By Jeff Sanford
Reading, England — September 8, 2015 — A UK company has launched a new digital shop management system that is very good news for small shop owners—the basic version is absolutely free.
The trend among software vendors in many sectors has been to offer at least the most basic version of programs for free as a way of gathering clients who might upgrade to paid versions of the program in the future. For anyone opening a small collision repair centre, this is a trend that can now be taken advantage of.
The company in this case is CarVue, a UK-based software maker. The company announced in late August that it will introduce the “world’s first fully-featured, free version” of a shop management system.
Since launching in June 2014 the CarVue team claims it has been adding features like “vehicle data, text messaging, import and export, and a full sales management system.” CarVue also claims the system is constantly evolving with “new features being delivered on a weekly basis.” The company also offers more advanced versions for a fee, but it’s just the basics you need, these freeware programs might just do the job.
As the software industry has evolved, it seems there is now enough money to be made from advertising with the system (or gaining enough “paid” versions once users update) that it makes financial sense for a software company to release the most basic version as freeware.
CarVue’s licences cover all of the people in a shop using the program, rather charging a license fee per user.
The CEO of the company, Carl Lightfoot, was quoted as saying, “You shouldn’t have to worry about your software costs going up every time you add a new user. We believe that the more people you have using CarVue, the higher the quality of information and communication inside your operation – this results in a smoother running business and ultimately, happier customers.”
The official name of the software is CarVue Free. The program allows facilities to easily update to more advanced versions such as CarVue V6 and V8 “as their business grows.” The paid versions are not that expensive. CarVue V6 is priced at $59 USD per month for the global edition. CarVue V8 is priced at $129 USD per month.
For more information, please visit carvue.com.
