Earlier this week Marathon Data Systems announced the dates and locations for their 2012 PestPac User Conference. For the first time ever the company announced that it will hold two conferences, one in Florida and one in California; giving clients a choice of which conference to attend. For the 2012 User Conference Marathon will implement client feedback from previous years’ conferences like never before.

The office management software a company chooses becomes a fundamental part of business operations for many years, so proper implementation and effective use is critical.  In the pest control industry, Marathon Data Systems has had a long-standing reputation for offering industry-leading support and training with its PestPac software. But being the best doesn’t mean that Marathon stopped focusing on further improvements; over the last two years there have been a number of enhancements and improvements in the areas of training and support for PestPac clients.

PestPac offers a number of tools to help users schedule a new appointment or reschedule an existing one quickly and optimally based on their existing schedule. Until recently, the primary tool used to accomplish single appointment scheduling was the Quick Scheduler. With one click, the Quick Scheduler brings up a calendar which color codes other upcoming appointments based on the distance from the new appointment.The CSRs or dispatcher can then drop the new appointment into an open time slot adjacent to a nearby appointment.

This week Marathon Data Systems is offering two free webinars for PestPac clients centered on the benefits of utilizing a GPS solution, particularly an integrated solution like PestPac GPS. The webinars will also touch on using the Google Maps-powered Visual Route Manager and PestPac’s route optimization module, RouteOp, in conjunction with PestPac GPS to see maximum cost savings and benefits.

In a few short years, social media has transformed from an online platform reserved for teenagers, to an increasingly prevalent channel for people to interact with each other and businesses. Today, Facebook reaches 73% of the total U.S. internet population each month (comscore.com). Many SMBs want to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy, but find it difficult to devote the time to managing social accounts and to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of social media.

PestPac’s newly redesigned Visual Route Manager (VRM) is now available. The new VRM features functionality similar to PestPac’s classic VRM which utilizes MapPoint, with a few key enhancements.

Marathon Data Systems announced earlier this month that its PestPac RouteOp module is now out of beta testing phase and ready for general use. PestPac RouteOp is the long awaited route optimization module integrated with PestPac software.

Marathon Data Systems is starting off 2012 with technology meetings scheduled to visit cities around the country. For the past several years, Marathon has hosted a series of technology meetings twice a year to showcase new and existing products to current clients as well as prospective clients interested in learning more about PestPac Software.

The state of the current economy has business owners everywhere working to squeeze every dollar of efficiency out of their operations.  Pest Management and other service companies in particular are feeling the pressure of increased operating costs along with reduced purchasing power from strained consumers and businesses.

This year Marathon Data Systems showcased a number of exciting new products & services at PestWorld.  Some of the most highly anticipated include the new Google-maps powered Visual Route Manager, PestPac Route Optimization, PestPac GPS, PestPac CallAhead, and the new Customer Relationship Management module.

Come visit Marathon Data Systems at booth #s 412 and 413 in October at PestWorld 2011. This year we’ll be exhibiting some new and exciting products, services, and enhancements in the area of mobile software applications, sales automation, customer relationship management, marketing services and much more!

Did you know that idling a vehicle for 1 hour burns approximately 1 gallon of gasoline? Do you know how may hours your technicians are idling their vehicles? Do you know when your technicians are driving aggressively or using the vehicle after hours? If the answer is no to any of these questions, you should take a look at PestPac’s new PestPac GPS vehicle tracking module.

With the bed bug epidemic growing rapidly in the U.S. with no end in sight, the increased demand for tracking management software services for multi-unit commercial buildings has presented both huge opportunities and challenges for pest management professionals today.

With Hurricane Irene recently touching down on the east coast, the topic of data security has been fresh on the mind of many businesses. Hosting customer data on a server within your office can leave you vulnerable to potential business disruption and a devastating loss of customer data should a natural disaster strike.