Commercial Integrator June 2022 - 74

3 QUESTIONS
SPONSORED CONTENT
D-Tools on Key Product
Updates, Evolving
Market Conditions
CI chats with D-Tools' Randy Stearns about
important feature additions to System Integrator
and D-Tools Cloud.
Commercial Integrator: How
did 2021 end up for D-Tools?
Randy Stearns: 2021 was a
fantastic year. D-Tools typically
enjoys double-digit growth, but
we were up a full 25% last year.
Further, we didn't fall victim to
The Great Resignation. We have
a solid and loyal team, which I
appreciate and never take for
granted. And finally, our products
are doing great in the marketplace.
D-Tools Cloud, which
we released just over three years
ago, is killing it. There will soon
be 1,000 companies using that
platform. We're adding 30 to 40
new subscribers a month.
SI, our flagship product, is
also doing great. It's a workhorse,
and customers love it.
The average customer lifetime
for SI is about nine years, which
demonstrates an incredibly loyal
customer base. I'm very pleased
with how 2021 ended up, and
2022 is looking even stronger.
CI: What's new with the
D-Tools Cloud and System
Integrator platforms?
Stearns: We continue to progress
on both platforms. With
SI, the product used by most of
the CI readership, we recently
released version 18. Besides sev74
eral
smaller features, including
critical performance upgrades
and search improvements, we
announced two major features.
Details are available at
D-Tools.com/whats-new-insystem-integrator.
For a long
time, customers have been
requesting the ability to quote
large projects on a quantity basis,
which may seem to be a simple
request. But because of the very
exacting nature of the software,
delivering on that request has
been a challenge. In SI, each
item added to a system design
has a particular product ID,
wire ID, is attached to a unique
location, system, position in a
rack, connections on a schematic
drawing, etc. So, it's hard to just
combine these into a single line
item. But the good news is that
we finally figured it out, and it
is available in this most recent
release. Estimating and quoting
large projects will now take half
the time - if not less.
Secondly, customers have
been asking to incorporate
inventory management for a
long time. We have opted not to
build that in directly, but we did
complete bi-directional API integrations
with two excellent inventory-management
solutions:
Commercial Integrator JUNE 2022
Randy Stearns,
CEO, D-Tools.
TRXio and Tracknicity. Now, our
customers have a better option
for managing inventory while ensuring
that data flows seamlessly
in and out of D-Tools.
D-Tools Cloud's development
continues at a rapid pace. The
product is now well suited for
commercial integrators that
specialize in small to mid-size
projects. We released several
project-management features
recently - scheduling, project
planning, task management,
timekeeping, etc., as well as an
integration with QuickBooks
Desktop. We also continue
to improve the flexibility and
customization of our solution
with line-item adjustments,
fixed-package pricing and other
customer-requested features.
CI: Share your observations
on current challenges and the
future of the industry.
Stearns: In speaking with
systems integrators, I continue
to hear that the market is strong,
but they're impacted by two
significant forces: supply-chain
issues and the labor shortage.
Supply-chain constraints and
delays should improve as the
economy pulls back from its
post-COVID-19 frenzy. As it
relates to the labor shortage,
it is important to note that it's
real and likely long-term. The
economy grew at 5.6% last year.
This year, economists project 3%
to 3.6% GDP growth. And the
Congressional Budget Office
is projecting 4% growth, year
over year, through the end of the
decade. So, this labor-shortage
problem isn't going away.
The way to counteract it, in my
mind, is to figure out how to get
more efficiency and productivity
out of your existing team. There
are several ways to achieve
that. Specifically as it relates to
software, software is designed
to help standardize operations,
improve efficiency and increase
productivity. So, my recommendation
is that companies exploit
the power of those products
through training and by taking
full advantage of the available
features. All too often, I see companies
using D-Tools as simply
a quoting solution or a drawing
tool, which is equivalent to using
Excel as a calculator. It does so
much more.
So, perhaps, instead of looking
to add more people - which
can be expensive, time-consuming
and difficult - look to exploit
your own in-house resources.
commercialintegrator.com
http://www.D-Tools.com/whats-new-in http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator June 2022

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