SQR Software was formed in 1994. Development of the farmer version of CanePro began in January 1995 in response to a request by sugarcane farmers for an agricultural management tool. Thus, from the start, CanePro was developed in partnership with the sugar industry aimed at meeting the specific needs of sugarcane growing operations. The initial farmer version of CanePro – designed for a single user on a Paradox database – was released in 1997 to South African sugarcane farmers. Adoption of “Farmer CanePro” has been rapid and the number of users continues to grow. There are currently over 250 sugarcane farmers in South Africa and Swaziland using “Farmer CanePro”.
Our second software package “Estate CanePro” was developed to target the needs of the large corporate sugarcane operations. This estate version, built on Microsoft SQL Server, allows for multiple-user access, database security and includes many other database features that were not necessary in the farmer version. In addition, agricultural decision-support capabilities, for example the harvest planning module and resource planning, were developed to assist with decision-making on tasks unique to large commercial sugarcane operations.
In 2003 SQR Software formed a partnership with INSYSS, a software development company based in Guatemala, to market and support CanePro in Latin America. CanePro was translated into Spanish and marketed in Central America. We currently have clients in Costa Rica and Guatemala.
In 2008 SQR Software (Australia) was established in Brisbane. Our office in Australia is ideally located to service the Australian and South East Asian sugar industries.
SQR Software is committed to improving and further developing the functionality of CanePro. This is an ongoing process aimed at meeting the changing needs of our customers.
Directors
Egmont Goedeke – Managing Director
Egmont is a founding member of SQR Software and holds a Computer Science Degree from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Since completing his studies, Egmont has been involved in developing software solutions for agricultural industries. His first projects in the livestock industry led to the development of a Broiler Growth model for poultry and WinFeed - one of the first Windows-based livestock feed formulation solutions, still in use today. Over the past 15 years, Egmont has been involved in the development, marketing and implementation of CanePro and CaneSuppli. He has managed many of CanePro’s implementations in Africa, and over this time period has acquired considerable experience in the workings of commercial sugarcane operations.
Mark McGlinchey – Systems Director
Mark has worked in the Southern African Sugar Industry since 1992, the first nine years as part of a multi-discipline team developing and testing sugarcane crop simulation techniques. As a consultant he has been extensively involved in Southern and Central Africa providing specialist advice on yield benchmarking, yield estimates, feasibility studies and irrigation advice using computer simulation tools. His particular interest lies in increasing the development and adoption of these modelling techniques in commercial agriculture. At SQR Software he is responsible for agricultural decision support systems development and support.
Mark Goedeke – Technical Director
Mark is another founding member of SQR Software. He holds a B.Comm degree from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Mark has worked exclusively on CanePro since its inception in 1996. He is SQL Server database certified and works on the development and support of Estate CanePro.