Vincent:

The University of  Virginia has been using TISCOR Protrac for two years now
to track our several thousand fire extinguishers.  We have not seen the
problems you are experiencing with lost data, however, we have seen the
level of support by the company falling off.  They do eventually return my
phone calls, but gone are the days of instant help.  Unfortunately, our
supplier also changed hands and their Protrac expert left the company, thus
we have to rely solely on TISCRR.  We did have to get two upgrades in the
last year to cover Y2K and other problems.  Most times, I have found that
our problems are associated with operator error or configuration of the
software.   I have found it necessary to manually review all data when it is
downloaded.  Overall, I would have to say we are pleased with the product.



Vincent Leonard wrote:

> I have a question I would like to pose to the listserv. This question is
> for all of you who have a bar code scanner program for inspecting fire
> safety equipment. If you have such a program, which company is the
> system with? How long have you had the program, and have you had any
> significant problems with the software or hardware?
>
> The reason for this questions is that we are having sigificant problems
> with our TISCOR bar coding system. We originally purchased the program
> in 95 from then, FMS inc. FMS was bought out by Inovative Tech which was
> bought by Perigrine inc. The lot was then gulped up by TISCOR a few
> months ago. We have had problems with loosing information our
> extinguishers (on two occasions we lost over 200 inspections). We have
> also had problems with adding new devices (sprinklers) and having an
> indexing malfunction (sprinkler inspections logged under Co2
> inspections). We have had to rebuild the data base twice and are
> receiving less than satisfactory customer service since Perigrine bought
> out the system. We are looking at lost work time in having to re-inspect
> systems. Thanks in advance for any information you may have to share.