HOW TO BUY TECHNOLOGY UPGRADES

JIM MARKEL: Not being computer savvy myself, I was very hesitant in purchasing technology on a major upgrade. And probably the biggest decision I made was the type of retail management system that I put in place in dealing with our customers. And at some point the access to information was crucial. And so I did my research, I looked at different systems out there, and I shied away from propriety systems that seemed to trap my information. And so I narrowed it down to three systems, and I actually paid Patrick to analyze the systems, and he gave me a pro and con sheet of the different software systems.

(voiceover continues) Technology Upgrades: -Do Research -Stay Away from Proprietary Systems -Pay an Expert to Analyze the Choices

And from that I was able to make, almost a, a very educated decision on where to go with what we went with, and we went with, if it's okay to mention, I went with the Great Plains Accounting System, which is something that's almost a professional level accounting system, and it's scaleable, and I went with the Microsoft RMS system. And we were one of the first ones in Montana to purchase that system-they've done a case study on us about how we're using that, and it's totally scaleable. And all the equipment that went with it we overbought. We bought, you know, big server, big PCs that hooked into it, and we've grown right into them, it's been scary how fast we've grown into them.