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A Message From Jim Saad, President, Mover's Suite Software, LLC

Greetings!

I would like to share my history in the Moving & Storage industry and the history of Mover's Suite Software to give you a glimpse of our commitment to the industry and to your success. Also, I would like to share our business model with you and look into the future to provide you with some ideas on how this acquisition may affect your organization.

After working in the moving business for seven years in the Boulder/Denver area, I was able to buy a five-employee agency in western Colorado. That was in 1980. From that modest beginning a strong moving business evolved – with over 300 employees in four locations, producing $25 million in annual revenues and over $10 million in van line interstate transportation. In June of 2005 I sold my agency business to three members of my management team.

You may be wondering why I decided to make the transition from the moving business to the full-time practice of developing, offering and servicing business solutions for professional movers. The sale of my agency business was the ultimate result of a process that unfolded over the past couple of years. It certainly didn't happen because the moving business wasn't good to me. Since deregulation in 1980, movers have experienced downward pressure on operating margins while at the same time the consumer has demanded more for their money. The effect of the ensuing highly competitive marketplace caused me to look internally at costs, pricing and workflow efficiencies to recoup the dollars being lost. In looking for answers from our accounting systems, I realized that either they weren't there or, when present, were obviously unreliable. I couldn't derive margin information that I could rely on confidently to make important business decisions.

As an accountant, I looked in vain for internal controls to limit unbilled revenue, prevent duplicate payments, etc. Additionally, I sought efficient workflows, with a minimum of redundant activity, and found instead a Rube Goldberg process that complicated rather than streamlined our already complex business procedures. Communication between coordinators and operations people was informal and relatively unaccountable. Billing clerks required a year or more of training and experience before they became effective at their jobs. And those jobs required them to be detectives or mind-readers in order to know what services to bill and how to code transactions to the proper accounts in the general ledger. And on and on.

I knew that significant values were failing to reach the bottom line – not because the sales were not there, not because the services were not performed well – but because our business systems and controls failed to prevent common mover's heartburn issues, i.e., unbilled revenue and wasted, redundant, expensive effort. The accounting systems in that environment were incapable of telling me what knobs to turn, what adjustments to make, which business segments were productive and which ones were not paying their keep. I knew that customer service was suffering because key information was often not available "in real time" at the interface between our business and the customer.

I had to do something, so we initiated a project to develop a solution for the moving business that would address the points of pain that professional movers experience every day. We set out to build an integrated system that tied Sales and Customer Service to Operations, with the results of their efforts flowing seamlessly into financial reports that provided management the information needed to support timely business decisions. It soon became clear that the project would be one of such scope and depth that our moving business couldn't support it on its own.

We formed an independent company to pursue the development of an enterprise system that would be reasonably easy to use, employ up-to-date technology, eliminate redundant data entry and other administrative activity, provide a comprehensive scope and establish two-way interfaces with van line systems and "best of breed" specialized software. As the development of Mover's Suite began unfolding, it became apparent to me that my personal involvement would be required in each phase of its development. I was faced with the choice of maintaining my focus on the moving business that had grown up over the course of two decades or essentially shifting careers.

I had become intrigued by the potential for Mover's Suite to improve the performance of many, many moving businesses. It had become something of a quest for me. I made the difficult decision to sell my moving business and devote myself fully to making Mover's Suite the uniquely "tuned-in" solution for professional movers. This decision confirmed my total commitment to serving the customers of Mover's Suite Software. We released the initial version of our move management modules in 2002. Our accounting and financial services modules were initially released in early 2004. The current release of Mover's Suite is now operating in installations across the country with movers representing nearly all major van lines and substantial independent movers. The profile of our customer ranges from movers with one location and five users of the software to companies with 18 locations and over 350 users system-wide. Our business model is unique to the industry.

We are first a consulting company offering business process and financial relationship analysis. We employ industry experts and full time accountants to assist with this process. We use Mover's Suite combined with Microsoft Dynamics – Great Plains accounting software to help implement and manage best of industry practices, all in an effort to produce value for your organization. We are working hard every day to enhance this already robust solution, responding directly to suggestions by our user family, broadening the scope of Mover's Suite and fine tuning existing functions. Thirty-five percent (35%) of our annual budget is placed back into Research and Development. Additionally, our staff of eight full-time engineers frequently manages outsourced projects that enable us to scale our development efforts as the demand for innovation and customized development present themselves.

Our February 2007 purchase of TTI is yet another step in the evolving process of providing the ultimate enterprise software solution for the moving and storage industry. Our business plan includes the retention of the existing East Coast office and staff of TTI. We will continue to support the Trans Plus and RMS products until such time as it makes sense to converge all products into one offering that encompasses proven functionality derived from many years in production.

I and the Mover's Suite team have the same passion, commitment and conviction of purpose for our new TTI/RMS agents. We look forward to meeting and getting to know each of you, your businesses and your goals. Please feel free to give me a call to discuss any questions or concerns you may have.

Sincerely,

Jim Saad,
President

 

Jim Saad, President, Mover's Suite Software

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