Charter Software introduces ASPEN Lite for smaller equipment dealers

Charter Software Inc., a provider of business management system software for agricultural, construction and outdoor power equipment dealers, announced on Feb. 5 the availability of ASPEN Lite, an affordable, streamlined version of its ASPEN business management system. This software is ideal for smaller, single-location enterprises needing a business system.

“We build our products to meet industry demand,” said Charter Software President Anne Salemo. “The many features and capabilities of the ASPEN business system were more than what some smaller dealers needed to manage their business.

“ASPEN Lite provides these dealers with an affordable business system to manage their parts, work orders, rentals, customers and sales while allowing them to retain their existing bookkeeping software,” added Salemo. “Dealers can either utilize ASPEN Lite’s built-in integration with QuickBooks or export their accounting data to use externally — it’s perfect for dealers who don’t do their accounting in-house or who just like using the QuickBooks program.”

Like ASPEN, ASPEN Lite features a system dashboard from where users can drill down to detailed data;  send instant messages between dealership staff; e-mail customers directly from the system; and enjoy instant access to suppliers’ parts pricing, eliminating the need to hand-key parts information. Using ASPEN Lite, these dealers will be able to track their customers’ invoice and service history and fine-tune their inventory by always knowing what’s in stock and on order for the shelf, work orders and their customers. In addition, ASPEN Lite interfaces with popular electronic parts catalogs, as well as online parts ordering systems, which will also save dealers large amounts of time.

Because ASPEN Lite is hosted on Charter’s secure web servers, there is no initial hardware investment. “Our mission is to provide affordable, powerful business tools that help dealers reduce costs and increase their profits — ASPEN Lite fits the budget of the smaller dealers while still meeting their business needs,” said Salemo. “So far, the response has been very positive.”

For more information on ASPEN Lite, visit www.chartersoftware.com.

Charter Software Inc.