Company overview
Profit Tools, Inc. began in 1995 as a joint venture between trucking company owner James P. Daley, Jr., and Software Specialist Brian K. Widell to produce a commercial dispatch and business operating system for multimode “flexible service” carriers. The original model company was S&J Transportation of Lee, NH. S&J provides intermodal drayage, LTL, cartage, cross-docking, consolidation, air freight, truckload and freight brokerage services in the northeastern US.
We began marketing our system in 1998, and currently have over 280 trucking companies running their businesses with our software in the US and Canada. About a third of our customers focus on intermodal drayage exclusively, another third are multimode operations that typically combine drayage with a mix of other services including LTL, Cross-docking, TL, and Brokerage. The remaining customers are a diverse mix of transportation providers from conventional TL and dedicated Brokerage to regional warehouse/distribution of various products, tank container services, storage trailer/container services, white-glove furniture delivery and more.
Our software development efforts are focused on continually improving our features and functionality for intermodal drayage and multimode carriers including LTL distribution, consolidation and brokerage. Now, instead of having one model company we have 280, covering all modes of operation in nearly every region of North America. We have invested over $2 million in product development so far, and continue to invest over a third of a million annually in upgrades to make our products better for our customers. More than one half of our new features come directly from the requests of our users.
PROFIT TOOLS PRODUCT BACKGROUND
Profit Tools began as a windows-based system from its first line of code, starting in 1995 just prior to the official release of Microsoft Windows 95. With no DOS, UNIX, or other text-based legacy code to contend with, Profit Tools was able to start with a "clean sheet" and take full advantage of the Windows operating environment right from the start. This is evident to users when they find that Profit Tools requires fewer steps and much less navigation from screen to screen to accomplish transactions than do systems of older design—even those upgraded to run under Windows. Much can be accomplished from one spot.
Behind the scenes, Profit Tools has been developed using industry standard software development methodology and rock solid development tools including PowerBuilder from Sybase Corporation. We use the Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere database engine, which is based on SQL (Structured Query Language), the industry standard relational database language that 99% of all business systems now use. Adherence to such standards and practices have enabled us to readily interface to other software and systems as needed by our users, and in general build a more stable, open environment for data sharing and communications to meet our customers' ever-expanding needs.
Accounting options are many, with excellent interfacing and integration to several popular off-the-shelf accounting systems such as QuickBooks Pro, Peachtree, MAS90, and others. Two or three decades ago when PC-based accounting options were limited, many trucking packages of that era were built around simple accounting programs. This approach no longer makes sense now that you can have a widely supported and widely used accounting package full of useful, labor-saving functionality for a fraction of the cost.
Profit Tools' open design and adherence to industry standard development methodology pays dividends when it comes to integrating with other software and systems. Here are some of the systems, vendors, and strategic partners with whom we integrate or interface:
PC Miler: mileage databases
Comdata, Comchek, and TCH: fuel card networks
Nextel, Trimble, PeopleNet, Qualcomm, Cadec: Mobile communications systems
QuickBooks Pro/Premier/Enterprise, Peachtree, MAS90, Microsoft Great Plains, SBT, DAC Easy, and other accounting products.
EDI Direct: Bypass the VAN and connect via FTP to your trading partners
Electronic Document Delivery: Deliver PODs and other documents via EDI
LiveLoad.NET: provide reports, status info and documents to customers via your web site.
