In today’s blog, I am going to answer two very common questions that all trucking dispatch software providers get during the beginning stages of looking for new software. Whether you are preparing for a demo of our Horizon Software Suite or a demo with another provider, this blog and the guide recommended at the end will help prepare you!
Some of you have found our site through the software review site Capterra or through a Google search for terms such as “free dispatch software,” “truck dispatcher” or “trucking dispatch companies.” You land on one of our pages and your end goal is to download a demo of our software and give it a test drive without any sales or marketing pressure. That’s the dream, right? So many office and marketing software options allow a preview period and let’s be honest, we are all spoiled by the convenience of instant gratification.
Alas – you’ve reached the demo page for our (or another) demo software only to be given the option of scheduling a call or signing up for a demo webcast at a later date. To quote Homer Simpson, “D’oh!”
Why does this happen? Is the Trucking Dispatch Software industry just behind the times and not able to provide the instant access that we’ve grown accustomed to? Let’s answer two of those questions now and a third question thrown in for good measure.
Why can’t I download a free demo to try?
The reason you can’t download a free demo to test drive on your own is actually a matter of proper set-up and software full benefit. Think about for a moment exactly what trucking dispatch software is built to do. It is built to store, sort, and make recommendations based on your driver load information. The instance of our software that would make sense to you is one that is configured based on your needs, number of users, load type, data, and more. It isn’t cookie-cutter as many drags and drops software applications are.
Simply put, a free demo download would be useless and you would waste so much of your time trying to force it to do something with no data to pull from. We know this! We also know that the best scenario for viewing our software capabilities is to go through a very specific process in our demo scheduling. It is our desire to put our very best foot forward when presenting you with our software. We know how incredible it can be and our users do as well. We want you to see the full benefit and experience it in all its wonder!
To give you the full benefit, we’ve developed a process that starts with a Dispatch Demo Evaluation call. When you requested a demo through our site, you are brought to a page that allows you to schedule this 15-minute call.
What is the purpose of a Dispatch Demo Evaluation and what should I expect on my call?
It really is a quick call (15 minutes like I said above) that consists of a few questions that help us determine exactly what your needs are. The HorizonGO representative will go through a quick list of qualifying questions and a demo appointment will be scheduled for a later time to allow you to view the software options that are most applicable to your needs.
Information needed to get started includes (if available):
- Budget Expectations
- Customization Needs
- 3rd Party Integrations
- Number of Users/Drivers/Carriers (where applicable)
- Current Dispatch Method Used
- Hosting Needs
This blog explains why you can’t just download the software and give it a shot but what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t offer you a nugget of knowledge to send you on your way? We have created a comprehensive guide that will give you not only the details of choosing and set-up up new software but also checklists that you can fill out prior to a demo evaluation call so that you aren’t guessing or left unprepared.
Download our free dispatch guide, Everything You Need To Know About Trucking Dispatch Software, today!
