FAQ's
Support Cost
The monthly maintenance fee covers a variety of support
issues for your installation. These include support of your operating system, crash
recovery, operator errors, and design of requested programming changes. Training a new
individual and custom programming are not included in the monthly support agreement. These
fees have not been increased in over five years and no increases are planned for the
foreseeable future. The fee is based upon the type of installation you have:
| 1. Single user RMS Lite |
$ 80.00/Month |
| 2. Multi user RMS Lite |
$120.00/Month |
| 3. Full RMS |
$200.00/Month |
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Year 2000
All versions of DataTeam application
software being shipped are fully year 2000 compliant. In fact,
DataTeam software is currently compliant until the year 10,000!
Of course if you request an installation on currently owned hardware
and operating system verification will be needed on the current
components as to their Y2K compliance. We will be happy to assist
in this endeavor.
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Custom Modifications (changes to application software)
DataTeam is very willing to modify applications we
provide to meet your specific needs. We develop our applications with a language which
allows for fast development. Our charges are based upon $100/hour development time. Any
request we believe will take over two hours will be examined closely and a fixed bid
provided. When comparing quotes, don't use the hourly charge as the sole basis of
comparison. As you well know, 10 hours of $50 per hour costs much more than 2 hours at
$100 per hour. Typically a new report using existing data will run between $200 and $300.
Adding a new data item to the system will typically cost $500 to $800. Additional data
exports usually cost $200. There is no charge for developing a design and quote for custom
requests. This is included in the monthly support agreement.
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New Features
New features are constantly being added to the DataTeam
application software. These enhancements have either been requested by an individual
DataTeam customer or developed as a result of the strategic planning of our users group.
We highlight the new features in our online new features link which is reserved for
customers only. The new features are available for all customers to see in this web site
under the "For Members Only" section. Each feature is described and has an
associated order code for your convenience. The new features section should be visited
frequently as you may find inexpensive enhancements to your applications on a regular
basis.
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User's Group
DataTeam hosts regular meetings for users of our
applications. This group performs three main functions. First, it helps guide our
development efforts by defining projects that multiple companies are interested in and can
share in development costs. Secondly, it is an avenue of sharing general ideas among our
users for strategic planning and utilization of our application systems. Thirdly, it is a
means of clarifying problems, training areas, and future plans between DataTeam and users
of our application software. Other companies typically have "User Meetings" as a
method of concentrating sales efforts. The DataTeam user meetings do not operate this way.
Our meetings are for our joint advantage. We discuss, plan, design and trade ideas. It is
never meant to "push" product. We eagerly pursue your involvement as a method
for improving our product and your success.
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Other Applications
What typically individualizes a vertical market software
provider is the offering of a specialized front end application. For DataTeam, the front
end application is Route Accounting. However, most companies also desire automation for
their "Back Office" applications such as General Ledger and Accounts Payable.
DataTeam offers a full spectrum of back office applications for our customers. These
include:
- General Ledger
- Direct Sales
- Sales Analysis
- Payroll Processing
- Accounts Payable
- Financial Statements
- Fixed Assets
- Purchase Order Processing
- Web Site Hosting
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Multi-Platform
All application software runs under the control of an
operating system. These operating systems are referred to as platforms. The platform
market is extremely competitive, diverse and usually leaves you quite dependent once a
selection is made. Because of the intense competition in this market, we have developed
our software using a language that is compliant with "all" of the major
platforms in the market today. This allows you to be flexible in the platform you choose
today and gives you the ability to easily move DataTeam software from one platform to
another in the future. DataTeam software operates under the following platforms:
- Windows (3.1/95/98)
- Windows/NT
- Unix
- DOS
- Novell
- Linux
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After Hours Support
DataTeam provides customer support 24 hours per day / 7
days a week. For mission critical applications, we are always there for you. Our normal
office hours are from 5AM to 5PM PST Monday through Friday. For necessary support outside
of these times we provide two world wide beeper numbers. Two full analysts carry beepers
every day of the year. Someone is always available for an immediate response to your
problem.
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Interfacing with Other Vendor's Products
DataTeam provides interfaces to products offered by other
companies by creating interface files. They are developed on a requested basis as desired.
The technique is a customized export to interface with such things as a garment sorting
system or route mapping system. We keep posted on our web site a list of the custom
interfaces which have already been developed and are in everyday use.
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Sharing Data With Other Applications
DataTeam applications can share their information with
other software applications utilizing a series of exports. With this you can select from a
menu of standard data such as customer information. A "flat ASCII" file is
created that can subsequently be imported into many "off the shelf" applications
such as EXCEL, LOTUS, etc. Additional export requests can be developed to meet your
specific needs.
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Backups
Backups refer to nightly ritual whereby a copy of data on
the computer is stored on another media, such as a tape, which can be used to rebuild a
system after a disaster. DataTeam systems are established to perform a full system backup
automatically at night while no one is using the system. A full backup includes, your
operating system, programs and data. Many vendors provide on incremental backup only that
greatly increases the difficulty and time required to rebuild a system. Furthermore, we
provide a simple utility so that if the primary machine must be replaced, the new machine
will rebuild itself after inserting a diskette and a backup tape. We refer to this as
disaster recovery procedures.
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Custom Forms
Many companies desire their own unique layout for
invoices, statements, renewal contracts, etc. DataTeam provides for this within the
applications. For purchasers of the full RMS system, initial custom form layout is
included in the system price. Later changes to a layout are billable. The charge for
redesign is usually $200. For purchasers of the Lite systems, you are offered a
choice from three layouts for each form. A custom layout can be provided at a usual charge
of $200.
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Lite vs. Full RMS
The Lite version of RMS is actually a subset of
programs from the Full RMS application suite. It is designed for smaller companies (1 to 5
routes) that do not have middle management teams that analyze the variety of production
and other reports the full system offers. It is really intended to produce invoices, load
sheets, statements and a sales summary. Migration from the Lite version to the
full version at the appropriate time is a simple matter of uploading additional programs
and allocating additional data files.
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Windows / GUI
Many people use the terms windows and GUI
interchangeably. It normally refers to the technique of working with a mouse and switching
between keyboard entry and mouse clicking. The GUI environment is very popular today and
GUI applications are very easy to sell. DataTeam is well acquainted with this technique
and utilizes it "where it is beneficial". Our CMS system for dry cleaners uses
GUI for counter people to enter choices. In fact, it utilizes touch screen technology. Our
web sites utilize GUI architecture. However, GUI comes with significant costs. First, each
workstation must be a powerful PC in order to achieve acceptable speed. Secondly, these
applications are much more susceptible to power failures causing data damage as well as
operating system crashes. Therefore, in order to maximize transaction processing from
operators and to maintain the ultimate in system stability in a mission critical
environment, we have refrained from using GUI in the route accounting applications.
DataTeam applications do "pop windows" in order to enhance helpful lookups and
cross references to increase operator efficiency.
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