|
|
 |
|
       |
 |
RPMSoftware was originally developed by the Real Estate Software Company in the early 1980s and has a large and loyal following. The program was designed by the company's president, Ralph Tutor, who is well known as one of the founders of NARPM (National Association of Residential Property Managers). For health reasons Ralph sold the assets of his company to three employees in early 1995 and these employees formed a new corporation known as RESC, Inc. Because they had insufficient capital to finance the purchase outright, Ralph accepted a note for payment over time. Ralph agreed to work part-time for a year to help plan and design a new version of RPM for Windows and to assist in marketing. By 1998 the employee owned RESC, Inc. was experiencing financial problems due in part to their inability to deliver the long promised Windows version of RPM. When RESC, Inc. began laying off employees and missing payments, Ralph foreclosed on the note and took control of the company's assets. After being contacted by several concerned RPM users, Ralph felt obligated to find a company that was capable of supporting the current user base and could either convert them to an existing product or continue the development of RPM Windows. There were several individuals and companies who were interested in acquiring the RPM assets and Ralph carefully investigated and evaluated each one to determine what would be best for his user base. Ralph's conclusion was reported in the August 1998 RPMEasy newsletter: "After careful consideration I am convinced that PROMAS Landmaster is the best Windows software on the market for fee-based managers and by far the best overall solution to the situation currently facing RPMSoftware and its Users." Upon finalizing the asset purchase agreement which included the RPM source code, copyrights, trademarks, and exclusive rights to the user list, we immediately contracted with Robyne Everette, a former RESC, Inc. employee to continue providing support for the program. By early 1999 we had converted over 200 RPM users to our PROMAS Landmaster product, a significantly more powerful program that handles many management situations that RPM was never designed to address. Most of these users enjoy the advanced capabilities our program has to offer and are pleased with their decision to change systems. However, we found that there are a significant number of users who did not convert because they do not need all the capabilities of our PROMAS Landmaster package and want to continue to use their familiar RPM. In response to this demand, we corrected all the known year 2000 problems with RPM, released this as version 4.80, and moved Robyne from El Paso, Texas to our Vienna, Virginia offices. We have designed and started writing the RPM Professional program which will run on the Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP platforms. RPM professional will have the advantage of being database compatible with our next generation Landmaster product, so that as your company grows or needs change you can move to a more powerful system without the need to convert your data.
|
