SignTrak Introduces New Feature: Off-line Ordering - Sync-Up Later

SignTrak announces an important new feature that allows users to access and interact with SignTrak through a browser without requiring a network connection.

Using the offline version, POS orders placed when the sales rep is out of signal are synchronized to source data when they reconnect. Virtually all SignTrak features and functions, such as order entry and reporting, are fully functional in the offline mode. Work completed offline is synchronized when the user next connects to the network, decreasing demands on network resources and better facilitating interactivity for the distributor’s mobile workforce.

Using SignTrak offline, for example, a presales rep could bring up a POS order form and work with it, offline, while in the retail establishment or on the road. When the sales rep next connects to the Internet via a wireless card, a WiFi connection or a wired connection, the orders previously input are instantly available to the distributor’s sign shop or POS manager. Online in the sign shop, the sign maker can receive the order, complete the sign, and send an e-mail to the sales rep with the date of completion. Any change to the information in the database is synchronized again whenever the user next has an opportunity to connect to the network –all without the mobile rep being required to ‘download’ via a modem or cell phone connection.

This new capability is so powerful that distributors can roll it out to a mobile sales force working in remote rural areas, where wireless signals are weak or unreliable, without losing the productivity gains from the web-based application. Sales reps that previously had to return to a connected computer at the office can now use SignTrak in front of the customer (if the mobile device is browser enabled) and synchronize their work orders once inside signal at any public wireless environment, at home or in the office. In most cases, the Order Offline/Sync Up Later feature enables the sign shop to receive POS orders earlier in the process, and to be able to plan their workload and manpower requirements further in advance.

“We are always looking for ways to make our product better fit the needs of our customers,” says Mark Fullerton, President and CEO of Information Alternatives, makers of SignTrak. “The enabling technology is something we decided to do after talking with dozens of beer distributors during our webinars. If our distributors have a need, and we can fulfill it, that is exactly what we want to do.”

The new offline functionality is available with any SignTrak subscription at no additional cost to the subscriber. Availability is October, 2007.