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| December 24, 2001 |
Miami Herald Business Monday- DSS provides browser-based solutions |
A cash register usually wouldn't be considered the most high-tech gadget in a shop. But if it's Internet-based and tied into back office applications, such as purchasing and inventory, then it takes on new life.
That's where Dynamic Software Solutions comes in.
The Miami-based software firm helps medium-sized companies implement accounting and point-of-sale systems that can be shared with several offices. Rather than buying their lines from the local phone companies, which can be quite expensive, DSS's solutions lets the remote locations connect with the main office via the Internet.
``In essence, each company becomes its own ASP,'' says Peter Kaufman, president and the founder of DSS International.
The applications reside on servers at a company's main location, and so does its data. That way, security isn't an issue, explains Kaufman.
DSS has finished automating a group of four employee stores and a warehouse at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The cash registers are really PCs, connected to a main server via the Internet. The stores process between 800 and 1,000 transactions a day.
DSS has automated the store and ticket stations at Fantasy of Flight, an aviation theme park in Orlando. It's in the process of installing the point-of-sale software in 13 stores for Discolandia, an Atlanta-based chain of music stores located throughout the Southeast.
Kaufman believes more and more businesses will move to browser-based solutions that allow for connectivity and functionality without high costs.
DSS doesn't use its own software. The firm works with ACCPAC International's accounting software and is its top reseller in the United States.
ACCPAC is a division of Computer Associates, a software development firm based in Islandia, N.Y. Kaufman is a member of ACCPAC's business partner advisory council.
Toronto-based AGS is the maker of the point-of-sale software that DSS installed in NASA stores.
Kaufman says he started the firm in 1990, initially working alone planning with customers and outsourcing the implementation work to various CPAs in the region's top accounting firms.
In 1996, as the economy in the Southeast picked up steam, ``I was able to take the firm to the next level.''
He brought on staff, many of the accountants he was using on an outsourcing basis.
Kaufman says the firm's growth so far has been funded internally. He hasn't tapped institutional money or venture capital.
DSS's revenue has grown 240 percent in the past three years from $500,000 in 1998 to $1.7 million last year. Revenue should hit the same level this year.
DSS has offices in Orlando, Aruba, Barbados and Caracas, Venezuela. In the Caribbean, DSS works with casinos, offshore banks and the hospitality industry.
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