D-Tools Debuts Retail Solution Design Software Package

CONCORD, CALIF. — D-Tools is offering a retail version of its system design software, the Retail Solution (RS) package that allows retail salespeople to provide customers with fast, accurate project quotes while pricing and other variables remain in the hands of management.

The RS software, priced between $999 and $3,999, is a modified version of the company's widely used system design software tailored to the needs of retailers that offer custom installation services. The custom installer version of the D-Tools software automates and simplifies a project's design, engineering, documentation and estimating processes. With the new retail version, sales personnel from multiple store locations share the same database to work with customers on product selection for each room, while pricing, design and project management remain back-office functions.

"Retail salespeople don't have the training to calculate labor hours and other aspects of a custom installation, yet it can be a very profitable area for specialty retailers," explained president/founder Adam Stone. "We've re-worked our software in a way that allows a salesperson to automatically generate an estimate using data specified by management."

D-Tools' success in the custom installation market is based on the ability of the company's software to speed up the entire bidding and project management processes while at the same time enhancing accuracy from end to end. Everyone involved in a project is working from the same data, with changes and updates automatically reflected throughout the entire project file.

In the retail version, management creates all of the job's costing functions in advance and they are automatically included in the salesperson's quote. Automatically, a proposal is prepared that includes labor costs, products and parts costs and an equipment list.