News
e-automate Adds Canon U.S.A to list of Industry Leading Partner Integrations
Provo, Utah- Sept, 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate dealer management software for office equipment dealers, is pleased to announce the availability of an integration connector with Canon U.S.A.'s imageWARE Remote technology.
"Canon U.S.A. has recently completed an integration with e-automate; that from initial feedback will be very beneficial to our shared dealers," said Jeff Despain, Partners Service Director for Digital Gateway. "With more than 1000 dealers using our software, Digital Gateway wants to make sure we support key integrations to assist with their needs and requests. Canon U.S.A. dealers using e-automate can now transfer service alerts and meter reads seamlessly from Canon's imageWARE Remote to e-automate."
The integrated solution allows Canon devices to send accurate, dispatch level data directly to e-automate's service dispatch module. The service alert delivered to e-automate will contain the detailed device error code, helping a technician to accurately assess the status of the device and the parts that are needed to resolve the issue. e-automate can be configured to take this error information and automatically dispatch a technician for "service technician required" category alerts. Through the e-automate system, you will have an end-to-end automated dispatch system. Users no longer have to waste time by calling in a technical problem; imageWARE Remote and e-automate do the work for you.
Device meters collected automatically by imageWARE Remote can now be delivered electronically to e-automate, enabling the accuracy and timing of the meters submitted. By automating meter collection, Canon customers will no longer be required to collect meters to submit to their service provider.
"The integration between imageWARE Remote and e-automate represents yet another step in further optimizing the delivery of service through Canon dealers to end customers," said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. "By tightly integrating to e-automate, Canon and Digital Gateway can dramatically improve internal dealer operations and by extension positively impact customer satisfaction."
For more information regarding e-automate or Digital Gateways' other partner integrations, visit www.digitalgateway.com or call 866.342.8392.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number four in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2009 list, and is on the 2008 BusinessWeek list of "Top 100 Brands." Canon is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all products. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.
Total Cost of Ownership and Commissions modules added to e-automate
Provo, Utah-August 28, 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate dealership management software for office equipment dealers, has added Total Cost of Ownership and Commissions modules to e-automate. These modules are designed to greatly enhance a dealer's ability to evolve into and succeed in Managed Print Services.
"Our dealers needs are our top priority," said Lon Price, Vice President of Digital Gateway. "No matter if its cost per copy, cost per page or MPS, its all about getting prints under contract. Our TCO and Commission modules do just that by automating the sales process in real time. With these new modules, dealers using e-automate will have all the tools they need to capitalize on the opportunities in managed print."
Digital Gateway's TCO calculator is part of Digital Quote Manager, a solution that automates the sales quote and proposal generation processes for dealers. The TCO calculator takes meter capture data from prospects and real-time best pricing from suppliers to clearly compare and demonstrate how much money dealers can save their prospect over time.
Sean Guerin, CEO of U.S. Imaging Solutions said, "Digital Quote Manager is one of the biggest improvements we've seen in e-automate. We consider ourselves to be advanced e-automate users and the features that Digital Quote Manager now offers gives us the horse power and ability to grow with less infrastructure, meaning less admin, but added efficiency and improved accuracy. This further exemplifies that our business made the right choice by choosing e-automate."
e-automate Commissions is a powerful tool that makes it possible for dealers to calculate their commissions in minutes instead of hours and days. It takes into account all the transactions made in e-automate, then accurately calculates commissions for a dealer's entire sales team. Dealers using this tool have cut their processing time by as much as 50-80%.
Herb Richter, VP/co-owner of SBM said, "I think other e-automate users that have been calculating commission manually will be extremely happy with the ease and power e-automate Commissions offers. Our sales reps have found the commission report to be spot on. We also like how little time it takes to administer compared to the commission system in OMD...it's like night and day."
For more information about the TCO and Commissions modules offered by Digital Gateway, visit http://www.digitalgateway.com/mpse.html or by call 866.342.8392.
August issue of The GateWAY now available
Archived on webpage soon.
NEW Digital Gateway Newsletters now emailed Monthly
August 2009- Digital Gateway's company newsletter, the Gateway, will now be available monthly and delivered directly to your inbox. Why is this necessary? With so many customers, new product releases and product updates, your requests for us to share information demands that we communicate with you much more often than every 4 months. The GateWAY will now be delivered in your email inbox each month to inform you of upcoming releases, current trends, important updates, tips, tricks, and other valuable e-automate announcements.
For more information on opportunities to submit ideas and articles for The GateWAY, please contact Ashley at amurray@digitalgateway.com. Past newsletters can also be found on DGI's newsletter webpage- http://www.digitalgateway.com/newsletters.html.
Digital Gateway Welcomes Kip Kugler to Industry Leading Team
Provo, UT-June, 2009. Digital Gateway (DGI), the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, has appointed Kip Kugler to oversee their customer account management team and to participate with Digital Gateways ongoing MPS strategy.
Kugler worked for Compass Sales Solution in the copier and print industry for 4 years helping dealers build their Managed Print Offerings. This gave him unique understanding to help dealers drive revenue with MPS, save money, and the importance of launching into the new MPS market.
Lon Price, VP of Sales and Marketing for Digital Gateway, said, "Kip knows how to help our dealers get more pages under contract. He brings a wealth of industry experience to Digital Gateway and has unique skills that will help e-automate dealers strengthen and grow their business. Our dealers have already seen many positive results from his efforts."
"One of the driving factors in joining Digital Gateway is their deep understanding of dealer success," said Kugler. "Managed Print Services is just another important tool for dealers to get more pages under contract. MPS is uniquely suited to this economy where dealers' customers are buying less hardware, yet are willing to fund existing fleets. Working with compass, I admired the professionalism of DGI employees. Now that I am a member of the DGI team, I see why they are an industry leader because they are completely focused on dealers’ success. DGI only succeeds when the dealers succeed. This alignment is the secret sauce behind Digital Gateways strength."
For more information about Digital Gateway, please call 866-342-8392 or visit www.digitalgateway.com.
DGI's MPS offering catches attention of ENX magazine
May 2009- ENX Magazine highlighted Digital Gateways recent MPS Success and presence at ITEX 2009. Read about Ronelle Ingram's exclusive interview with Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway.
Click here to read ENX Magazine article.
Digital Gateway Congratulates MOMS 2009 Dealers of the Year
April 2009- Digital Gateway would like to congratulate Modern Office Methods for being named 2009 Dealer of the Year by imageSource magazine. Ronelle Ingram, current BTA president, and Marc Spring, ITEX founder and imageSource publisher, presented their 2009 Perfect Image Awards to the following e-automate dealers
Four other e-automate dealers were also highlighted for the achievements and presented the 2009 Perfect Image Award. These dealers include:
- Modern Office Methods- Most Outstanding Service Program
- Fishers Document Systems- Best Implementation of Technology Strategies
- Cell Business Equipment- Best Use of Company Website
- Mr. Copy- Most Innovative Customer Retention Program
To view more information on these awards, click here- http://www.imagesourcemag.com/piainfo.asp
Digital Gateway Q1 Newsletter Available
Digital Gateways 2009 Q1 Newsletter is now available on DGI's website. Click here to go to the webpage: http://www.digitalgateway.com/newsletters.html.
2009 Q1 Articles include-
- Inside Scoop on Customer Account Management- Lon Price, VP of Digital Gateway
- Moving Forward with Digital Quote Manager- Bergetta Smith, Director of Quality Assurance for Digital Gateway
- Explanation of Partner Integration- Jeff Despain, Partners Service Director for Digital Gateway
- Office Supply Technology Partner Profile: Red Cheetah Software- Steve C. Kahle, CEO of Red Cheetah
- Always Improving- Daron Jones, COO/CFO of Digital Gateway
- Protect your Data- Ashley Murray, Newsletter Editor for Digital Gateway
- We listened: Operation Sandstorm 7.5
- Marketing for CFO's- Darrell Amy, President of Dealer Marketing Systems
- Service Dispatcher or Resource Coordinator?- Jack Duncan, President of Jack Duncan Consulting
- 2008 Annual EUG Meeting Report- Jeff Taylor, e-automate Users Group Chairman
e-automate Dealerships Report Numerous Gains Through Real World Training Programs
Provo, UT-April, 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, proudly announce the success of their newly launched Executive Essentials course taught by leading industry consultant Jim Kahrs, President of Prosperity Plus Management Consulting, Inc.
"We are excited to utilize Jim Kahrs industry knowledge to give our e-automate dealers a leap forward in this economy," said Daron Jones, CFO/COO of Digital Gateway. "These Executive Essential courses are targeted to owners, managers and directors. We’ve had nothing but excellent feedback."
J. Scott Day, President of Advantage Business Systems, said, "Jim is the kind of good friend you'd want to rely on in an emergency. For me working with Jim has been fun since I enjoy someone who seems to intuitively understand the dealership's big picture and is skilled in mapping out actions and phrasing objectives with some creative spunk. The bonus is getting to tap into the vision of an industry opinion leader."
Brett Edmondson, President of Copy R Office Solutions, said, "Jim is a great professional and understands our industry well. He was able to drill down and help us identify specific improvements to our business that have really made a difference."
Executive Essentials is a webinar-based training program that gives dealership owners and senior managers the management tools and strategies vital to success. These tools are combined with e-automate to really grow dealerships of all sizes, but specifically those from $1M to $15M in annual revenue.
After completing the inaugural series, Jim Kahrs said "This is the kind of practical training that most dealer owners and managers never get. We develop tools and strategies for running the business. Many dealer owners have come up through the ranks in sales or service and have never been shown how to run a business. The Executive Essentials program gives them valuable insight and training on how to be successful as a business owner or executive."
To learn more about how the Executive Essentials program can help you tap into even greater returns with e-automate, call 1.866.DGATEWAY (342-8392) for more information.
Digital Gateway gains MPS momentum after ITEX
Provo, UT-March 27, 2009. Digital Gateway (DGI), the makers of e-automate dealer management software for the office equipment Industry, celebrated the acceptance of their new industry leading Managed Print Success program at ITEX last week.
"Our MPS offering is unique among other offerings because we provide all the key partner integrations, tools and mentoring to empower dealers to find success in this economy," said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "Those who visited our booth at ITEX realized we're not just selling this software and then walking away. Digital Gateway has jumped into Managed Print with both feet to empower our dealers to protect their customer base and provide the engine that can drive an 11-25% growth in this economy."
Gregory S. Walter, President of Connex Systems, Inc. said, "After participating in the Managed Print Success program by Digital Gateway, I'm more convinced than ever what we made the correct decision to choose e-automate as our dealer management software solution. I would encourage all dealers to take the first step of transitioning to e-automate so they have the opportunity to implement a solution that will make them a leader in managed print."
Digital Gateways has integrated with these market leaders in MPS; Supplies Network, LMI, FM Audit, Print Audit, Print Fleet, Great America, US Bank, Dealer Marketing Systems, Relevant Automation, MPS Associates, and Hogan Data.
No matter what stage of Managed Print your in, Jim Phillips and the rest of the Digital Gateway family personally invite you to call their office at 866.342.8392 to receive vital information on how e-automate and their Manage Print Success program can not only help you survive, but thrive in our current industry and economy.
Digital Gateway holds special MPS Presentation at ITEX
Provo, Utah- March 10, 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, invite all dealers at any stage of managed print to visit a special MPS Presentation area at ITEX Booth #519 where DGI and their MPS partners will be discussing how dealers can ensure their success in managed print.
"These presentations bring together all the must have MPS components into one place so any dealer with an interest in Managed Print should attend," said Lon Price, VP of Sales and Marketing. "Dealers will learn best MPS practices from the leaders in our industry. Presentations will be given by Digital Gateway and their partners including consultants like Doug Johnson, MPS Partners like Barney Kister of Supplies Network, and many others. Topics will range from reasons why dealers often fail in MPS and how to avoid them, to critical MPS automation, and toner services. These lectures are all a part of Digital Gateway's Managed Print Success Program that brings together key partner integrations, tools and mentoring to empower dealers to succeed in Managed Print. We look forward to having this wealth of knowledge available to all dealers attending ITEX 2009."
All presentation topics and times will be posted at Digital Gateways ITEX booth #429.
More information about Digital Gateway's Managed Print Success Program can also be found at www.digitalgateway.com/mps.html or by calling DGI at 866.342.8392.
imageSource Magazine Highlights Digital Gateway’s MPS Strategy
Provo, Utah- February 24, 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, has recently partnered with LMI print solutions to integrate their e-commerce solutions into e-automate.
James Davis, President of Digital Gateway, said, "As part of Digital Gateway's mission to keep our dealers abreast of new and profitable market developments, we have created new products and tools to automate the high-volume order fulfillment process that is one of the engines of Managed Print Services. We are excited to add LMI as one of our industry-leading partners in this important business, and we anticipate huge benefits for our dealers who leverage this relationship."
LMI is a partner in Digital Gateway's end-to-end managed print solution called MPS 2.0. This offering brings all the training, services and technology together for a dealer to be successful in managed print. MPS 2.0 will be showcased at ITEX in March.
"We're very excited to have partnered with Digital Gateway to integrate our services into e-automate," said Ray Loisel, President of LMI. "Now, the thousand dealers using e-automate can automatically load LMI's pricing for their wide selection of toner compatibles and maintenance kits in real-time during the sales quote and contract generation process. This takes the guesswork out of determining accurate future total cost of ownership."
More information regarding the strength of this partnership and the MPS 2.0 offering can be found by calling 866-342-8392 or visiting www.digitalgateway.com/mps.html.
imageSource Magazine Highlights Digital Gateway’s MPS Strategy
February 2009
Brief Explanation: Read about how Digital Gateway is leading the MPS e-volution through e-automates end-to-end Managed Print offering.
DGI imageSource Cover Article 02.09
Digital Gateway helps 168 dealers switch to e-automate in 2008
Provo, Utah- January 2009. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, achieved a record number, 168 e-automate conversions in 2008.
"Digital Gateway's total tally of e-automate conversions in 2008 is almost double the number of conversions our competitors have done in their best years," said Daron Jones, CFO/COO of Digital Gateway. "This is a great accomplishment for our company while demonstrating our growth and sense of responsibility to our dealers and this industry."
"We exceeded our goal this year with 168 e-automate conversions with the dedication of our conversion team and the dealers that have decided to join the Digital Gateway family," said Duane Walker, Digital Gateway's Director of Customer Care. "Year after year we refine our conversion process. It's great to see this amount of growth without adding additional resources to our team and still keeping a high level of accuracy."
By already converting over 1000 dealers to e-automate, Digital Gateway has acquired an experiential knowledge of the best processes for bringing dealers over from a variety of ERP systems, especially OMD. Conversions are difficult for any dealer but Digital Gateway's conversion team is committed to making the process as pain-free as possible.
Steve Miller, Partner at Alexandria Business Solutions said, "Compared to OMD, e-automate was hands down a much easier conversion to do. We had been on OMD since 2001, and in the summer of 2008 we went live on e-automate. We decided to make this change because it was cost effective, more powerful with a SQL server, and e-automate's invoicing was more effective. For any OMD customer on the fence about whether to convert of not, let me tell you it is the right decision."
For more information about Digital Gatweway's products and services, call 801-492-3576 or visit www.digitalgateway.com.
Copier Careers highlights Digital Gateways MPS offering
December 2008 - Founded in 1995, Digital Gateway is a Utah-based provider of business management software for copier and printer dealers. The company's flagship product, e-automate, is an all-in-one management solution that helps companies get a handle on their accounting, inventory, purchasing, sales, service dispatch, contract processing, and more. With over 1000 dealers already using e-automate, Digital Gateway over the last decade has established itself as an industry leader with a clear vision for the future. And that future, Digital Gateway believes, is now.
Of an estimated 4.3 trillion clicks that occur each year, only three percent are currently under manged print contracts, making managed print the obvious next step for any dealer hoping to do more business with its existing customers and facilitate new customer acquisition. The window of opportunity is wide open, but that will all change if the major manufactures get their way. According to Digital Gateway COO/CFO Daron Jones, 2009 is going to be a make-it-or-break-it year for copier dealers. "If dealerships don't start getting success around the managed print strategy," he says, "they risk being irrelevant to their customers."
With new MPS operational software completed, strategic partnerships with leaders in the MPS arena, and a new program (the e-automate Managed Print Success Program) designed to help dealers make a smooth transition to managed print, Digital Gateway is totally committed to ensure that its customers have the tools and support they need to be successful.
"What makes us different from the competition is that we're doing more than just telling dealers they need to get into managed print," says Jones. "They've been hearing that for years. Now Digital Gateway is actually showing them how to do it."
The company's dedication to its dealers has paid off. In 2008, over 168 dealers adopted e-automate, and Digital Gateway expects 2009 to be another record breaking year. The growing popularity of the product, however, poses significant challenge to copier industry employers-namely, hiring enough qualified e-automate users and managed print specialists to meet demand.
"There aren't many people out there who have experience in managed print," says Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "That's why it's the new gold rush."
In addition to recruiting qualified employees, dealers must also be willing to change their approach toward the selling process. "The culture that exists in the copier dealerships today creates an attitude of amongst salespeople of kill it, skin it, and move on," Phillips says. But you can't make the transition to managed print without finding people who are a combination of hunter/farmer and can deal with the 90-to-120 day sales cycle and skilled enough to talk to the CFO & IT people in their own language."
Phillips and Jones agree that managed print presents the future growth engine for the industry as well as a significant challenge to individual dealerships. Like all transitional periods, this one has been characterized by wariness, false starts, and uncertainty about where we need to go and how on earth we're going to get there. One thing, however, is for sure that for the dealers who have developed the staff, the technology, and the knowledge to meet the growing demand for managed print are reaping the rewards and are poised for growth, longevity, and success in the years to come.
For more information about Digital Gatweway's products and services, call 801-492-3576 or visit www.digitalgateway.com.
LMI talks about Digital Gateway partnership in imageSource article
Brief Explanation: imageSource Magazine’s editor Sand Sinclair interviewed LMI’s CEO Gary Willert and President Ray Loisel about the new advantages offered by LMI Solutions. Besides new insight into the company’s innovative technology, and core business philosophy, they discuss the importance of their partnership with Digital Gateway.
December 2008 LMI article
1st Quarter Newsletter Now Available
The 2009 1st quarter issue of The GateWAY is now available online at: http://www.digitalgateway.com/newsletters.html
Archived newsletters can be found under the "Our Customers" tab on the main page of DGI's website.
DGI releases e-automate 7.5
Provo, Utah— December 22, 2008. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, released e-automate 7.5 this month. This version introduces key functionality to help users stay even more focused on critical business processes.
e-automate 7.5 includes batch meter estimates, new fixed asset depreciation methods, automated expire by copy contracts, billing leases on service contracts and vendor invoices linked to service contracts along with many other features added to help dealers maximize their profitability and stay ahead of the competition.
“We have only been using 7.5 for a day and I’m having so much fun,” said Judy Hunsaker, Office Manager of Digital Document Solutions. “I’m thankful for the ability to automatically send a message to both techs when you reassign a call, automatically insert the company address/phone info for a new contact, automated expiration copies contracts, call order view on the dispatch console along with other features. Thanks so much for making my work easier!”
e-automate 7.5 also includes over 40 recent enhancement requests from Digital Gateway’s annual e-automate Users Group (EUG) recently held in Salt Lake City. These added enhancements were done for EUG members as a token of DGI’s appreciation for dealer’s dedication and support.
“The development team compiled a EUG wish list of enhancement requests from class discussions and face to face conversations,” said Chris Kenworthy, Digital Gateway’s Director of Product Development. “We decided to take the time to implement these requests into e-automate 7.5 in spite of the fact that we were deep into our release process.”
Karen Wright, a well-known industry consultant, attended the EUG for the first time. “During e-automates Users Group, I was personally impressed at the developers and their efforts to hear everyone’s feedback. These developers even thanked the Users Group members for their input on what could be done to make e-automate better. It wasn’t scripted or rehearsed; you could tell they meant what they said. It was another experience that proved Digital Gateway truly cares about its dealers and their willingness to go the extra mile to improve their product and their dealers business,” said Wright.
Those interested in receiving more information on e-automate 7.5 can contact Digital Gateway at 866.342.8392 or visit www.digitalgateway.com/whats-new.html.
DGI releases Digital Quote Manager
Provo, Utah— December 8, 2008. Digital Gateway, the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, introduces a breakthrough sales solution called Digital Quote Manager (DQM).
“What used to take sales reps hours, can now be done in minutes,” said Jeff Despain, Partners Service Director for Digital Gateway. “With automated accuracy, Digital Quote Manager streamlines the entire equipment sales process by allowing sales proposals and configurations to be done in just a few clicks. Everything in DQM is done in real time and pushed into e-automate. No more piles of loose pages, no more hassle. Administrative costs are reduced and errors in equipment configurations and pricing are eliminated.”
Digital Quote Manager allows managers to define specific equipment and accessory configurations and related service options, lease defaults, out cost and pricing level assignments and sales rep assignments. Once these aspects are defined and the rules are set-up, sales reps can create sales quotes in a fraction of the time using correct real-time equipment configurations and related information.
Ken Stewart, Director of Technology Solutions of Kearns Business Solutions, said, “Digital Quote Manager fills a long sought need in our business. No longer do our area sales managers have to worry with trying to recreate the wheel with every sale – Digital Quote Manager takes the guess work out of the sales order process.”
Digital Quote Manager streamlines the quote configuration by breaking it down into simple and straightforward steps. These steps include naming the proposal, choosing appropriate equipment configurations, adding any additional non-configured items, verifying billing and shipping information, printing proposal for dealer review, and submitting accepted proposal to e-automate as a Sales Order.
“It’s exciting to know that our e-automate dealers now have an offering that provides the sales structure, instant calculations, security, and personalized documentation to eliminate wasted time and energy today so they can increase their revenue tomorrow,” said Despain.
DQM is also part of the framework for Digital Gateway’s Managed Print Success program.
Those interested in receiving a free demonstration of Digital Quote Manager to see how it can benefit their sales force, contact Digital Gateway at 866.342.8392 or visit the official Digital Quote Manager webpage at http://www.digitalgateway.com/digital-quote-manager.html.
Recharger Magazine releases a company profile on Digital Gateway
Recharger Magazine has released a company profile on Digital Gateway in their December Issue!
View our company profile as seen in Recharger Magazine's December Issue by dowloading it here.
Digital Gateway's CEO interviewed about Managed Print Services by Recharger Magazine
Recharger Magazine has interviewed a number of prominent figures regarding the state and future of Managed Print Services, Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway was among those asked to comment in the article which was released in Recharger Magazine's December issue.
View the article about Managed Print Services as seen in Recharger Magazine's December Issue by dowloading it here.
3rd Quarter Newsletter Now Available
The 3rd quarter issue of The GateWAY is now available online at: http://www.digitalgateway.com/newsletters.html
3rd Quarter 2008 Articles
- If You Don’t Get to Your Customer With Managed Print, Your Competitor Will
- Digital Gateway Announces Dealer Success Academy
- New Support For POS Dealers
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered, It’s Yours
- DGI Endorses A Payroll Partner
- The Foundation Of Your Marketing Message: Your Website
- EUG Excitement For New Website And Annual Fall Meeting
- Future Features Of e-automate 7.5
- What Makes A Successful Conversion?
- Sun Tans And Customer Care Plans
- Tips & Tricks
- Online Registration + STEPS = Training Made Easy
Archived newsletters can be found under the "Our Customers" tab on the main page of DGI's website.
Digital Gateway helps dealer’s find confidence in conversions
Provo, UT— November 17, 2008. Digital Gateway (DGI), the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, introduces an industry leading conversion process that eliminates fear and ensures success.
Duane Walker, Director of Customer Care at Digital Gateway, said, “Don’t let the fear of conversions hold you back from doing what’s best for you and your company. There has never been a better time to choose e-automate. Over the years we have prided ourselves on having the right tools and the right people to deliver fast and effective system conversions for office equipment dealers converting to e-automate. Recently, we have had a major breakthrough in our understanding of foreign database structures that has ultimately enabled us to surpass our past levels of data conversion excellence.”
DGI’s collective efforts with well-known system consultants Karen Wright, Carolyn Hackmann, and Teresa Armstrong have been monumental to this change. These consultants bring their industry expertise to DGI’s conversion team as Senior Data Analysts who coach customers and eliminate common roadblocks that occur in conversions.
“Karen, Carolyn and Teresa have allowed us to take a step back, evaluate our process, and truly understand data correctly,” said Duane. “Just because your data works, doesn’t make it correct. We now know how to make minor tweaks that become major changes. We can now say this is how it should be converted because the Data Analysts give us that credibility. This new process has allowed us to locate erroneous billing dates and to uncover revenue loss for our customers.”
DGI’s improved process includes Initial Database pull -> Assessment/Data Scrubbing -> Test Database/Customer Feedback -> Final e-automate database and Report Card. These four enhanced steps give dealers a clear picture of what needs to be done and where changes need to be made to ensure a successful conversion.
DGI releases another MPS 2.0 article
Digital Gateway has released a new article about Managed Print Success 2.0 (MPS 2.0) in the Photizo Group's Quarter 4 newsletter.
View our article on MPS 2.0 as seen in Photizo Group's Quarter 4 Newsletter by dowloading it here.
And please visit Digital Gateway's official MPS 2.0 website at http://www.digitalgateway.com/mps.html
ImageSource releases a new article on achieving 50% GPM in service
ImageSource has released an interview they conducted with Jack Duncan, Ronelle Ingram and Jim Kahrs, all leading consultants in service management which references e-automate as a system that can help office equipment dealers achieve a 50% gross profit margin in service.
View the article on achieving 50% gross profit margin in Service by visiting ImageSource Magazine's website at: http://www.imagesourcemag.com/article.asp?id=2109.
DGI releases new MPS 2.0 article
Digital Gateway has released a new article about Managed Print Success 2.0 (MPS 2.0) in Recharger Magazine.
View our article on MPS 2.0 as seen in Recharger Magazine's August '08 issue by dowloading it here.
And please visit Digital Gateway's official MPS 2.0 website at http://www.digitalgateway.com/mps.html
DGI launches Managed Print Success Program
Provo, UT—July 21, 2008. Digital Gateway (DGI), developers of e-automate dealership management software, launched a program to help dealers grow their managed print services business.
For more than a year, Digital Gateway has been developing the Managed Print Success 2.0 (MPS 2.0™) program. DGI has been working with Cannon IV, one of the nation’s leading managed print services companies, and core dealers that are already succeeding in managed print.
“Having participated in many different presentations and programs on how to sell managed print services, I was initially skeptical about this program,” said Kevin McCarthy, President of Modern Office Methods. “However, I was pleasantly surprised. For the first time, I have seen an end-to-end strategy that makes sense.”
“I am confident that MPS 2.0 is going to be a valuable resource to the e-automate community,” said Mike Kirkpatrick, CIO at Standard Office Systems and past Chairman of the e-automate Users Group.
e-automate Managed Print Edition (MPE) will automate every key element of the managed print services life cycle. The integrated solution imports existing fleet data, automates proposal generation, creates the contract, provides breakthrough commission module, automates billing, streamlines supply purchase orders and facilitates ongoing customer management.
“I understood how important managed print was to our dealer community and went to our dealers using e-automate and asked them who they had worked with that helped drive results. MPS Team Members were chosen based on dealer feedback and their experience with managed print. Digital Gateway, our dealers and the MPS Team will build the metrics for success that will become a core component to our Managed Print Edition,” explained Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway.
The program is spearheaded by Steve Munro Director of Special Markets at Digital Gateway. His previous background with ERP and Managed Print oriented solutions in other markets brings crucial experience to this important new offering. Key MPS Team Members include Jim Salzer, Darrell Amy and Gary Halperin.
Fall EUG 2008 Announced
The e-automate Users Group (EUG) Fall meeting 2008 has been scheduled for October 20-24, in Salt lake City, Utah. All e-automate users are invited to attend. For more information visit http://eug.digitalgateway.com or contact EUG Chairmen Jeffrey Taylor at jtaylor@isionline.net.
2nd Quarter Newsletter Now Available
The 2nd quarter issue of The GateWAY is now available online at: http://www.digitalgateway.com/newsletters.html
2nd Quarter 2008 Articles
- What We've Got Cooking
- DGI Welcomes Bergetta Smith
- Tips & Tricks
- Remote Tech 7
- We want you to grade us
- February 2008 EUG
- Confident Conversion: Introducing Senior Data Analysts
- Running Smoothly
- Re-tooling your service organization
- Burden Rate- is it really $60 per hour?
- ITEX
- Powerful Positioning for Print Management
- Updated Pie Partners
- Training Calendars
Archived newsletters can be found under the "Our Customers" tab on the main page of DGI's website.
New Digital Gateway VP shares Phillips' Focus
Provo,Utah- June 17, 2008. Digital Gateway (DGI), the makers of e-automate management software for office equipment dealers, has added Lon Price as the new Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. Price shares DGI's commitment to employees, customers and to being the leader in their market segment.
Price has over 24 years of solid software experience, specifically with ERP-class management information systems. He was an angel investor and president of Digital Gateway eight years ago and also worked as a developer, business consultant, trainer, and sales manager for Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, Novell and many other leading start-up companies.
"Lon has the experience we need to take DGI to the next level," said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "Lon is the only one I trust to take over this role for me. We share the same value system that positions the way you treat people as the driver for success. He naturally cares about what happens to the customers and others affiliated with our company, you can't train that."
Price returned to DGI because of the vision of the CEO. "I agree with what Jim Philips has set for values, direction and company culture," said Price. "When we burn the midnight oil at DGI it's because we care about people and will do whatever it takes to keep our promises to them - employees and customers alike."
As Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Price will refine and perfect Digital Gateway's market strategies, as well as the customer experience. His role will help DGI to continue as the premier dealer management software provider for many years to come.
About Digital Gateway
Since 1995, Digital Gateway's flagship product, e-automate, has helped over 800 companies drive their critical business processes. These processes include accounting, sales, service, inventory, purchasing, equipment tracking, meter reading, reporting and more. e-automate also has modules to automatically collect meter readings, use laptops in the field to update service calls, sell supplies online, manage point of sale activities and customize automation tasks.
Digital Gateway: One of America's fastest growing private companies by Inc. 5000
January 2008-- The Inc. 5000 named Digital Gateway as one of America's fastest growing private companies in 2007. They ranked #986 out of 5,000 for overall performance, and also #76 in the nation for software.
Daron Jones, COO of Digital Gateway, who has worked at Digital Gateway for over 8 years said, "What an honor it is to be acknowledged on a national level for our hard work and dedication in the competitive business world. Our company has grown drastically over the years because of our employees and customers working together to make Digital Gateway what it is today."
The Inc. 5000 includes the well known Inc. 500 but digs deeper to offer the most comprehensive view of the entrepreneurial engine driving the U.S. economy. The Inc. 5000 explores a broader cross section of entrepreneurial America to identify and profile the nation's 5,000 fastest growing companies.
The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2003 through 2006. Additionally, Inc. 5000 candidates have to be privately held, U.S. based, and independent.
The Inc. 5,000 Introduction-
http://www.inc.com/inc5000/articles/20070801/inc-5000.html
How The Inc. 5000 is chosen-
http://www.inc.com/inc5000/articles/20070801/methodology.html
Digital Gateway Partners with Jack Duncan
Provo, Utah- March 31, 2008. Digital Gateway, a prominent provider of dealer management software, proudly announces their partnership with Jack Duncan Consulting in a joint effort to give dealers the power to implement and succeed.
"Our partnership with Jack Duncan Consulting is something we're vey excited about," said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "His expertise in Service will give our dealers access to the leading practices necessary to optimize service profitability."
"We have already built special reports into e-automate that reflect what Duncan isteaching his clients. These reports give service managers instant access to mission critical information that is required to maximize profitability and facilitate superior tech management," said Phillips.
Duncan has over 35 years experience in service management and has several dealers exceed the BTA Model Targets for Gross Profit. He has held numerous service-based positions in well-known dealerships and served as Regional Technical Manager for one of our industry's largest manufacturers. Duncan is also a contributing writer to imageSource Magazine.
"With Digital Gateway's desire to be more than a software company, it makes perfect sense for us to form this partnership," said Jack Duncan. "Our united efforts will provide educational classes geared to move service managers' focus to profitable business solutions instead of seeing the problems as a "Break - Fix"."
Duncan's upcoming Service Managers University training conference will be held May 12-16 at Digital Gateway's headquarters in Provo, Utah. Duncan will show dealers how e-automate can execute what they have learned in the classroom. Service Benchmarks, Account Profitability Analysis, Proactive vs. Reactive Service and other related topics will be addressed.
Duncan said, "We will discuss how current business models place the burden of profit on service managers who are often the least prepared to handle it. This advanced class informs on how to maximize efficiencies and customer satisfaction by managing services."
The Service Managers University conference will be a quarterly series at Digital Gateway's state-of-the-art training facility. After May, the next Service Managers University is offered July 2008.
For those interested in attending the Service Managers University training conference, contact Whitney at train@digitalgateway.com or call 866-342-8392, option 3.
DGI: Member of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Utah
October 2007-- Utah's Governor Jon M. Huntsman and the MountainWest Capital Network announced Digital Gateway as one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the state. MountainWest is Utah's first and largest business networking organization devoted to supporting entrepreneurial success.
James Davis, President of Digital Gateway said, "We are thrilled to receive this award. It represents a significant milestone in our quest to be the very best software provider in our niche market. We have always sought to provide excellent products and services to our clientele, and we view our growth as a validation of that effort."
One of the ways MountainWest Capital Network supports entrepreneurial success is by recognizing and rewarding performance. This was the 13th annual Utah 100 awards program hosted by MountainWest. Winners in the 100 fastest growing categories were based on percentage revenue increases from 2002 through 2006.
Todd Leishman, Chairman of this year's Utah 100 Program and a business attorney, said, "The Utah 100 program is an important contribution to the Utah business community. It provides a forum for highlighting the achievements of both emerging and mature business. The Utah 100 has become a prestigious recognition for our winners, and has significant meaning to those who receive it."
Making the Utah 100 list is an extraordinary achievement. In 2007, 12 thousand new companies opened their business to Utah's population of 2.5 million people. Not every company markets to Utah's public but the states strong economy supports each business venture.
Other companies who made the Top 100 were Omniture, Backcountry.com, Overstock.com, Spring Communications, SkyWest, Huntsman Corporation, Cafe Rio and USANA Health Sciences.
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Utah 100 info and quote: New Utah Businesses: Utah Population: |
http://www.mwcn.org/utah100/index.php http://corporations.utah.gov/pdf/corpstats2007.pdf http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/49000.html |
Remote Tech 7.0 now available!
Provo,Utah - January 30, 2008. Digital Gateway, a prominent provider of business management software for office equipment dealers, has released a new version of Remote Tech for those seeking to strengthen their field service.
James Davis, President of Digital Gateway, said, "Remote Tech 7 is a great tool for increasing efficiency among your field technicians. It allows techs in the field to close calls and exchange critical information. Techs are able to make more calls per day with the assistance of this software."
Remote Tech 7 empowers field technicians to act independently by instantly providing information through their laptop, palm®, windows mobile®, or blackberry® devices. Questions that usually waste minutes if not hours of time on the phone or driving back to the home office are now answered quickly and effectively with Remote Tech 7.
The software also provides holding areas for "unassigned" calls, gives techs the freedom to create new calls, and has an enhanced two step field transfer. Other features include multiple meters, item search, personal fax test and much more.
"These new features help technicians become independent and rely less upon support from the home office," said Brandon Wickes, a Remote Tech developer. "But more importantly, Remote Tech 7 also makes your employees more accountable for their work results."
Techs track their amount of time spent on each call. They can also accurately record mileage by enabling the optional odometer entry feature. These and other aspects of Remote Tech 7 measure and improve both the speed and quality of service efforts
"To make service departments more profitable, you need the best efficiency from technicians," said Davis. "Our data has shown that techs are only working a fraction of their hours. Remote Tech 7 and the reports it generates help dealers assess where they are with technician profitability and improve."
Remote Tech 7 is only one of Digital Gateway add-on products that specifically apply the e-automate software to the needs of each customer. To receive more information on e-automate or other add-on modules, please call 1.866.DGATEWAY (342-8392) or click www.digitalgateway.com.
If you would like to learn more about Remote Tech please click here: Remote Tech 7
About Digital Gateway
Since 1995, Digital Gateway's flagship product, e-automate, has helped over 800 companies drive their critical business processes. These processes include accounting, sales, service, inventory, purchasing, equipment tracking, meter reading, reporting and more. e-automate also has modules to automatically collect meter readings, use laptops in the field to update service calls, sell supplies online, manage point of sale activities and customize automation tasks.
New Article about Digital Gateway in Image Source Magazine
Provo,Utah - January 15, 2008. Image Source, a premier magazine catering to the Office Equipment industry, recently wrote and published an article detailing the success of Digital Gateway and how Digital Gateway achieved that success as explained by Jim Phillips, DGI’s CEO. Please click the following link to read this article:
Up Close & Personal (Profile on Digital Gateway)
Digital Gateway Relocates to State-of-the-art Headquarters
Digital Gateways Office Upgrade
Provo,Utah - November 01, 2007. In September of 2007, Digital Gateway made an upgrade of their own. Everything and everyone was packed up and moved across town to a new 40,000 square foot office in Provo, Utah. With the company's rapid growth, the previous office had become too small. The change of facilities has allowed Digital Gateway to no longer be constrained allowing room for growth and development.
One of the most exciting new additions to this office is the new state-of-the-art training facility. As soon as you walk in, you will know that DGI means business by assisting you with yours! This room allows 30 people to conveniently sit at computers while following the instructor's information projected on a giant screen in front of the classroom. It provides a professional yet comfortable training environment.
There are also many things within the office that have been upgraded in order to meet the needs of both employees and customers. The IT/networking infrastructure has been rebuilt from the ground up with new cables, switches, and routers. A larger array of servers has also been added to help things run faster and more effectively. Cutting edge technology and new office equipment has strengthened DGI's internal operations which will consequently quicken DGI's external operations as well.
With this new office comes new opportunity to take everyone involved with Digital Gateway to a new level of success. Although you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, our "cover" represents everything that Digital Gateway is about. And those messages are stated clearly and proudly to anyone who walks through our doors. Digital Gateway is here to provide the control customers' demand and the freedom they desire over the management of their dealerships' now and in the future!
Our new address is 4626 North 300 West Provo, Utah, 84604. We invite you to visit our website at www.digitalgateway.com or call at 801-492-3576 if you need assistance or have any questions.
Digital Gateway Building
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Digital Gateway Training Room
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EUG Meeting, Salt Lake City 2007
Provo,Utah - November 01, 2007. On October 16-18, 2007, Digital Gateway dealers traveled from many different states and even countries to attend the E-automate Users Group (EUG) meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. These professional yet personal meetings are held twice a year and are fueled by the excitement from e-automate users.
Angela Winter, the past president of the EUG, has been involved with the e-automate users group for over three years. She became a EUG member when her employer implemented e-automate. After a year and a half, Angela became EUG vice president and then president.
"The EUG provides a great opportunity to network with other users," Angela said. "By meeting and interacting with others using the system, you can share ideas and brainstorm on ways to better utilize e-automate and make your organization more efficient."
During the October 2007 meeting, some topics discussed were:
- How to get the most out of your training dollars
- Using the CRC website
- "Effect of parts inefficiencies on the bottom line" by Jack Duncan
- Wish list and 7.5 future enhancements
- Presentations of DG Barcode 7.0 and RT 7.0 with question and answer sessions
- In-depth training on Fixed Assets, using the Inventory Console, RTV and RMAs
Meetings are held twice a year in the spring and fall. And just as the topics vary from meeting to meeting, so do the people that attend them. There are the usual EUG "veterans" who regularly attend, as well as many new faces. This is in part due to the astonishing growth the EUG experiences each year.
Additionally, virtually every role within an organization is represented at the meeting. "We have attendees who are owners and presidents, those who handle contracts, service, IT, inventory control, and/or accounting," Angela said. This past meeting had around 200 people in attendance.
Many factors contribute to the value of attending the meetings. Generally the meeting's format includes valuable information gained through lectures, trainings and other activities which are presented in a comfortable atmosphere that makes learning enjoyable.
You also develop many professional contacts and friendships. These friendships span across the miles but are invaluable when you have questions or challenges you need answered. Once you attend, you will always look forward to the next meeting.
Digital Gateway continually strives to meet the needs of the dealers. Angela states, "its great having the developers and other DGI executes like Jim, James, and Daron at the meetings to hear our ideas and challenges. You know they care about the product and the success of each dealer."
The next EUG meeting will be help in February in Las Vegas. We invite you to attend and join the excitement of our current EUG members. You won't regret it!
Digital Gateway Launches e-automate 7.0
American Fork, Utah - July 16, 2007. Digital Gateway, a leading provider of integrated business management software for office equipment dealers, today announced the release of e-automate 7.0. e-automate has been Digital Gateway's flagship product since the company's creation over a decade ago. The release of version 7.0 offers dealers new functionality, new technology and new ways to keep their business on top.
Some noteworthy additions in this release include all-new metrics pages based on job functions like President, CFO, Service Dispatcher or Contracts Manager. These metrics pages display the most critical information to help dealers stay focused on the measures that have a direct effect on smooth operations, customer satisfaction and overall profitability.
"We're very pleased with the release of e-automate 7.0." said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "It represents a significant step forward in our effort to offer dealers the easiest to use and the most impactful management software available."
Other new features in this release include Widows Vista® compatibility, better security, new and enhanced reports, additional meter reading features, improved inventory logistics, warehouse costing and more flexible contracts.
"We've really been paying attention to emerging technologies that will have the most positive effect on dealers." said Chris Kenworthy, Director of Development of Digital Gateway. "More than any other system of its kind, e-automate 7.0 utilizes a Web Services API in a fully integrated way to make processes more seamless and efficient between e-automate and our technology partners. One area where this is most noticeable is with the integrations that have been established with all the major meter collection solutions available in the market today. With the advent of these new integrations the meter collection process is now handled in a fully automated fashion behind the scenes which makes life easier for both the dealers and their customers."
For more information about e-automate 7.0, dealers can contact digital gateway by phone at 1.866.DGATEWAY (342-8392) or visit them on the web at www.digitalgateway.com.
Digital Gateway Partners With FMAudit
Software integration delivers fully automated, accurate and timely customer billing
AMERICAN FORK, Utah - March 19, 2007 - Digital Gateway, Inc. (DGI), a leading provider of integrated business management software solutions for the imaging and office automation industry, today announced their partnership with FMAudit, LLC, a leading provider of managed print services applications. The declaration is marked with the official release of a co-developed 'FMAudit Central sync module', enabling seamless integration between their respective software offerings.
FMAudit's Identity Mapping Technology™ facilitates the bi-directional communication resulting in an end-to-end, accurate and timely usage-based billing solution. Print asset meters are automatically acquired using one or more of FMAudit's data collection vehicles; Viewer USB™ for periodic meter reads (Aka Rapid Print Assessment™), OnSite™ for fully automated metering, and/or WebAudit™ for browser-based metering.
Now, data collected with the FMAudit technology synchronizes with DGI's e-automate™ dealer management software in real-time resulting in numerous operational efficiencies. Benefits include increased productivity, better profitability and the reduction or elimination of costly reconciliation practices and DSO.
"FMAudit shares our enthusiasm for customer satisfaction and market leadership. Their innovative technology and pioneering go-to-market strategy will assist e-automate users recognize a quick and easy return on their investment," stated Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "The release of this integration sets the stage for unprecedented functionality which will truly help dealers transcend business challenges and accelerate growth."
The FMAudit Central sync module which communicates with e-automate, is a no-charge feature available to all users of DGI's e-automate solution and enrolled in FMAudit's Corporate Program. It establishes the foundation upon which additional features will become available. For example, FMAudit's Adaptive Service Management™ platform will further assist the dealer migration from accurate and timely meter-based billing to automated just-in-time supply replenishment to full-featured automation with DGI's Remote Tech™.
"We are excited about our relationship with Digital Gateway. We are both fast growing companies dedicated to making a difference in the way independent dealers conduct business," stated Richard Piper, President & CEO of FMAudit. "Users will achieve immediate results of this high-impact feature. It is validation of the overall significance of the partnership, and is just the first of many ways we will continue to assist our mutual clients to further leverage their existing investments."
About Digital Gateway - www.digitalgateway.com
Headquartered in American Fork, Utah, Digital Gateway was organized in 1995 to create e-automate, a business management software system that automates and improves many common business processes integral to companies in the office automation industry. These processes include accounting, inventory, service dispatch, contract management, sales and others. Utilizing a native Windows environment, open-platform architecture and a scalable MS SQL Server database engine makes the system powerful and sophisticated, yet comparatively easy to use. Since its introduction to the office automation industry, e-automate has become the fastest growing business management system among imaging dealers nationwide.
About FMAudit - www.fmaudit.com
FMAudit is a business solution provider for Office Equipment and Supply Industries specializing in Print Management solutions. FMAudit is dedicated to developing solutions that remove Meter Mystique™ - the cumbersome human element of collecting highly valuable print asset information. The data is used for Assessment, Account Reviews, Metering (for accurate and timely billing), Service Dispatch, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Sales and Service Force Automation, and Supply Replenishment.
Contact
Jim Phillips
CEO
Digital Gateway, Inc.
Ph.801.492.3576
629 Quality Dr. Suite 100
American Fork, UT 84003
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Digital Gateway heads to ITEX 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007 - American Fork, UT USA -- Digital Gateway annouces its official participation as an exhibitor for the ITEX 2007 National Convention. Since 1995, Digital Gateway’s flagship product, e-automate, has helped over 700 companies drive their critical business processes. These processes include accounting, sales, service, inventory, purchasing, equipment tracking, meter reading, reporting and more. e-automate also has modules to automatically collect meter readings, use laptops in the field to update service calls, sell supplies online, manage point of sale activities and customize automation tasks.
About ITEX
ITEX 2007 will take place March 20-23, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The business and document solutions market is estimated to grow to nearly $1.5 billion dollars by 2007...will you get your share? ITEX puts you in control and guides you through the changes and opportunities in the maturing copier and printer markets. With growth possibilities are at your fingertips to capture new profits, its time to take control!
ITEX 2007 will guide you to choose the right programs to achieve your market potential. Now in its sixth year, ITEX is the premiere event for providers of all aspects of document technology, including Document Management, Digital Copying and Printing, Scanning and Professional Services. See why the entire industry is tuning into the award winning* ITEX year after year.
To learn more about ITEX 2007, visit: http://www.itexshow.com.
ENX Magazine interviews Digital Gateway, Inc.
Contributing editor and industry consultant Ronelle Ingram has written an in-depth article for ENX Magazine's August 2006 issue. Titled "E-Automate The Rising Phoenix," the article reviews the life and times of Digital Gateway, Inc. from the people to the products and our company's bright future. To read the article, please visit ENX Magazine's website or download a .PDF version of the article here, or simply pick up a copy of ENX Magazine’s August 2006 issue and read about us on page 18!
Audio Testimonials Section Added to the Digital Gateway Website
In a continuous effort to achieve better communication with e-automate users and the public Digital Gateway has introduced an audio testimonial section featuring the voices of our customers detailing their successes with Digital Gateway’s suite of dealer management system products. To begin the audio testimonial series we have interviews with Lou Anne Strickland and George Paul Lewis, Jr. from Stewart Organization, Mike Murray from Business Works of Hawaii and Mike Kirkpatrick from Standard Office Systems. To start listening to the clips, please head on over to the audio testimonials page.
Digital Gateway and CalType Solution, Inc. Unite
American Fork, Utah - August 15, 2005. Digital Gateway™, a leading provider of integrated business management software solutions for businesses in the office automation industry, today announced that it has united with Missouri-based software company, CalType™ Solution, Inc., makers of CalType and Advantage dealer automation software.
CalType is the third company Digital Gateway has united with since it's creation in 1995. It joined with Houston-based FasTrak in 2000 and Canada-based ServiceView in 2001. The purpose of these strategic consolidations has been to integrate industry-best technologies and people into Digital Gateway and its flagship business management software package, e-automate™.
"We are always looking for software providers who we can combine our efforts with to provide a better overall solution to dealers." said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "We've known Joe and his people at CalType for years and his values, understanding of his customers' needs, and experience in the industry make him and his company an essential part of Digital Gateway's strategy."
Joe Garcia, President of CalType, will join Digital Gateway with the primary responsibility of working with Digital Gateway personnel to understand and better serve CalType customers and working with CalType customers who choose to adopt e-automate to ensure they experience a smooth transition to the new business management software.
"This is a natural step for CalType." said Joe. "I've been in this business for over 20 years and have associated with the people of Digital Gateway for a number of those years. I've come to recognize the strength of both their people and their products. We share the same commitment to dealers and have the same goal of providing the industry with the software tools needed for businesses to run their organizations more efficiently and profitably. I am certain this move will benefit CalType customers and the industry as a whole."
About Digital Gateway
Headquartered in American Fork, Utah, Digital Gateway was organized in 1995 to create E-automate, a business management software system that automates and improves many common business processes integral to companies in the office automation industry. These processes include accounting, inventory, service dispatch, contract management, sales and others. Utilizing a native Windows® environment, open-platform architecture and a scalable MS SQL Server® database engine makes the system powerful and sophisticated, yet comparatively easy to use. Since its introduction to the office automation industry, E-automate has become the fastest growing business management system among imaging dealers nationwide.
About CalType Solution, Inc.
Headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, CalType was founded in 1963, and grew from a small business to one of the nation's leading office machine dealerships. Based on the common problem of finding software packages specifically designed for office machine dealers, CalType licensed RealWorld Accounting Software in 1983 and used it to create The CalType Solution, a complete accounting and service management system for dealers. The results have made CalType a recognized leader in the software systems world.
Jim Phillips and Joe Garcia announcing unification
Digital Gateway Releases Remote Tech
June 19, 2005
Remote Tech is the mobile technician optimization module for the e-automate business management system. In version 2.0, technicians can view their service call lists, enter new calls, close and complete calls, and get directions to customer locations from their laptop while conducting service calls in the field. Data is automatically updated within the e-automate system. This can be done via the web while in the field, or by using a sync function when they return to the home office.
Imaging Industry Trend: Ever More Efficient, Cost-Effective CRM
IRVINE, Calif May 3, 2005 -- Imaging Portals, Inc. announced today the immediate availability of a direct integration interface with Digital Gateway's e-automate business management system. The interface provides automated transfer of meter readings into the e-automate billing system. Using the interface will allow imaging dealers to save time and reduce error caused by manually entering meter readings into the e-automate system. Imaging Portals, "Leaders in Remote Monitoring®," develops and deploys remote monitoring systems for document imaging devices. With its Fleet-Complete® concept, Imaging Portals can monitor and report meter readings from all networked printers and copiers as well as stand-alone copiers and MFP imaging devices.
American Fork, Utah-based Digital Gateway Inc. ™ is a premier provider of enterprise solutions for small and mid-size businesses in the field services industry. They are the creators of e-automate™, a software product providing comprehensive business management capabilities in accounting, inventory, service dispatch and sales.
"We are happy to be working with Digital Gateway and their e-automate software," said Worth Probst, CEO of Imaging Portals. "This cooperative effort is part of an industry trend to make imaging dealers' customer relationship management more efficient, sophisticated and cost-effective."
Imaging Portals has the most extensive experience in the meter collection marketplace, with more than one million meter readings collected and transferred to billing systems. Imaging Portals holds eight major patents for remote meter reading and device monitoring. The company markets wireless and networked devices that collect and report meter readings. The company also has a central database system that aggregates the meter information for each customer's fleet, resulting in a timely and accurate billing system. This information now integrates seamlessly into Digital Gateway's premier business management solution, e-automate.
"Digital Gateway is committed to leverage existing as well as emerging technologies including bringing the power of the Internet to the Small and Medium-size Enterprise market," stated James Davis, President of Digital Gateway. "Working with Imaging Portals is a logical step in the evolution of our commitment to our customers.
About Imaging Portals, Inc.
Imaging Portals, Inc. (www.imagingportals.com) is a solutions company whose primary focus is the collection of meter readings and other device status information from print output devices-copiers and printers-from all major printer/copier manufacturers. Imaging Portals' ImageTrak™ product line allows for a Fleet-Complete solution, which collects meter readings from all devices, whether stand alone and networked, and aggregates the data into the ImageTrak Central Data Repository database. In addition to its comprehensive solutions product line, Imaging Portals owns the eight major patents in automated meter-reading collection technology and licenses those patents to manufacturers who incorporate the technology into their own products. Imaging Portals maintains headquarters in Irvine, Calif., with sales and support locations in Florida, Illinois and New Jersey. "Leaders in Remote Monitoring" and "Fleet Complete" are registered trademarks, Imaging Portals is a service mark, and ImageTrak is a trademark of Imaging Portals Inc.
About Digital Gateway
For over a decade, Digital Gateway (www.digitalgateway.com) has provided total business management software solutions for small to medium-sized businesses in the imaging market. These solutions include the e-automate business management system, and Digital Taskforce, a robust business monitoring and automation tool. Together, they give dealers the control they've always needed to more effectively manage common business processes like accounting, sales, service, inventory and more. While robust and sophisticated, the system has an eye toward being intuitively easy to learn, understand and use. By using Digital Gateway solutions, businesses become more efficient, informed, and profitable. As a result, they gain the freedom they've always desired to focus on the most crucial aspects of their organization.
Business Latency: A Silent Killer of Your Organization's Efficiency and How You Can Remove It
(as seen in the RSPA annual journal)
By Daron Jones, VP of Professional Services of Digital Gateway
Efficiency - it's the holy grail of businesses striving to do more with less and outpace their competition. The goal of efficiency can often be elusive, but there are common areas of business latency that when analyzed, can lead to an efficient and optimized organization.
The investment in the most recent technologies such as phone systems, computers, and computer software is done with the explicit hope that these investments will increase organizational efficiency. Similarly, investing in training is done with the expectation that the training will result in a smarter staff, one that makes fewer mistakes, and takes less time to do routine tasks.
Although these two investments - technology and training - are quite different, they both have the same ultimate goal-efficiency. In other words, these investments improve the ability to capture and analysis information for efficiently and increase the ability to do one's job faster and smarter than before.
However, most organizations take the easy approach to these investments by just signing the check, implementing their technology or training, and hoping for increased efficiency. This approach rarely works. Those who take the time to review their internal processes and determine how to integrate them with new technologies and better able to realize their anticipated return on their technical and training investments.
The silent killer of efficiency is latency. Latency occurs in tasks that may be error prone, redundant and/or capable of being replaced by automation. Latency is causing huge amounts of wasted capital in businesses today and is quickly becoming a threat to survival for organizations who desire to remain competitive in today's business landscape.
Here are some questions to help you diagnose potential latencies within your organization:
- Do you have someone watching for past due calls?
- Do you have someone monitoring calls and e-mails from an important customer to the exclusion of other equally important tasks?
- Does shipping manually produce critical inventory usage reports?
- Do needed monthly reports get to you late, contain errors, or simply do not get done?
- Are e-mail requests from customers not noticed until it's too late, or worse yet, sometimes ignored?
Not only do tasks that could be automated waste time, but there is the factor of human error to consider. A person gathering and producing data is mistake prone. Creation of that spreadsheet every month, by a different person each month, could result in varying degrees of data selected, varying accuracy, and different formats. Now combine the latency issue with the impact of mistakes and your business problems are increased.
A primary solution to business latency is the automation of redundant tasks. But before business latencies can be automated, they must first be identified. Below are the six most common areas for latency within an organization. Part two of this article will explain in more detail how to remove these efficiency killers from your organization.
Latency #1: Executing Redundant Tasks
Employees doing mind numbing, redundant tasks waste time and result in old, out-of-date information. Most organizations can identify areas of their business where processes can be automated to take care of redundant tasks. Automating such tasks removes error and better leverages people within the organization to perform value-add activities.
Latency #2: Identifying & Responding to "Trouble Spots"
Too many organizations either take too long or simply don't respond to ongoing problem areas of their business when they are discovered. This is one of the more challenging latencies for a business to recognize, since most organizations' approach to trouble is to "see it, fix it, and forget about it". As such, the identification of recurring trouble spots (which is where latency is most apparent) requires an in-depth analysis of an organization's business processes and asking such questions as:
"What happens in our business when . . . "
Although it's human nature to fix a problem and move on as quickly as possible, the exercise of working backwards from the problem (to explore why it occurred and how to prevent it) allows organizations to identify the true cause of the latency.
Latency #3: Profiling & Loyalty-Building
Striving for customer profile tracking and customer loyalty plans that never materialize because companies were "just too busy to get around to it" is all too commonplace. Identifying and seizing potential sales opportunities through analyzing current and historical business data can do much to drive growth and customer loyalty. What many don't realize is how easy and routine this can be for organizations who take the time to establish automated processes for it.
Latency #4: Monitoring & Processing E-mail
Letting important email from customers grow old and stale will give you the reputation of being unresponsive. With so much e-mail distributed internal and external to most organizations, the ability to filter through the dirt to find the gold is a common source of latency. Organizations either take too much time filtering through information or they let important messages fall through the cracks. What many don't know is the process of managing incoming and outgoing e-mail can be automated to a large degree.
Latency #5: Generating & Distributing Reports
Running and distributing reports too late in the month to make a difference is an all too common latency. Having the right information at the right time is crucial to any organization's success. The ability to automatically trigger, generate, and deliver reports to the appropriate recipients will dramatically increase efficiency within businesses and give the added benefit of better, more timely information.
Latency #6: Integrated Data Analysis & Response
There's a reason why this Latency was saved for last. It's most difficult to achieve. Most organizations have not considered "integrated data analysis & response" in terms of latencies because everyone assumes nothing can be done about them. But with current technologies that automatically and dynamically analyze data between multiple business applications and (if appropriate) trigger the appropriate automated workflow, current processes can be automated to a degree not previously possible.
Analyzing these common areas of latency is the first step to becoming a more efficiently run business. Next, organizations must evaluate whether or not the automation of a task is beneficial. If yes, is the automation of the task something that a machine can do? Is there enough information at hand to detect a condition? Detecting the condition is the key issue because detection is conditional. Many organizations do not automate tasks because there is not enough information at hand to identify unique conditions.
Imagine for a moment that you could automatically know that:
- A shipment is delayed
- An order confirmation needs to be generated
- After a call is closed, a resolution notification is sent back to the customer
- A customer came to your website requesting specific information
- An important customer placed a service call
- The report for the monthly partners' meeting was run and distributed to the attendees before the meeting
Over the past 20 years, enabling technologies have allowed us to process information faster, store it more efficiently, and retrieve it more intelligently. But, there comes a point when technology can gain only so much more efficiency. It is at that point companies need to look inward at their own processes and procedures to see where delays, bottlenecks, and simple lack of awareness play major roles in impacting their efficiency.
Latencies exist in all organizations, and can be readily identified in a variety of areas of a company's business. These latencies impact an organization's efficiency in more than just the mere time they take up. They have a domino effect insofar as they are indicative of business problems that cause organizations to lose productivity, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
Latencies will never completely disappear, but organizations are not so much racing against the clock as they are racing against their competition. Businesses that adopt procedures and automation that reduce its latencies will find themselves in a competitively superior position.
Contributing Authors: Charles Erwin and Don Farber
Digital Gateway Releases Digital Taskforce
Digital Taskforce is a new product from Digital Gateway that integrates with the e-automate business management system to allow businesses to automate aspects of their organization in a way never before possible. Essentially, the product acts as a platform on which users can keep tabs on important business processes, trigger alerts when someone needs to be notified, execute workflow tasks automatically, and generate informative reports based on what happened. It acts as a virtual taskforce businesses can create to monitor and optimize whatever part of their organization they choose.
For example, companies can use Digital Taskforce to monitor for data entry errors. A manager can automatically receive an e-mail alert when suspicious information like a new customer with missing tax codes is entered into the e-automate system. Businesses can also use Digital Taskforce to automatically send out text messages to field technicians every time a new service call is received. Because Digital Taskforce has open architecture and integration with e-automate, there are virtually endless possibilities for increased productivity and improved operational efficiency. The product comes with 48 pre-configured events with more scheduled to be released periodically. For more information, call 866.DGATEWAY.
