News & Media

In another first for South Africa, the SCC has switched from the out dated DOS system to the technologically advanced new Delphi™ system. DOS systems are the dinosaurs of computer technology. Yet, until December last year, the Sandton Convention Centre (SCC), like many venues in South Africa, maintained excellent service levels while managing its events with such a legacy system.

“Delphi’s functionality is ideally suited to the SCC’s size, business model and level of complexity as far as events management is concerned,” explains Johann. The system is extremely user-friendly and provides seamless interaction with MS Office applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook. “The Centre doesn’t manage events in silos anymore, but the complete lifecycle involved in the process is now integrated – from lead generation to inventory management and supplier integration.” A particularly useful feature is that the sales function is fully integrated with the event management activities.

This system will have real benefits to clients such as quicker response times to enquiries, quotes and contracts. Besides sporting a CRM management programme, where client’s details are stored on the system for quick access, the system allows mobile access to ensure that SCC sales staff can connect to the booking system via their mobiles and book and quote a customer at a touch of a button. Other benefits include e-proposals and colour drawings and floor plans.

SCC started to manually recapture events data on the new system during December last year. Johann says that it was the ideal learning curve: “The volume of data was small enough to make manual recapturing feasible, yet big enough to allow the staff to learn the new system.” The new system went live on 2 February.

“Intense staff training was met with enthusiasm and full support from Newmarket International”, says Debra De Sousa, Operations Director of the SCC. The Sandton Convention Centre is the only conference venue in South Africa using the Delphi™ system. That, however, seems set to change in the near future as the possibility of implementing the system by other groups seems to be a growing possibility.

Delphi™ is supplied by Newmarket International Inc, a UK-based company. The system has over 80 000 users worldwide, with over 13 000 installations in 110 countries. The SSC system support is handled through a call centre, with technicians solving problems either telephonically or via remote access.

Editor’s note:

Sandton Convention Centre is a multi award-winning venue, located in the heart of Sandton’s hotel, business and entertainment district. The centre offers easy access to more than 5 000 hotel rooms (ranging from economy to deluxe), is adjacent to some of the country’s premium shopping and entertainment complexes (Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square), and provides 10 600 secure parking bays.

Sandton Convention Centre offers unlimited potential with over 22 000m² of state-of-the-art meeting, exhibition and special event space. Purpose-built to international standards, the convention centre is able to host meetings, conferences, exhibitions and special events of virtually any size and nature. It offers some of the most advanced technology available for convention and exhibition centres anywhere in the world. Multiple events can be staged simultaneously on four main levels, and 10 000 visitors can be accommodated at any one time. A team of highly trained staff is on hand to provide support services.

Its central position in Sandton provides easy access to Johannesburg International Airport, the Sandton CBD, major hotels and shopping centres.

Sandton Convention Centre is managed by Southern Sun Hotel Interests and was developed by Tsogo Sun, a dynamic partnership between Southern Sun, Africa’s leading hotel group, and Tsogo Sun Investments, a leading black empowerment group.

For further media information, please contact:

Lilane Swanepoel – Baird’s Renaissance, on (011) 504-4000 / Cell : 083 255 6771
e-mail : lilane@bairds.co.za