DockMaster 8.0 Beta Program Launched

My-Villages, owner of the DockMaster suite of marine business software, launched DockMaster 8.0 for beta testing, which it calls the most powerful version yet with new navigation, scheduling and dashboard features to help companies simplify operations and work more efficiently.

Incorporating years of feedback from its loyal customers, DockMaster 8.0 unifies the user experience across all modules, improves overall navigation and provides superior flexibility and control over critical data. In addition, its architecture has been thoroughly upgraded to provide an enhanced user experience and seamless connectivity to off-site “cloud” data storage.

The software will be tested by a group of roughly a dozen DockMaster customers who requested to use DockMaster 8.0 at their companies in coming months and provide feedback for additional improvements. A full launch is scheduled in late summer or early fall based on customer input during the external beta testing period.

“DockMaster 8.0 meets the needs of marine businesses because they helped design it,” said Kevin Hutchinson, founder and CEO of My-Villages, which owns DockMaster. “This release updates the architecture and is full of user requested enhancements that really improve productivity.”

Beginning in 1983, DockMaster’s suite of software tools has helped marine companies of all sizes manage their business, improving productivity, financial controls and customer service. Acquired by My-Villages late last year, DockMaster is now in use at more than 600 facilities in North America, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Ireland, and the numbers continue to increase.

DockMaster also has a loyal user base, with scores of customers turning out for a user conference in Florida earlier this year, where they received a preview of DockMaster 8.0.

“The new changes are exciting,” said Casey O'Hara, Business Manager, Journey’s End Marina, whose company has used DockMaster for three years. “I like the idea that DockMaster continues to improve and that they use ideas straight from the industry to do it. It is great to be part of this collaborative and innovative environment.”

“Brewer Yacht Yards has been using DockMaster for over 20 years and we believe it is the only complete package for the marina industry,” said Tim Hinckley, Information Technologies

Director at Brewer Yacht Yards. “Other solutions are either missing accounting, or point of sale, or mobile extensions or service. But DockMaster is a complete package. Now with the new interface, it’s even better.”

DockMaster 8.0 is scheduled for release in late summer or early fall – and there are more improvements planned thereafter. While 8.0 is in select customer beta testing 8.1 requirements are being defined working with a broader customer base. Following the release, DockMaster will be integrated with My-Villages’ The Boat Village Professional Edition, a web and mobile application that will extend DockMaster’s capabilities to engage directly with customers online. The result is an integrated system that can vastly improve communications and coordination and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“The integration of these two products is really going to yield major results not only for DockMaster users, but also for the customers of DockMaster users,” Hutchinson said. “Online service coordination and better boat management tools are about information sharing, access, and the ability to transact business with customers electronically. We have the two most successful puzzle pieces in the industry in The Boat Village and DockMaster. Integrating them delivers the whole package.”

my-villages.com