Is anyone using Simply Reliable Software or Bid Magic? If yes, what do you think about them? Any relevant comparisons to D-tools and Horizon also helpful.

There are several threads on this subject throughout this forum - I would check them out. We are in the process of looking at several software solutions for our business. IMHO, here is what we've found thus far.

1. Any software solution is "expensive"
2. SRS has great functionality - includes primitive CRM, an OK proposal layout (with not much customization), OK project management, powerful inventory, several other features, but the functionality to tie it all together. Again, this is my opinion, but the interface sucks.
3. D-Tools is good for heavy design, and I hear the proposals can look really nice. No inventory, CRM, Marketing, etc. The Project Management side is powerful.
4. Both SRS and D-Tools interface to third party accounting software, namely Quickbooks - but the interface itself is somewhat primitive - it's just not a seamless integration in my opinion.
5. What I'd love to see is a one-stop turnkey software solution to run the whole company - completely eliminating double entry on all levels (Accounting, CRM, Marketing, Proposals/Sales, Inventory, Project Management). This type of solution is going to cost a lot of money (probably more than both D-Tools and SRS), but SRS comes closest - in functionality alone. My experiences have indicated that SRS tech support leaves much to be desired.
6. I steered clear of Horizon when a few people told me the support is pretty terrible - I also believe the interface is similar to SRS (both are written with FileMaker).
7. Not familiar with Bid Magic.

These are MY findings. With ANY solution, much time and man hours need to be dedicated to get it up and running (60 to 90 days is usually recommended). Many people, I'm sure, have found otherwise. Like I said, check out the other threads.

We have had fantastic support from Horizon Software.

i am still in the trial period of Bid Magic. Jury's still out. I flat out haven't had time to populate the database with much equipment yet, and I'm not sure how the labor built in with each piece of equipment is going to work. I think I'll have to end up with two products for each product - one for new construction and one for old construction. I am going to try that this weekend and see how it works.

Plus, labor is bundled together at the bottom in a lump sum, so the client doesn't see how much labor for each room or part is. This could hurt more than anything else. Might be hard to have a big project of $60k in equipment and a lump sum of $10k to install it.

Anyone else?

What you're about to read is MY opinion, but also first hand experience.

STAY AWAY FROM HORIZON!!! In fairness though, our CEDIA President uses it. BUT, he has basically COMPLETELY redesigned it for his company's use. Why did he redesign it? Because it sucks! Things may have changed by now, but my experience until I switched to D-Tools in the Summer of '04 was as follows:

SUPPORT: Call on the phone and you get Jim's wife who is very nice, but no help at all with the software. Jim was the ONLY person available for support and many times he was out of the office or on the phone. One time he was out performing an install. I don't know about you guys, but I prefer a software company to be a full time operation with no other irons in the fire.

NAVIGATION: POOR, POOR, POOR!!! Talk about primitive. I'm talking about mid 90's.

USER'S GUIDE: Let's just say whoever wrote it has serious "expressive laguage" deficiencies. It's not very clear or detailed. Plus, it's itty bitty...very little content IMHO. Only offers basic reference help.

DESIGN: Graphics Draw! Need I say more. Very sad program for design. Anyone ever used MS Paint? I'm exagerating, but not far off.

FUNCTIONALITY: This is a tough one to explain weel enough to paint a mental picture, so I'll describe only the method to generate a proposal. Basically, you have a list of very sad subsystem/feature descriptions (yes, you can edit them or create your own to improve it). Although that wasn't really what I disliked, it did add insult to injury. It was the steps you had to go through to select each text block and how the method required to arrange them in a specific order. Get this...you type a letter in the box next to the text you want to use (a, b, c, etc.) making sure you remembered your abc's. The order was determined alphanumerically to generate a proposal report . The big PITA (pain in the @$$) was realizing "Oops! I forgot to mark the touchpanel description," at which point you'd go back and type the appropriate letter next to the text to set the order. Here's the problem. What if you've used every letter from "A" to "P?" Now you have two "G's" and required to change all the letters after "G." In other words, change the "H" marking the next text block to an "I," then the next text block's "I" to a "J" and so on. PITA!

We are now using D-Tools PRO, so I'll only mention a few things about it because it's late and I need some sleep.

We all know D-Tools is expensive. No argument there, but one thing holds true; You get what you pay for. Keep in mind that the cost of D-Tools relative to what other industries pay for their software is cheap. It is a PITA to set up, but the end result is worth the effort IMHO. I do advise you to attend the training and/or participate in the partner program to have someone experienced set it up. I made the big mistake of being a cheap DIY'r. Big mistake. This makes setup MUCH faster.

D-Tools uses MS Access and MS Visio as its platform. I'm a visual person, so the use of Visio is a huge hit for me. Ever heard of Middle Atlantic's software Rack Tools? D-Tools designed it, so they play perfectly together. D-Tools a very powerful software program and I recommend you have someone dedicated to using it if you have that much business.

D-Tools is better all the way around. My favorite is its use of Visio for layout and design. Each piece of gear has a bunch of fields to enter lots of equipment details including power consumption, BTU's, etc. The Manufacturer Partner program is a great resource that provides access to a database to import manufacturer's equipment data into D-Tool's. OK, I'm beat. Check out thier website and watch some of the videos. It's very insiteful. I may write more later.