So now what?

So you've seen Cruise, and decided you need a little more information.  Here are a few steps you should take.

1. Decide if it’s the right product

Since we don’t make any money selling over-priced hardware we simply can’t send a sales person to every customer that wants a demo.  We rely on trade shows, telephone demonstrations, our web-site, and good references from existing customers to make our sales.  If you’d like a telephone demo we can send you software that lets you work Cruise inside your store while we are on the phone giving a demo.  This way you can have as many people from your store come into the demo room and join the conference call to see how Cruise would impact their job at your store.

Initial Cruise Cost per store:	$12,500
Monthly Maintenance:	$ 445

The initial cost includes software licensing, the installation, the data transfer, and the on-site training done at the time of installation.  

2. Get a hardware quote

One of the features of Cruise is that we don’t sell hardware.  Many of our competitors make more money on selling you hardware then they do on creating software solutions for your business.  It’s no wonder they don’t call back after they’re done installing!  We don’t want to fall into that situation; therefore you don’t buy hardware from us.  You should contact a local computer vendor or one of the national suppliers like Dell or Gateway.  We have customers using all sorts of computers and we are happy to help you decide what the best fit for your company is and we can review any quotes you get to make sure it fits our requirements.  We’ve included a list of basic requirements with this information to help make the process easier.   

 Server

Pentium II 
400 mhz
256 mb RAM memory
12 gb hard drive
100 mb ethernet network card
4 gb tape backup device
Windows NT 4.0 Server with enough clients licenses for each station

 Workstations

Pentium Celeron or better
366 mhz
120 mb RAM memory
4 gb hard drive
100 mb ethernet network card
Windows 98 (not 2000)

 Printers

HP Laser Jet 5 (must be PCL4 or better)
Note: Use the P series of HP Laser printers only in very low volume situations
Ithaca Receipt Printers

Misc.

100 mb network hub with enough ports for each workstation and server
Category 5 network cabling to each workstation
Bar code scanner must be a keyboard wedge type scanners that can send a F12 pre-fix
Receipt printers must be Ithaca POS series
Cash drawers must be able to plug into Ithaca POS series printers

 3. Schedule a time for installation

Whenever possible we try to install around a weekend.  That gives us some time when the store is closed to do the conversion and go live on the new system on Monday.  If your thinking you should wait until fall to switch don’t.  All of our customers are surprised by how small a deal the conversion really is.  In just a week or two you won’t even remember your old system.  So don’t waste months – do it now.  Typically we spend five days in your store.  Two days converting your old computer and three days training.  While our training might seem brief compared to our competition, or even your old company, we think it tells how well our product is written and works.  If you need two weeks of training to figure out a computer system it’s probably too hard to use and no amount of training will make that better!  We are only a toll-free call away from helping you learn more about your new computer. 

Please remember that Cruise is not the only application you will want to run on your computer network.  Since we use networks of personal computers, the opportunities for your business are almost limitless.  Because of this the specifications below are only the minimum required to run Cruise POS.  You may want to get bigger, better, or faster machines based on the specific things each computer user might be doing. 

While we don’t sell hardware we are happy to help you communicate with either a local or national vendor in getting the right computers for your store.

sales@cruisesoft.com