Once upon a time there were two major ice producers in Kansas City, Missouri:  Blast, Inc. and Arctic Glacier Premium Ice (Giocondo Ice Service).  Both wanted to improve their operations.  Both chose to install the RouteMan -- Route Management System from Software Advantage, Inc.
"We were looking for a system that would help us eliminate mistakes, reduce our office workload, and get us sales information quickly." said John Giocondo, Vice President of Arctic Glacier Premium Ice.  "We were looking for a system that would help us get a better handle on the cash being collected by our route drivers," said Dan Ellsworth, General Manager of Blast.
Both Giocondo and Ellsworth looked at several route management systems before choosing Routeman -- RMS.  "We chose RouteMan -- RMS over the other systems we looked at because of how RouteMan -- RMS handles the routes in a simple and user friendly way," said Giocondo.  "We felt that some of the other systems would have required a full time person to manage our routes; not so with RouteMan-RMS. One of our truck drivers also manages the routes."  "We felt that RouteMan was the best

system to help us meet our objectives.  We also really liked the combined PDA/Printer (iPAQ PDA/PP-55 Printer)) offered by Software Advantage,"  said Dan Ellsworth. 
The RouteMan System uses handheld computers and mobile printers to capture invoice information and digital signatures as well as print customer receipts on-site.
Both Giocondo and Ellswowrth agree that RouteMan met the objectives each had set to the system.  "We found RouteMan -- RMS to be very easy to use.  Our drivers love the system.  The learning curve is very short," said Giocondo.  "Even though we have only used RouteMan for a short time, we have met our objective of better financial controls over our ice business," said Dan Ellsworth.
During the last half of 2005, there was a big change in the packaged ice business in Kansas City.  Blast, Inc. stopped producing packaged ice and Arctic Glacier Premium Ice purchased their customer base and began serving all of the combined customers.
Since Arctic Glacier Premium Ice  and Blast were both using RouteMan -- RMS, merging the cus