GoIndustry-DoveBid Plc : Andre Rautenbach’s cyber office connects GoIndustry DoveBid SA to the world

South African Andre Rautenbach is a prime example of a 'cyber employee' - someone who can make his office anywhere in the world as long as he has a laptop and internet connection. Officially, as Manager of Online Sales, he works for GoIndustry DoveBid's head office in the UK, but with the freedom to be based anywhere in the world, Andre chose to move back to Cape Town earlier this year. While he occasionally occupies a real desk at the offices of the company's South African representative, Go Industry DoveBid SA (Pty) Limited, most days will find him working from home.

A listed company on the London Stock Exchange, GoIndustry Plc has 40 offices across 27 countries, and GoIndustry DoveBid SA (Pty) Limited (a BEE, level 3-rated company) has represented the international operation on the African continent since 2004. Internationally, the company has been involved in online auctions (www.Go-Dove.com) since 2000 and is the world's largest specialist plant and machinery valuation and disposal company. Its South African office has also recently seen the company launch its first-ever dedicated online property auction site, headed up by property professional, Kim Faclier.

The success behind the online enterprise has been GoIndustry DoveBid's proprietary auction software platform which has taken over 10 years to develop at a cost of US$10-million, and ever since Andre joined the company in 2000, he's been involved with it.

Andre remembers: "In the early days, the idea was just to have something based on an eBay model that would sell plant and machinery items.

"We would post items on our website and find a buyer for them. But we were just an advertising platform for the seller. We soon realised that it would be better to manage the entire service and sale process between seller and buyer."

Since its first online auction in 2001, the company has driven its online platform from strength to strength.

"In the early days we were a team of 20 developers, working all hours and all together from our original headquarters in Munich, to get the original platform on line and develop our bidding engine. By 2002 we were in the full swing of conducting online auctions."

These days the technical team still numbers around 20, but they're based in offices across the globe.

Andre elaborates: "Everything we do to run the platform and our business is in-house. This means we can tweak as we go and we've got teams on hand 24/7 to sort out problems immediately."

As with anything new, the biggest obstacle was trying to convince people who were used to live auctions to trusting the online system.

"This was scary for many people," says Andre."Now, for those that have become used to it, it's not an issue at all, and this includes the South African auctions that we've held. For example, when we first started online events for Transnet a few years ago, there might have been five buyers, but these days there are 30 to 40 buyers at each auction.

"In the UK, we probably haven't had any traditional, on-site live auctions for three years now. This has been a complete turnaround from when we were doing just one online auction a month and up to ten live onsite auctions. Globally, the company now does somewhere between 50 and 80 events per month, at least 50 of which will be online."

Andre's own areas of responsibility are the UK, Europe, South Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. This includes anything from dealing with registration and bidding queries from potential buyers to interacting with the company's project managers who may have last-minute changes such as additions or reserve prices coming down.

The company's global network also enables Andre and his co-workers to check on the status of potential buyers anywhere in the world.

Andre explains: "Let's say we have a guesthouse on auction in the Cape and a buyer in Hawaii is interested. That buyer would sign up for the auction and my local equivalent in the USA would process the application according to the records they can access in that part of the world. Our South African office would then be notified that the buyer has been granted access.

"Because of the legalities involved, immovable property auctions do require more work than auctioning a piece of machinery, a bus or even a monitor - with these latter items all you need is a make, model and serial number and you can then Google all the information you need.

"But property buyers need more information and so we will provide them with a link that will take them to Google maps, plus a full information pack as well as what steps they can take should they wish to physically see the property.

"But irrespective of what's being sold, as auctioneers we stay with the entire process and only take our commission once the sale is completed, whether we're selling immovable property or a fleet of buses."

The largest single item sold to date by GoIndustry DoveBid online was a piece of machinery called the Ace of Spades, which bought in £ 2.4million.

Explains Andre: "Basically it's a monster dragline used in the UK coal mining industry that works essentially as a big bucket. We stuck it on auction and luckily we found a buyer. It then had to be dismantled and shipped across the world!"

Other interesting lots have included narrow boats (river boats) for British Waterways as well as London's famous Dome, including everything from its wall and light fittings to the memorabilia inside. Says Andre: "The auction consisted of 15 000 lots in total and took over four days to conduct!

"We also recently did a Nascar series in the Dubai area, which included the actual vehicles, the engines and all the support equipment behind it," says Andre.

GoIndustry DoveBid SA is currently gearing up to sell, by fixed date private treaty (and to close on 30 November 2011 at 13h00) a selection of historical military jet aircraft including English Electric Lightings, Hawker Hunters and BAE Buccaneers. The aircraft were originally assembled for Cape Town's ThunderCity, the largest civilian-owned collection of former jet aircraft in the world.

Concludes Andre: "Interest has already come in from as far afield as Dubai, the USA and Europe. The internet has really enabled the auction industry to become a cyber-village."

For more information contact:

GoIndustry DoveBid SA (Pty) Limited

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