Cinema Delivery is a messenger service located in the Southern California area. Until recently, the company used a manual system for entering invoices, tracking deliveries and monitoring payments. While there have been several companies offering computer software geared to the needs of the delivery industry, Cinema Delivery resisted implementing one of these because of the expense associated with the acquisition of the hardware and software, and the "downtime" required to bring the staff (and customers) up to speed on the new system. Overall, the process was more frustrating than anyone anticipated, and the benefits longer in coming than initially thought. However, the process of selecting a system, implementing it and training the staff on how to use it provided valuable insight into the process; this learning experience can certainly be used in other environments when purchasing computer software.
Messenger software has been developed by a number of companies, most of whom use direct mail to inform decision makers in organizations about their products. In addition, these companies tend to exhibit at trade shows and similar events, with the result that most of us in the industry are familiar with the largest of the messenger software companies. Through my personal contacts with other messenger business owners, I developed a "short list" of vendors that I was interested in speaking with. This was based on the reports that I received from other messenger services using their products. These companies were reputable, and each of the companies I spoke with thought highly of their products.
The four companies I chose to contact were Data Trak, Ascar, Lad and ADO. I was interested primarily in purchasing only software from these companies as I hoped to run the package on a personal computer which I could obtain at local computer stores. However, Data Trak, Ascar and Lad tried to sell me on purchasing both hardware and softwa...