody.
I think I just looked him up through the internet and found Veera and ended up creating the application that we needed. Veera was quick to develop and helped get the application into the company in record time.
Interviewer: Please accept our sincere gratitude for your confidence in selecting us. What is your favourite aspect of our service?
Karl:What I really like is that you people are stationed anywhere from three and a half to four hours ahead of me, which is one of your biggest advantages. Therefore, I am certain that by the time I get up in the morning and sit down at my laptop, you guys will have worked on whatever job I asked for three to four hours.
Moreover, it provides me with the chance to catch up with the Senthuraa team, interact with them, and make any necessary revisions. The
Senthuraa team is constantly available and ready for help through email or WhatsApp, which is another aspect I really like.
When creating a new module or application, the Senthuraa Team rapidly understood my needs and the processes, architecture of my
requirements. This saves time and ultimately gets the development completed sooner.
Additionally, you comprehended what was required and what needed to be done quickly. We exchange the necessary documents, the workflow, and ideas while communicating over WhatsApp. And the job is finished right away. And I thought that was fun.
In conclusion, I appreciate Senthuraa's efforts and commitment. I also like receiving an opening report and a closing report each morning and evening from Senthuraa. It is very beneficial and refreshing, in my opinion. I think it's crucial to that sort of development.
Interviewer: Thank you for your valuable words, Karl. Finally, what do you think is important in software system for organization.
Karl: When one is talking about any software system in any organization, what is important is
●ERP with stable architecture.
●Cloud Based System
●Accurate financial report in real time.
●Friendly - User Interface.
Interviewer: Thank You for your valuable time, We wish you the very best in your future endeavors.