October 15, 2008
Accellos Acquires Prophesy Transportation Software, Inc.
Prophesy/Accellos Customer FAQ
Audio Transcript of Customer Town Hall Meeting Now Online
Dahl & Sons Goes From Surviving to Thriving with the Right Trucking Software
Prophesy Debuts DispatchSeries Flash Demo
Accellos Acquires Prophesy Transportation Software, Inc.
Comprehensive suite of shipping and trucking software built on Windows will further expand product offering in trucking markets and adds over 1,200 fleets to the Accellos family.
On September 30, 2008, Accellos Inc., a leading provider of logistics, warehouse, 3PL, transportation, and mobile resource management solutions announced the acquisition of Prophesy Transportation Software, Inc.
To view the full press release at the Prophesy website, please click here.
Prophesy/Accellos Customer FAQ
In this informative Frequently Asked Questions document you will find several important questions and answers about Accellos' acquisition of Prophesy, such as:
- Why did Accellos acquire Prophesy?
- What are the benefits of combining Prophesy with Accellos?
- Will Accellos continue to support Prophesy's product lines?
- ...and more
To view the full Prophesy/Accellos Customer FAQ at the Prophesy website, please click here.
Who is Accellos?
Accellos was founded on a simple idea: supply chain companies deserve robust technology solutions that are easy and inexpensive to implement and maintain. Accellos provides powerful supply-chain execution solutions that are easy to customize and implement, allowing our customers to enjoy more innovation for less investment. Our aim is to strike the perfect balance among customer satisfaction, employee fulfillment and stakeholder value.
Through a combination of strategic acquisitions, carefully-crafted partnerships and industry-leading investments in research, development and customer care, Accellos aims to become the clear choice for supply chain companies worldwide.
To view the full Accellos profile at the Prophesy website, please click here.
Audio Transcript of Customer Town Hall Meeting Now Online
On Friday, October 3, following the announcement of the acquisition of Prophesy by Accellos, Inc, the Prophesy/Accellos Management Team conducted a Town Hall-style meeting for all interested customers.
As a resource for those who were unable to attend, the original presentation has been recorded. To view the meeting in its entirety, click here.
The Prophesy/Accellos Management Team is here to answer your questions! If you have interest in subsequent Town Hall Meetings on this topic, please let us know. Simply email usernews@mile.com with your preferred day and timeframe, or call the Prophesy office at (800) 776-6706.
Dahl & Sons Goes From Surviving to Thriving with the Right Trucking Software
Dahl & Sons Trucking & Brokerage in Center, ND, started out in 1995 when Keith Dahl, Sr., Managing Partner of Dahl & Sons Trucking, along with his three sons Brad, Dustin and Jason, started running 4 trucks across the United States, sharing the driving duties as well as the daily responsibilities of running the office. In 2006, they were joined by Keith Dahl Jr. who took over the day-to-day office operations.
Today the company runs 13 trucks and employs a team of 16. They have experienced significant growth in recent months as a result of new management tools which have enabled them to become more efficient.
Software, Take One...
But it wasn't always that way for Team Dahl... In 2005 Keith Jr. began a search for basic trucking software to help them keep things in line. The team settled upon a promising software package written by an ex-trucker. "We figured, who would know small trucking companies better than someone from the business," said Keith, "but we realized soon that the software was written for the way he ran his business, and unfortunately over time we realized that it just wasn't functional for the way we ran ours. Support with this company was severely lacking. I often offered suggestions that I felt would make it more flexible, but we learned that if your idea of how to run your business didn't match his philosophy, then the changes never got a second glance.
"It got to the point where we had to double check everything that was coming out of the system, there was no interface with the QuickBooks software which my accountant used, and so I was racking up significant fees for extra accounting work.
"The final straw came when I was having a major issue with my payroll. I sent an email to get some help from their support department, and I was told that folks were out of the office and it would take 4 days for them to provide a response. I ended up doing everything manually for 4 days to avoid a riot by my staff. That's when I decided that if I could do without their software for that long, I didn't really need it at all."
Finding the right software for the job...
Keith set out to find a more robust system that would not only handle his successful operation today, but provided flexibility and room to grow for tomorrow.
"Prophesy was the fit," said Keith. "The software met all our needs and then some, giving us room expand and grow." Not willing to be burned again though, Keith made an unusual request of the Prophesy Sales Team. "In addition to standard customer references, I asked for 3 references who had encountered significant challenges with the software…and I was surprised that the Prophesy folks readily handed them over. As I talked with these companies, I noted the glowing terms that they used for the support team at Prophesy, and how their issues had been completely resolved and that their treatment throughout had exceeded their expectations."
Keith was satisfied that this was a company who took care of their users. In November of 2007, Dahl & Sons implemented their new Prophesy Dispatch Series software with interface to QuickBooks Pro.
In short order, Keith and his team began to see significant changes in their workload. "Prophesy has absolutely enhanced productivity," said Keith. "I handle all of the billing and financials. Before, quarterly reports took days; they now take me just hours. Handling Payroll used to take me all day; now it's done in minutes. I've also cut my accounting costs to the bare minimum because the software integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Pro. And IFTA reports now take minutes instead of days… I just click Print and I'm done, because all info is already calculated by the software."
Keith went on to say, "My dispatcher especially loves the New Assignment screen within Dispatch, it shows the closest truck to any given load. It saves us time and has reduced our empty miles significantly."
Keith Dahl had glowing reviews of his account reps at Prophesy. "At many software companies, there tends to be a turnover with staff, you don't always have that one person that you can talk to. But at Prophesy, I actually have two… Joan Wentworth and Jay Votzakis are the team who handle my account. I can fire off an email question to Joan and she usually has a response back to me within minutes. The service I've received from Prophesy has been consistently spectacular."
Dahl & Sons, Inc hauls primarily brick and steel pipe throughout the continental United States. They expect continued growth for their flatbed operation and have plans to add Prophesy Truck & Trailer tracking capabilities to their operation in the coming months.
For more information about Prophesy's Total Software Solution for Trucking, email usernews@mile.com or call (800) 776-6706.
Prophesy Debuts DispatchSeries Flash Demo
Prophesy is pleased to announce the unveiling of its latest product Flash Tour, designed to give those in the industry an informative overview of the key features and benefits of the Prophesy DispatchSeries software. This interactive online tour can be viewed at www.mile.com/new, or by clicking the "New Day in Trucking" graphic on our home page.
The Prophesy Dispatch Flash Tour is the latest development in Prophesy's "Explore. Expect. Exceed." campaign. This initiative projects our strong commitment to providing the best in cutting-edge software and services to you, and in turn allowing you to provide the very best to your customers.
View it now! www.mile.com/new
For more information on how your trucking company can Explore, Expect, and Exceed with the Prophesy Total Solution for Trucking, give us a call at (800) 776-6706 or send us an email at usernews@mile.com today.
Ask the Tech Team
The posting screens in Dispatch allow you to mark various items as "posted" without actually posting them to your accounting system. This is useful in situations where it is undesirable to process these items, such as:
- If you have created practice data while learning to use Dispatch.
- If you have already entered the items directly into accounting.
- To remove the clutter of old or otherwise unneeded transactions.
- If a third-party service handles your billing or payroll.
Items can be marked as posted in any of the following screens in Dispatch:
- Print / Post Freight Bills
- Compute Driver Pay
- Settle and Post Pay
- Post Driver Advances
- Post Fuel Taxes
- Post Maintenance
While using any of these screens, you will find a "Mark Items Posted" or similar option on the Edit menu as well as the right-click menu. For example, in the Print / Post Freight Bills screen, place a check mark next to the items that you would like to mark as posted and click Edit > Mark Items Posted. Alternatively, after selecting the desired items, right-click anywhere on the screen and click Mark Items Posted. You are prompted to confirm your choice, and once you click Yes the selected items immediately disappear from the list.
It is important to note once again that these items are not posted to your accounting system, but are simply marked as such to remove them from your posting screens.
Ask a question! If you have a question for the Prophesy Tech Team, email it to usernews@mile.com and you could see it answered in a future issue of the Prophesy eZine.
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