News
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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View the VIRTUAL TOUR | ||
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.
Digital Gateway acquires ServicePlus
American Fork, Utah - January 2, 2007. Digital Gateway, a leading provider of integrated business management software solutions for businesses in the office automation industry, today announced that it has acquired the ServicePlus service management system intellectual property assets from Bedford, Nova Scotia-based network integration company ITN Inc. ServicePlus products are renowned for a high degree of process automation and are used by service organizations in the Hi-tech Electronics, Medical, Scientific, Process Automation and IT industries. With over 1,200 copies of ServicePlus sold worldwide, the current release reflects a high level of domain expertise and over 12 years of continuous enhancement.
ServicePlus is the fourth company Digital Gateway has acquired since it's inception in 1995. DGI acquired Houston-based FasTrak in 2000 and Canada-based ServiceView in 2001 and CalType in 2005. This most recent acquisition allows Digital Gateway to take the next logical step in its evolution by expanding its market footprint beyond the office automation industry that it has come to dominate and addressing a new family of related service driven industries with a proven solution.
"We have been looking for a world class platform that will accelerate our entry into new, related markets for some time now and the ServicePlus opportunity provides us the ideal technology, domain expertise and customer base to realize our objectives while maintaining our leadership position in our traditional markets." said Jim Phillips, CEO of Digital Gateway. "The experienced team that we've been able to bring into our family had a significant stake in the development and growth of ServicePlus and shares our commitment to integrity and innovation."
Stephen Munro, ex-partner and V.P. Business Development at ServicePlus Corporation has joined Digital Gateway to drive the renewed ServicePlus marketing & support efforts and to work with Digital Gateway personnel to develop e-Automate and ServicePlus into a single solution offering. Steve will be building a seasoned ServicePlus team based in Ottawa, Canada.
"I'm truly excited about the prospect of reviving the ServicePlus brand with Digital Gateway and reengaging with the ServicePlus installed base. Digital Gateway has the commitment proven over a decade to customer service excellence, leadership and technical expertise to reestablish ServicePlus as the solution of choice for service providers in the markets that it was designed for." Said Steve. "Our plans to integrate the e-Automate and ServicePlus business rules will ultimately provide unique and powerful solutions for Digital Gateway's traditional and new family of markets."
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 ServicePlus - www.serviceplus.com
Originally based in Ottawa, Canada, ServicePlus was established in 1989, and earned an installed base of over 1,200 customers by providing highly automated service management systems that manage all facets of the core service unit, with deep functionality for call management, dispatch, work order and contract management, inventory, purchasing, RMAs, and invoicing. Just prior to releasing V6.0 in 2000, the company ceased operations and the assets were acquired by ServicePlus customer and network integrator ITN Inc. Up to this recent Digital Gateway Inc acquisition, ITN had been providing technical support services on current release V5.2.
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.
