ServiceCEO May 2005 Newsletter

Technology Tips

Tips for Mastering E-Mail Overload

If your e-mail inbox is threatening to take over your entire workday, this ultimate how-to will teach you to deal effectively with the information onslaught.

You can start mastering your e-mail overload by demonstrating good etiquette:

To learn more, read Steven Robbins’ article in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Tips for Mastering
E-Mail Overload

Management Tips

19 Ways to Raise Money for Your Business

Whether you've been in business one week or five years, an infusion of funds is always welcome. But what type of financing is best for your business?

To learn more, read Entrepreneur Magazine's mini-guides on 19 financing sources.

19 Ways to Raise Money for Your Business

ServiceCEO^® Referral Program

Refer a Customer to Us and We Will Add 60 Support Minutes (a $100 value) to Your Account!

For more detailed information and to refer a company to us, please complete the submission form below and we will contact your colleague.

Drop Us A Line!

Send us management & technology tips you find interesting. And, if you want your company to appear in ServiceCEO^® Newsletter, drop us a line!

Critter Control Becomes 38th Franchisor to Select ServiceCEO

Founded in 1982, Critter Control is the nation's leading wildlife and animal damage control company with 100 offices in North America serving municipalities and residential and commercial customers.

Based in Traverse City, Mich., Critter Control has developed integrated and ecologically sound management practices to resolve wildlife conflicts and practices live trapping and relocation of healthy wild animals.

Critter Control^®, the nation's leading animal and wildlife control firm, has selected ServiceCEO as its exclusive software solution

We welcome Critter Control's franchisees into the Insight Direct family!

“We found that our custom-built solution was not meeting the demands of our Critter Control franchisees,” said Kevin Clark, CEO, Critter Control. “After researching several alternatives we selected ServiceCEO based on its breadth of customizable features and the training and technical support services offered by Insight Direct.”

You Build the Franchise. We Build the Software.™
Critter Control’s decision reflects the emergence of a new trend for franchisors that choose to partner with outside software companies rather than develop time-consuming and costly in-house software systems.

Today, franchisors are choosing to purchase off-the-shelf software, like ServiceCEO, in order to build a consistent platform across all franchisees, while also allowing individual franchisees the flexibility to configure software to fit their unique business needs.

This represents a distinct shift in the franchise model for software delivery: proprietary software was often developed in-house by franchisors, thereby keeping unique software features from other competitors.

Yet, what franchisors have come to realize is that the time commitment required, as well as the cost of building and maintaining proprietary software, is prohibitive -- and it is virtually impossible to keep up with the latest technology while responding effectively to franchisee requests.

Moreover, franchisors have determined that software features alone do not differentiate them from competitors; instead it is the franchise system of customer service, operating procedures, marketing, vendor relationships and knowledge management as a whole that creates competitive advantage.

Franchisors that have adopted this new approach have reallocated their time and money once previously dedicated to software development, and reinvested it back into their franchise system. This significant step has allowed franchisors to achieve faster growth in both the number of franchises sold and the size of those franchises.

Next Customer Showcase: Wilson Heating & Air Conditioning, 6/9 at 4:00 ET

Want to see how a $6 million HVAC company uses ServiceCEO?

Wilson Heating & Air Conditioning is a $6 million, 70-person/20-van HVAC company headquartered in Frankfort, Illinois. Wilson installs and services heating and air-conditioning equipment for residential and commercial customers in the greater Chicagoland area.

We look forward to Ms. Soukup sharing her expertise in our software and the impact ServiceCEO has had on her business.

Wilson Heating &
Air Conditioning'
Customer Showcase
Thursday, 6/9 at 4pm ET

Feature Highlight: Go Paperless with Document Linking

Linking to Customer Records

Task Linking to Customer
and Employee Records

Linking to Employee Records

Your office can go paperless with Document Linking in ServiceCEO!

Link any digital file to the appropriate customer and employee records in ServiceCEO to ensure important documents are never lost and always just a few mouse clicks away.

Would you like “1-click” access to all the computer files relevant to a given customer? With ServiceCEO's Document Linking feature you can do just that!

For example, you can quickly open a Word document or letter from within a customer's record. Rather than store your employee’s application and I-9 in an old filing cabinet, scan those files into your computer and link them directly to the employee’s record.

This simple, yet powerful, feature gives business owners the ability to:

With a simple scanning device, ServiceCEO offices can truly go paperless. No more walking to filing cabinets or searching your computer for that important file.

With ServiceCEO's Document Linking feature, business owners and their office staff have immediate access to files so they may spend more time on other important tasks of the day.