Case Study: Kittery Point

Situation

Prior to my purchase of Kittery Point Yacht Yard in 2004, the company had been exposed to three different operating software programs over 6 years. I needed a software program that could be customized to the way I wanted to run and measure my business. It needed it to come from a developer that had established itself as a predominant player for the marine industry, that had staying power, was investing in the future and had the support to back it up.

Critical Issue

The yard had significant inventory issues in its software for over a year along with an apparent lack of technical support to rectify the problem. The result was a lack of trust in the system, loss of key inventory controls, billing issues and unrecoverable costs. Also, the system did not have the capabilities to measure and record mooring and slip reservations. The result was unorganized mooring and slip management and underutilization of slip space/ lost revenues.

Why DockMaster

After researching every applicable software option for the industry, it was clear DockMaster was the clear and best choice. They had the largest installed customer base specific to the industry and had been at it as long as anyone. They were on solid financial footing and were investing in the product.

As it relates to the software: The service module could be as simple or as comprehensive as needed. The inventory and purchasing module was rock solid and I liked the process logic. The financial tables and accounting modules are customizable and appear straight forward. The VisualMarina and reservation module had the potential of expanding our slip knowledge to anyone who had access. The program could be completely customized to capture any level of information via its Report Generator. The security levels were sufficient and entirely customizable.

What They Provided

A professional and customer service oriented approach to understanding my needs, my timeline and my capabilities. I decided to force the issue and do a live conversion versus running parallel on the existing system. Other than the initial anxiety, the DockMaster support team was there throughout the process and beyond. The actual conversion was simple; we were operational overnight, with the exception of needed live training. They continued it hold our hands as needed until we had the base processes down. Bottom line - they did everything they said from the initial quote through installation and training.

Result

We have been on DockMaster since April of 2005. The results:

We have developed a level of operation codes that fits our business and maximizes our efficiencies. Work Order and labor entry has become a simple seamless daily process.

Invoicing, billing, time transfers and edits are easier than they have ever been. Billing was such an arduous process in the past, it was done once a month over the course of a full week including nights. It is now done weekly as a part of the normal business process.

On purchasing and inventory, we have no concern of missing Special Order parts during billing and all of our stock is bar coded and labeled. We completed our most recent and accurate stockroom audit in days versus weeks.

Today, anyone in the office who answers the phone can place a transient reservation without looking out the window.

The Report Generator is a very powerful and an almost unlimited source of information. In addition to statements and reports in the accounting module, we have developed 11 customized reports that can be run at a keystroke to effectively measure our business in areas from billable hours, to billed profit margin, to internal costs, to storage utilization …
Regardless of size, a marine services based business is complex and is made up of several smaller businesses. The versatility of DockMaster has simplified ours and we continue to find greater efficiencies in the capabilities of the software. Although the need is much less frequent, the DockMaster team continues to be there whenever we have a question concern or idea; the same holds true for the vast fraternity of DockMaster users we have come to know.

Bottom Line
I made the right decision.

Tom Allen
President