Process Server's Toolbox - Process Server Software
- February 10, 2009
- by ServeNow.com Staff
- Business Tools
Q & A with Bob Musser – Database Services, Inc.
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Company: Database Services, Inc.
Website: http://www.dbsinfo.com
Product: Process Server’s Toolbox
Current Version: 5.5j
Version Release Date: March 2005
Number of Users: 572
Pricing: $75 per month for customers with 375 jobs per month. Discounted pricing for smaller customers, as little as $20 per month for those with 100 jobs per month or less.
About the Company
Database Services, Inc. is a company based in Winter Park, FL. It was founded in 1988 and delivered it’s first process server software package that same year. We are a four person team dedicated to writing and supporting software for process servers. Bob Musser is the principle in the firm. His background is in writing software and improving processes to make manufacturing lines more efficient. He worked for a defense contractor as a manufacturing engineer after spending 9 years in the Navy (submarine service) working in the Nuclear Power field. He is well known in the process serving industry, having been active in the National and Florida Associations of Process Servers for many years. The support staff has a lot of experience as well. One ran a large process service office for 4 years before joining DBS; the other has spent his entire working career in tech support. The fourth member of the team has worked for 21 years in large company software departments. DBS is not now, and never has been, a company that serves papers and “does a little software on the side”. We are dedicated to helping process servers, large and small, become more efficient and more profitable.
About the Software
Process Server’s Toolbox is the “whole office” management tool for process servers. From the minute you log jobs into PST, you are tracking and managing your business like never before. You know who has possession of the papers, which Client gave them to you, any prepaid check amounts, etc. Throughout the life cycle of the job from birth to billing to receiving payments and paying servers, you stay in PST. Long after the job is complete, you can review your work and use data from previous jobs in new jobs. With our Web Services Package, your clients are as informed as you want them to be. They can see status of all their jobs on the web, or get automatically generated emails whenever you add information to the job. In short, PST is the total package. Tracking, generation of paperwork, reporting, and status in one easy to use program.
Is your solution web based or does it required a PC/server installation?
PST is installed completely on your computers, in your office. You don’t need to have an internet connection working to access your own data! Certain features of PST are web based – such as client status and server updates. In short, the part of PST that is best suited to running inside your own office runs locally, and only the part that needs to be externally accessed is built on a web interface.
Key Product Features
- Tracking of Jobs from Cradle to Grave
- Preparation of Affidavits or Proofs of Service
- Tracking of Servers and Server Pay
- Billing and Accounts Receivable
- Management Reports like “Unfinished Jobs Report”
- Status on the Web
- Status by Email
- Ability to transfer jobs and status from customer to customer
- Ability to transfer jobs and status from outside sources to PST customers and move status back.
Installation and configuration process
Simply download the installation program from our website and install PST on as many computers as you wish in your network. The download takes about 90 seconds on a high speed internet connection; the installation takes less time than that. Our techs have walked hundreds of users through this very easy process, and are available 11 hours a day to help you. As far as hardware requirements, PST will run on any computer running any Windows operating system since Win98.
What are the benefits of this product over other industry offerings?
The most important benefit is that PST is a solid, mature product that is backed by a solid, mature company – Database Services, Inc. We have been writing process server software and supporting Process Servers since 1988. We have a well-deserved reputation for fantastic tech support. We have watched a lot of software companies enter and leave our market in the last 17 years. Most of our current competition started doing process server software in the last few years.
Another is the size of our customer base. More process servers use PST than most of our competitor’s offerings combined. This means that you are using a tried and true solution that works across the US. Be careful when you compare different company’s marketing claims. One of our competitors claims he is the “market leader” on his website – despite having just a handful of customers and being in business less than two years!
PST runs in your office, on your computers. You don’t need to have a reliable internet connection to get to your own data. This means that you ‘pop’ from screen to screen at network speeds which are many times faster than even high speed cable internet connections. For those users who need to access their data from outside the office, we offer a SQL Server based version of PST, and a Web interface that lets servers update the jobs they hold with attempts and status information.
The ability to trade jobs with other process servers. PST is the only product available today that lets one user log information into the system, then automatically transfer that information to another unrelated process server. The “foreign” process server’s copy of PST will automatically send any status back to the original process server, who has to accept it and approve it before the status goes back to the client.
Future plans for the product?
Continued integration of handheld devices such as a native application for Pocket PC so that servers in the field can update jobs in real time. They can do that now with a web interface but we want to make it easier and more powerful.
Continuing to connect the courts, servers, and attorneys so that information goes from where it is to where it should be, while keeping process servers in the loop at all times.
We need to work harder on connecting large volume non-PST sources of work to our PST customers. We have several customers trading jobs with non-PST process servers; we’d like to have quite a few more.
What should a process server look for when choosing a product?
The company behind the software and their reputation for tech support. Tech support when you need it, not when they come back in from out in the field.
The length of time they’ve been around and their chances for being around in the future when you need them. You do not want to work with a process server who happens to sell software on the side.
The demonstrated ability to trade information between entities. This is going to be so big in the near future that it simply cannot be overstated.
What are the key technology issues facing the process serving industry?
Connecting process servers to court clerks. Connecting process servers to each other. Connecting process servers to their customers, the attorneys. Pushing job status to wherever it needs to be easily and reliably. Staying in the loop as e-filing and e-service threaten to connect attorneys to courts to recipients completely bypassing the process server.
Does your product address these issues? If so, how?
With PST, our customers have been able to trade job information between each other using our Web Services Pack since 2001. They have been able to push status to the web for their customers to see, and send email notifications after every attempt (if the client wants that much info) since that same year. We are beta testing with a handful of customers the ability to print PDF Proofs of Service from inside PST and transfer them to the clerk of court’s office. Database Services, Inc. is clearly the leader in the industry in moving data between unrelated companies.
Disclaimer
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