Find the Right Service Software for Your Company

Reviewing the best specialty equipment service software for your company can be very time consuming and frustrating. When you do a Google search everyone claims to have scheduling and dispatching software. It gets very confusing and they all seem to look the same.

So how do you find the right service software that fit’s your company’s specific needs?

If you take a few minutes to review and answer these questions you will be better prepared to start your software interview process and quickly eliminate those that don’t qualify based on your requirements.

Today there are two major types of service software programs. Rental Service Software that you subscribe to monthly using the internet and service software that you can Purchase to install and operate on your office computer(s).

Is rental subscription software the right choice for my company?

  • We will be 100% dependent on the internet working –it must be fast and reliable to use our rental software. When the internet is slow or not working we know that we will not be able to use our rental software.
  • What is the 5 year cost of using this rental software? is it reasonable and affordable for our company? Get quotes for all of your costs, set-up, training and monthly fees. Find out the minimum required term in months?
  • We are aware that we will not control our private data, history or back-up data. We are aware that all of our private customer data will be exposed on cloud computers which may be in the US or outside the US. We are also aware that we will not keep a back-up copy of our private data in our possession since it is controlled by the rental software company.
  • We know that the rental software company will create our customer invoices in their software, and be required to import or sync them into our QuickBooks software. We are aware that QuickBooks is not creating our customer invoices. We know that importing and sync’d invoices into QuickBooks may lead to duplicate customers and even missing invoices in our QuickBooks. We are responsible for managing this daily process and correcting any errors in QuickBooks as a result.

Is purchasing the service software the right choice for my company?

  •  We have Windows computers or a Windows network to install the software. We know we can also use a hosting service with our QuickBooks Software and the Fireline Service Software.
  • We are not dependent on the internet. Our software will be installed on our computers and we do not need to depend on the internet to use our software.
  • Are the software costs affordable and reasonable for purchase or making financing payments?
  • We will control the security of all our customer and private data and back-up.
  • Our customer invoices are created INSIDE QuickBooks. There is no import or sync needed.
  • In summary, if you are considering service software for your company it is very important to address these questions first before you arrange software demonstrations.
    The final step is to request a contact the software vendors that you want to review. Based on your requirements from above, ask them how their software works and their pricing for # office users, # of field service technicians users, set-up fees, training fees and all other monthly fees plus the minimum monthly rental term required. If they meet your requirements you should proceed with the software review.

 

Paul Jacques has been a consultant and service software specialist for over 1200 contractors since 1990. For additional information regarding service software contact Paul at 661-254-8511