In fact, the speed at which technology changes our lives is kind of overwhelming. It’s hard to keep up. What is the cloud or SAAS? What technology is a worthy investment and which is just a trendy scam? If you do decide to try a new software, how do you even begin implementing it and training yourself and your employees?  

The waste industry has a reputation of falling behind in its adoption of new technologies. Perhaps because stepping into unknown territory is scary and means leaving the security of what you know behind, leaving behind how you’ve always done it. 

Taking the time to learn and use new technology is now a non-negotiable. Refusing to embrace it not only makes it harder to compete, but means losing efficiency in your business and missing crucial opportunities. If you are not careful, you will continue to fall behind and ultimately end up in a “tech slump”.

While the path out of such slump can take some time and will take care, here are some simple tips and tools to improve your interaction with technology as a hauler and avoid a tech slump: 

Route optimization 

Making your routes as efficient as possible is a huge way to cut costs. You’ll be saving on fuel, truck maintenance and time. Investing in the technology that gives you this added efficiency is a game changer.   

Update your website  

Your website should be easy to navigate and give customers a clear idea about who you are and what you do. The process of signing up for services should be seamless. If your website is outdated, you should consider cleaning it up and making it look more presentable. Here’s 5 ways to make it look more professional. 

Invest in online bill pay 

56% of bills in the U.S. are paid online. Yeah. It’s definitely time to start investigating into setting that up for your hauling business. Online billing significantly reduces the time your staff will be on the phone and saves all the money you’re dumping into paper, ink and postage. The money adds up. Check out our vendor My Online Bill to find out more and ditch the billing hassle.  

Move away from the printer

This kind of touches on the previous topic. As a hauler, you shouldn’t be printing out every document under the sun. It’s not only time consuming to print out each route list or work order and…it’s expensive. Find ways to send PDF’s and check out Alpine’s Visual On Route which saves you loads of headache by syncing route lists and work orders straight from the office to the trucks.   

Get on the cloud 

What the heck is this cloud everyone talks about? Contrary to popular belief the cloud is not a fluffy cotton ball in the sky. Cloud computing means instead of having all the computer hardware and software on site (I.e. servers, tech manager,) these services are hosted and provided by another company and accessed via the Internet. *Cough, cough* Alpine Live is our hosting solution, which again keeps your migraines at bay. 

These 5 helpful tips are a great start, if you’re looking to stay up to date with current software and technology. Taking the time to set up a strategy to keep your company culture on track with technology and in line with your vision, will leave you ahead of the curve.  

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In this final blog we will tackle a somewhat “touchy” but necessary subject…technology. Real or not, fear can be the cause of a host of emotions and apprehensions.  I recall when my oldest son was 9 years old and we watched the Wizard of Oz.  For some reason I will never understand, the flying Monkeys of the Wicked Witch of the West terrified my son.  His irrational fears lead him to believe these ghastly creatures were living under his bed, in his closet or just outside his window.    He was convinced they were after him!  No matter how much I would explain how preposterous that notion was, his emotions would not allow his rationale to be swayed.

Fear Not

Waste management software, like the flying Monkeys of the Wizard of Oz, can cause fear.  Maybe the fear is not anxiety about pain or impending evil but it is about ones apprehension to technology.  The irrational fear of losing control, the uncomfortable feeling of change, or the inability to grasp all that technology has to offer may have driven your decision to limit the use of technology in your company.  If you are such a person, I have two words for you: Fear Not!  Over 10 years ago I took a position with a software development firm and though I was surrounded by technology, I had a fear of using it.  I recall the words of advice from my senior programmer that changed how I viewed technology: “Don’t fear technology, anything you can do, can usually be undone.”  That simple bit of wisdom freed me up to experiment and begin to see technology for what it is…a tool to make my job easier.

Beyond Flying Monkeys

It is never too late to be an adopter of technology.  However, like any business tool it must be evaluated in light of your business strategy and budget.  While there are hardware (servers, laptops, etc…), software (applications that run on the servers and/or laptops), people (technology support), and facility (server room/closet) issues to consider in your journey to adopt technology, this blog will focus on your line-of-business software.  Once you have moved beyond the fear of technology, here are some things to consider with respect to your line-of-business waste management software:

1. Does it solve a real problem or does it create more problems?
2. Does it help you create efficiencies or increase productivity?
3. Does it allow you to capture revenue streams or cut expenses?
4. Does it allow you to serve your customers better (Must Do #1)?
5. Does it give you the kind of information that will help you make better decisions for your business?
6. Does it give you a competitive edge or allow you to compete with both smaller and larger companies (Must Do #3)?

Do the Math

The software should give you a good ROI (Return on Investment).  ROI can be measured in both tangible and intangible ways.  A tangible ROI for the software might be its ability to capture additional revenue streams like “extras”.  Anintangible ROI for the software might be its ability to retain customers by empowering CSRs to respond quickly with accurate and comprehensive information. Objectively look at your business and see where the gaps are.  Are your CSR’s spending too much time bogged down in the paper trail?  Is inaccurate communication between your drivers and the CSR’s causing customer attrition? Does your lack of technology impact your ability to compete with other haulers in the area?

Your line-of-business software is one of your most important investments.  You cannot afford to go down a road with a software application that cannot accomplish all the considerations above.  Don’t be afraid of change and the introduction of a comprehensive software into your company.  It is better to be late when it comes to technology than never.  It is also never too late to put away those fears and become an informed technology user.

Alpine Technology Corporation has been serving the waste industry for over 35 years with waste and route management software for both the office and the trucks.  Their office software,Visual RAMS-Pro, provides billing, work orders, container inventory, route management, customer and account management and much, much more. Their industry-leading truck solution, Visual On-Route, is far more than a mere routing software and allows the driver to be connected real-time to the office.  Visual On-Route keeps the drivers accountable while allowing haulers the ability to generate additional revenue streams and cut expenses through efficiencies.

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Those of us who grew up listening to these simple, yet profound, tales understood that each and every tale had a “moral” that seemed to resonate with the old and young alike.  The “Ass and the gardener” taught us that though we might want change, it is not always for the better (an ancient version of “the grass is always greener on the other side”, I believe).  The “Wolf and the Crane” urged us not to be greedy but live life with an attitude of gratitude (sounds like a sermon I have heard at least 100 times). The “Fox and the Crow” warned us not to trust flatterers. So what of this “Boy Who Cried Wolf” fable?  What is the moral of this tragic tale of sheepish proportions?  To answer that question, one must wear two hats.  The first hat is that of the shepherd boy.  The moral for him is that he should tell the truth, knowing that if he is a habitual liar people will discard him and not take him at his word.  This, of course, is social suicide and a lesson many a student has learned.  The second hat is that of the villagers.  The moral for them is that trust has its limits and that they need to exercise prudence when making decisions about how they should react to warnings.

As a child, I never heard the second application of the fable from the perspective of the villagers.  I was only told by my parents, teachers and baby-sitters that lying has its consequences.  So let’s take a few minutes and apply this latent application to none other than the behemoth Microsoft itself.  Over the years, it has developed or acquired more than a handful of software applications, operating systems and languages.  As time and technology naturally progresses, many of these solutions get updated or upgraded to newer versions.  Microsoft is no different in this regard.  Instead of supporting multiple generations of solutions (which would be practically impossible), it has to draw a line in the sand as to which ones it will support.  By the mere fact that they are not supporting all the other solutions does not necessarily mean that all previous versions are substandard or obsolete.

This is where the shepherd boy cries wolf analogy comes in.  You see, many waste management software sales people are like that boy crying wolf to the villagers.  To better position their routing software, and denigrate the value of others, they cry out to the villagers about the competition, “their software is obsolete; it will not be supported and you cannot risk your business staying with them.” Wearing the hat of the shepherd boy, I would say that he is not telling the truth regarding the natural state of technical solutions. But I want to spend time wearing the hat of the villager, which in this case, represents those unwitting customers that do not fully understand the implications of software evolution.  They, like the villagers, need to exercise prudence when making judgments, and as a result decisions, with respect to the direction they need to go technologically.  Shame on the shepherd boy for his lying but shame on the villagers for listening!

To bring this a little closer to home, Alpine Technology is faced with a similar situation with respect to Visual FoxPro, a language produced by Microsoft and the language in which Alpine’s waste management software application Visual RAMS- Pro is presently written.  Since the announcement that Microsoft will only support FoxPro through 2015, I have heard many a “shepherd boy” crying out to “villagers” about the inadequacies of any application written in this language and the woes of those customers that find themselves attached to this sinking ship.  Though I can’t follow around such ill-informed wolf-criers I can take the opportunity to use any platform I have to address the issues.  So, for the sake of those interested and prudent villagers, here are the facts:

• Fact #1– Development languages become obsolete.  When Visual RAMS-Pro V6 was developed, the language du jour was Microsoft’s Visual Basic 6.  VB6 moved into the “unsupported” phase in 2008, yet Microsoft still ensures the runtime is still operational in Win7.  The life span of any language is dependent on the company that owns it…period.  So here we are 5 years after VB6 is unsupported and it still works.  In the case of FoxPro 9, 5 years after unsupported will be 2020, although this can’t be predicted with certainty.  However, it is possible to continue running older systems for many years by selectively accepting updates.
• Fact #2-RAMS incorporated SQL server, a leading database solution that displaces the FoxPro tables, in its last two releases.  SQL uses long life industry standards and, as a result, poses no real risk to the operations of those using Visual RAMS Pro.
• Fact #3-When is the last time you tried to get support from Microsoft anyway?  The fact that Microsoft announced their removing support of Visual FoxPro by 2015 does not mean that the development language itself dies.  The community of Visual Fox Pro consultants, users and developers will continue on well into the future. It is in these forums that most support is obtained anyway.
• Fact #4– Long before the announcement that Microsoft was no longer supporting Visual FoxPro, Alpine leadership was already crafting out what the next generation application would look like. Alpine, like every other leading technology provider, has to invest in R&D.

Alpine Technology Corporation has served its customers for over 34 years with stable, industry specific, feature-rich waste management software applications and intends on doing so well into the future.  While I still have on my “villager” hat, I feel the need to visit the shepherd boy, show him the errors of his ways and send him on with a stern scolding.  However, I know such misguided fervor will only show up in another village so this blog will have to suffice.

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What of those daring explorers who pioneered new horizons and scaled treacherous peaks to disprove the notion of impossible? I am not a mountaineer of any sorts, only an armchair admirer of those who do climb.  However, it doesn’t take a mountaineer to get a sense of what mountain climbs historically have presented the greatest challenge, those seemingly impossible journeys to reach formidable summits.  For purposes of this blog, this armchair climber has coined those top climbs “the deadly 4”.

Take for instance those individuals that once saw the Eiger as an impossible climb.  Situated in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, the Eiger is still named Mordwand, “the murderous wall”.  At least 65 climbers have died attempting the North face.  At one point the Bernese Authorities even banned climbing on account of the deaths.   Impossible you say?  Ask Anderl Heckmair, the German who led a team in 1938 to successfully climb the North face.

What about those who once looked upon Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world (located in the Himalayas between China and Nepal)?  Did it seem possible that one day someone could actually scale this mammoth of a mountain? Over 220 climbers have died attempting to climb Mt. Everest.  The popular book Into Thin Air chronicles one of the many disastrous climbs.  On this controversial and fatal expedition a team attempted the climb in 1996 with eight ultimately dying in the attempt and a handful left stranded in a rogue storm.  Impossible you think? A New Zealander and Nepali first made the impossible journey on May 29^th, 1953.

Another seemingly impossible climb that was popularized by the 2003 documentary, Touching the Void, where a climbing duo was scaling the West Face of Siula Grandein the Peruvian Andes.  The feat of this difficult climb in 1985 was heightened by the heroic effort on the part of the two English climbers to stay alive on the descent. To this day, the south face has not been climbed.  Simpson, one of the climbers that survived, and his awe-inspiring journey is widely regarded by mountaineers as amongst the most amazing pieces of mountaineering lore to this day. Impossible?  Ask Joe Simpson or Simon Yates, the first climbers to scale the West Face.

Any list of impossible and deadly climbs would be incomplete without the mention of K2. Known as the Savage Mountain, it is located between Pakistan and China.  The world’s second highest mountain is known among climbers as one of the most technically difficult in the world. Ascents of even the easiest route require crossing a complicated glacier, ascending steep sections of rock, and negotiating a path around a series of ice pillars, called seracs, which are prone to collapse without warning. The technical difficulty of this mountain makes it one of the most dangerous in the world. K2 has the second highest fatality rate.  Every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying. K2 has still never been climbed in the winter. An Italian expedition finally succeeded in ascending to the summit in 1954! Two popular movies and a multitude of books have been written about K2. Impossible you think?  While at first it seemed so, time and effort have proven otherwise.

The last 100 years has seen so many seemingly impossible things come to pass.  Recent developments in technology and software development alone are staggering. Though, to some, overcoming these types of challenges would pale in comparison to scaling the Eiger, they do represent advancements that at one time would have been coined “impossible.”

One such advancement is the ability of a software company to provide complex, feature-rich, customizable line-of-business software to niche organizations, both small and large.  Not too long ago, it would have been impressive enough to experience the broadest of enterprise applications.  Such applications did not have either the complexity or the specific business application that more current applications do, making them much easier to support.  What at one time might have seemed impossible is now possible.

More current line-of-business applications, like the Visual RAMS-Pro solution, a waste management software application, from Alpine Technology Corporation, can reach a segment that at one time was impossible.  Alpine can service a niche industry like the waste industry, provide features that are specific to their business practices, and allow the software to be truly customizable and scalable.  This was only one leg of the journey.  The next challenge that faced Alpine was how to support such a complex application.  Support team members at Alpine are more than just your run-of-the-mill technicians, they are more like consultants.  They deeply understand the industry, your business and the software.   Over 38 years in the waste industry coupled with a village of competent, dedicated team members and partners has allowed them to scale this once deemed “impossible” mountain.

Being an armchair mountaineer and studying the famous ascents allows me to experience, albeit vicariously, some of the impossible challenges these daring men and women faced.  However, I must admit it is equally fulfilling to be a part of a once-thought-impossible effort to better the lives of businesses across the world.  People’s lives may not be at stake, but their livelihoods are.  If you are part of a business in the waste industry, don’t skimp on your software.  There are solutions, like Visual RAMS-Pro, that are specific to the waste industry and leverage decades of experience.

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