HOUSTON’S O’ROURKE PETROLEUM USES SOFTWARE TO TRACK PROFITABILITY OF EQUIPMENT, CUSTOMER AGREEMENTS

HOUSTON, February 17, 2004: Houston-based O’Rourke Petroleum had the same questions that every petroleum distributor faces: how do you gauge the profitability of individual pieces of equipment—storage tanks, pumps, meters—that you’ve placed at customer locations? Likewise, how do you assess whether customer agreements are being fulfilled? Indeed, how can you track literally hundreds of pieces of equipment in the field so you know where they are at all times—and are making money for your company?

O’Rourke wanted to track the profitability of company-owned containers and other fuel and lubricant storage equipment at customer installations throughout the Gulf Coast area. As the company has done many times since its founding in 1932, O’Rourke did its homework and identified a solution that has immediately paid dividends.

Since May 2003, O’Rourke has used the Equipment Manager module from DM2 Software of Vancouver WA to measure the profitability of individual pieces of equipment and the performance of customer agreements covering them. Before adding Equipment Manager, O’Rourke had been using DM2’s accounting, tax, automated fuel billing and other business management software since May 2000.

EQUIPMENT TRACKING
O’Rourke uses Equipment Manager to track more than 350 tanks, pumps, meters and other equipment at more than 300 customer locations (including industrial refineries and plants, construction sites and airports). O’Rourke, with nearly 75 employees, is among the largest petroleum distributors in the Southwest and is well known for environmental services and reclamation of used products, working with the State of Texas and Shell Oil Company.

“The software is a jobber’s dream come true,” said Karen Benefield, O’Rourke’s information technology manager who, with company CEO Dennis O’Rourke, spearheaded the search for a solution to the equipment-management issue. “It helps us track the equipment and gives us a clear understanding of the profit that we are realizing via the sale of product into it. We can quickly determine which tanks and which customers are making us money.

“We’re even able to see all of the gallons that have gone into an individual tank as it moves from one customer to another,” Benefield continued. “That’s really important, because it helps us determine the profitability of the storage facility and the profitability of the customer using it.”

FAMILIAR PROBLEM
O’Rourke had experienced a situation familiar to many petroleum distributors. “In several cases, we had loaned storage tanks at no additional cost to the customer,” said Dennis O’Rourke. “Once we entered information about them into the system and started tracking sites by tank and by customer, we realized that we had several customers that had no longer been buying product from us into the tank we had loaned them.

“In some instances, we went in and picked up the tank. In other instances, our salesmen visited with the customer and were able to reestablish sales that they had lost. They were able to do that by reminding the customers that they were supposed to buy the product from us in order for us to provide them with the storage tank.”

Equipment-related information is available to all key O’Rourke Petroleum employees with access to the software: owners, managers, office/accounting, equipment, sales and marketing, and other staff. “The software ‘rolls up’ all aspects of equipment into a single package that helps every area of the company,” said Benefield. “Service, inventory, scheduling, purchasing and accounts payable are just some of them.”

For more information about Equipment Manager, contact DM2 Software at 800-866-5151, info@dm2.com.

ABOUT SAGE SOFTWARE
Sage Software offers leading business management products and services that give more than 2.3 million small and mid-sized customers in North America the insight for success throughout the lives of their businesses. Its parent company, The Sage Group plc (London: SGE.L), supports 4.3 million customers worldwide. For more than 25 years, Sage Software has delivered easy-to-use, scalable and customizable applications through its portfolio of leading brands, including Abra, ACCPAC, ACT!, BusinessVision, CPASoftware, FAS, MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, MIP, Peachtree, SalesLogix, Timberline, among many others. For more information, please visit the Web site at http://www.sagesoftware.com/company/

ABOUT DM2 SOFTWARE
Founded in 1989, DM2 Software provides accounting, tax, automated fuel billing and other business management software for more than 300 petroleum, fuel oil, propane and lubricant distributors throughout the United States. DM2's petroleum industry-specific modules include Rack-plus Pricing, Excise Tax Reporting, CardLock Billing, Bill of Lading Processing, and Blending and Repackaging. The company is an authorized reseller of the MAS 90 and MAS 200 accounting software programs from BEST Software Inc., Irvine CA.

DM2's customers enjoy the power of Windows, choices of popular operating systems, and access to "best of breed" reporting tools like Crystal Reports. By focusing its extensive petroleum development knowledge around MAS 90 and MAS 200, DM2 gives its customers a strong petroleum-specific solution within a world-class accounting system.

For more information about DM2 Software and its products, contact:
DM2 Software, Inc.
7700 NE Greenwood Drive
Suite 200
Vancouver, WA 98662
800-866-5151
contactdm2@dm2.com