ASP service offers dealers flexibility, lower costs

Office World News, Nov 2001

DDMS COMPANY PROFILE

Marc Grambo of Office Spectrum in Lake Forest, CA investigated automation solutions for his business thoroughly before making the change to an ASP (Application Service Provider) instead of buying or leasing business system software. "I decided to use an ASP for various reasons," said Marc, "For one, I can access it from anywhere. I can access everything at any time from home. Also, we don't have to have our own equipment, like routers and that kind of thing, at our facility."

Other ASPs that Marc considered didn't offer the kind of software he needed to take his company into the future. He chose eNsite(TM) by DDMS over other hosted business system software because it is a state-of-the-art graphical package running on Windows 2000. "It's a lot easier to use than a text-based program," he said.

eNsite, a less complex version of DDMS' powerful eNsite Pro software, delivers the features smaller dealers need today with options for growth tomorrow. Dealers can choose specific features from eNsite Pro to include in their system as needed, or easily move up to the complete eNsite Pro package with all of the money-saving features that larger dealers require.

Marc knows that eNsite Anywhere will help him grow his company. "We've actually seen an increase in our business just because of the amount of time it saves. It's flexible and offers a lot of reporting capabilities and detailed information that we can export into programs like Microsoft(R) Excel very easily."

THE BEST INTEGRATED E-COMMERCE SOLUTION

Marc said that the biggest reason for his choice was that eNsite and eNsite Pro are the only ASP solutions completely integrated with the leading e-commerce solution in the office products industry-Dealer Station(TM) DDMS Edition.

A successful e-commerce venture was crucial to Office Spectrum's future. Marc needed a package that could compete with the online ordering solutions of industry giants. Integration was also important. "We set up the pricing on our system; and our customers access the same price through the Web," he said, "We don't have to duplicate pricing files on the Website and our own back-end system."

The other ASP he considered had an e-commerce solution, but it was nothing like Dealer Station. "Theirs is pretty much just an online ordering system. It's really not online shopping. They don't have an online catalog. While they do access the same item file, there's no way to search the catalog and see pictures," he said.

"Basically," he continued, "the customer would have to sit there with a catalog, find the item, and then punch in the item number. Many of our customers don't even use the paper catalogs anymore. They just go right online and find whatever they need."

With eNsite, Marc was able to get a state-of-the-art, true Windows-based management solution that lets him do business from home, or almost anywhere else. He also got a completely integrated e-commerce solution to help his business compete with the superstores. What he didn't get was a big up-front cost, or the additional expenses associated with on-site installation. For more information about the hosted versions of eNsite or eNsite Pro, e-mail ddms@ddms.com or call 800-366-3367.