Specialist SAP CRM and NetWeaver consultancy De Villiers Walton Ltd has collaborated with Tangent Communications PLC, a leading integrator of technology, data and marketing strategy, to develop a new business venture that delivers intuitive and user-friendly solutions for enterprise software.

ZUI Ltd brings together the combined core design and technology expertise of the two companies.  The revolutionary framework of the ZUI solution was designed in response to the need that the two companies had identified in the market for a more user-focused approach to enterprise software.

“ZUI technology enhances the usability and augments the functionality of established SAP investments” says Darron Walton, joint managing director of De Villiers Walton.  “This makes it a low-risk, cost-effective way of enhancing your existing SAP deployment.  When you apply ZUI to SAP you quickly see an increase in user productivity, significantly enhanced data quality and customer insight, as well as increased compliance and adherence to protocols.” 

The ZUI team is able to deliver projects in a fraction of the time normally expected for custom development.  The solution is available in two ways; either as a packaged product that leverages the ZUI library of pre-built components for a rapid and inexpensive deployment option or alternatively, ZUI experts will use their Interface Builder Framework to create a customised solution.

A ZUI sales force automation framework recently designed for Heineken UK took into account all of the company’s key business sales processes, including commercial deal modeling, order taking, opportunity management, customer visits, accounts management and marketing activities.  The deployment was given an intuitive and user-friendly interface and fully integrates with SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), utilising standard SAP objects and data.

The solution, which was delivered for testing in just 15 weeks and went live in 21 weeks, successfully supports more than 450 sales managers, directors and support users and utilises ZUI’s Rich Interface Application (RIA) based Interface Builder Framework and SAP service-oriented architecture.  The bespoke user interface requires minimal staff training and nominal long-term support from the help desk.

“It’s staggering how simple the ZUI solution is to use and how user-friendly its interfaces are,” says Graham Cairns, IS programme manager at Heineken UK.  “Take up has been excellent, with little time needed for training.  ZUI has thought quite carefully about how a human interacts with a system.  This is significantly different from the way many CRM systems work.”

Douglas Smith, Heineken UK’s business solutions manager, added: “Thanks to the new, more efficient processes our sales people now have more time for value-add business activities that derive a greater stream of revenue.  The processes are now much more automated with all relevant data in a single place and in a format that can be used by everyone, which has resulted in greater efficiency.”