Hello Scrap Metal Forum

As a software provider to the scrap and recycling industry for the last 6 years I am continuing to learn more and more about the processes in your industry. As a new company we are developing most of our Apps using the Android OS. These apps will print tickets/receipts on a local mobile printer and offer a LIVE online back-office for reports and accounting purposes, a full business solution.

And thanks to companies like BlueStacksinc.com you will be able to run these apps on your desktop pc's by the end of summer without a mobile device.

From time to time I would like to jump in and ask questions as we are developing several apps for each segment of the industry.

The "CRVAPP" is for beverage container recyclers
The "ScrapApp" is for scrap yards to stay in compliance
The "E-APP" for EWaste recyclers
The "Scrap2Go" App is for mobile scrappers who need to know their daily profit and loss and want or need receipts and reports at the end of the day at our online back-office.
The "BrokersApp" is for any broker in the recycling industry who need to create and print quotes, contracts, take pictures and get signatures on the go.

Sorry to be so lengthy, I hope this doesnt come across as a sales pitch as I am hoping to gather useful information that will drive down the price of our apps while increasing the functionality.

We are a very transparent company and expect down to earth honest replies and I hope to offer the same back to your posts.

Thanks in advance for any of your hard earned advice.

My ears are perked. Its hard to find a good program out there for scrap yards that is easy to use and dose not cost a arm and a leg.

On a side note, how much do you charge?

This is what I want. A desktop that has all the data that will let laptops connect to it over the web but be able to limit some users to some things (so they cant change the numbers to there favor) anyway..I will be more than happy to help to give some info but not if your going to be like all the other companies.

IE - I wont give you a ton of free info for you to charge a arm an leg...if you are going to do that then you dont need any free help!

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Originally Posted by easyrecycle

My ears are perked. Its hard to find a good program out there for scrap yards that is easy to use and dose not cost a arm and a leg.

On a side note, how much do you charge?

This is what I want. A desktop that has all the data that will let laptops connect to it over the web but be able to limit some users to some things (so they cant change the numbers to there favor) anyway..I will be more than happy to help to give some info but not if your going to be like all the other companies.

IE - I wont give you a ton of free info for you to charge a arm an leg...if you are going to do that then you dont need any free help!

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First of all let me say thank you for replying, secondly our full business solution apps will start at $99 per month with no money down, 100% of the App and all the collected information are available and controlled online via PopScrap's Back-Office from any internet connection.

So as far as desktops go, later this summer when BlueStacks releases its software (unaffiliated company) you could download our app on your desktop along with BlueStack's software (BlueStackinc. allows Android Apps to run seamlessly on your Windows computer) and then the laptops would be loaded the same way as clients of your main account, thereby letting you set the user rights and allowing or restricting features and pricing in the program. This can be accomplished now but one would need the Motorola Atrix phone to connect to each device and that gets pretty expensive thanks to the cell companies.

Since we sell our software as a service only and do not charge for the software upfront I am sure that many users will be excited to get a robust solution between $100-$200 per month.

What kind of break can I offer you for a continued conversation?

IF we wish to pay for a service for a monthly fee we could easy setup a system that would not take a monthly fee but a one time fee.

I am able to keep my books as it is now but by using a simple system. But the cost to set that one was a one time fee of around $500. Now its not the best system in the world but I am not paying no monthly fee. So for me and for many other people to want to pay a monthly fee it should be able to do some really cool tricks.

lol 99 a month.

I hear you and understand you, and we are always balancing that with the fact that if there were a million scrap yards in the US I would charge a small 1 time fee and have plenty of opportunity to provide service and updates to existing customers out of the next sale. But there simply not enough scrap yards to sell to.

Most software providers to the scrap and recycling industry are charging $10,000-$45,000 up front and continue to charge $300 to $500 per month for monthly maintenance fees just to stay in business, one has to choose wisely the business model.

Either charge an arm and a leg up front so one can stay in business to service the clients that bought the software or charge a small monthly fee and shoot for a larger client base. Since up front costs are so prohibitive and most companies simply dont have $35,000 to buy new software and hardware ( I sold this business model for the last 6 years) I will give it a go for small monthly fees.

I hope this answers your question.

BTW, our Android APPs are so easy to use there is not training required and buy the end of the summer they will have all the bells and whistles that the big software companies offer.

I have looked into the programs before and know what you are talking about but I still feel you are wrong on many fronts.

offer the program at a low cost but have updates/upgrades. To drive sales have a small/free account small yards can use an so when they grow to a larger yards they will upgrade there account an then pay the monthly costs/flat rate fee.

There are many scrap yards all over in every city if not 2 or more yards!

If you want to drag in alot of work for your company then do this. With the monthly fee you will host a website that has "blank amount of HD/bandwidth" that you maintain that has your software built into the site with a login pass word for the user (worker) can sign into to fill out the weight tickets and ect. Now that...I will pay for.

You have described exactly what we are doing, our program will allow you to log in, with unlimited bandwidth and storage and your own SQL database, create weight tickets and reports, print them to a local Bluetooth printer from your mobile device or PC and immediately go to your Back-Office online and view your tickets and inventory from any online connection.

If I am right, no other IPhone or Android app on the market is printing to a local printer and populating an online database at the same time, all of them print to network printers only. If you or any readers know of an App that is generating tickets and printing to a local printer and uploading real time data to an online web service then I would love to see it.

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Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

lol 99 a month.

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Thanks for your honesty, we need to hear it all, the good and the difficult to hear.

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Originally Posted by Stacy Duty

You have described exactly what we are doing, our program will allow you to log in, with unlimited bandwidth and storage and your own SQL database, create weight tickets and reports, print them to a local Bluetooth printer from your mobile device or PC and immediately go to your Back-Office online and view your tickets and inventory from any online connection.

If I am right, no other IPhone or Android app on the market is printing to a local printer and populating an online database at the same time, all of them print to network printers only. If you or any readers know of an App that is generating tickets and printing to a local printer and uploading real time data to an online web service then I would love to see it.

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I am talking more or less hosting of a whole website not just the data base so that both the data base and the website can be on the same plan.

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Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

lol 99 a month.

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There are monthly costs much higher than that. But there are many companies that all ready doing what they are. So I am asking what makes them better than the others.

The scrap industry is a large industry, and there are a lot of software solutions out there. One thing I've learned is stop trying re-invent the wheel. And find a niche in the industry instead.

yes, that is what I meant, the website, the hosting and the database all for 1 low price. All the user will do is log in, set up materials and prices and start printing weight tickets.

Thanks for the feedback

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Originally Posted by dherik

The scrap industry is a large industry, and there are a lot of software solutions out there. One thing I've learned is stop trying re-invent the wheel. And find a niche in the industry instead.

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I agree, what I have ran into over the last 6 years selling software to scrap yards across the county is that most solutions in place right now require too much up front costs and the hardware needed to operate the software to scan ID's, capture images, fingerprints and signatures stops a lot of yards from getting top quality programming designed within the last decade.

What we are hoping to do is leverage technology and deliver the feature set of the more expensive programs for a lot less money thanks to smartphones, tablets and companies like BlueStack and their WinDroid product.

Thanks for the Niche, advice, this is why we are launching our first program to the beverage container recyclers where getting electricity is a huge problem, hardware in the past didnt do enough and cost too much, as I have sold over 50 of these mobile units and watched them pay upwards of $6000 per location and still pay a annual support fee on top of that.

What we are proposing is to eliminate the expensive hardware, thanks to the very powerful smartphone features, eliminate any up front costs and simply charge 1 low monthly fee for the software.

I appreciate the input

5 thumbs down on the cost. Free is the only answer.

Microsoft Excel does everything I need done. And My Portable hard drive is my Data Base for stuff I download from the internet. It dont cost me no where near $1188 a Year

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