Using its Sales Rep's Assistant (SRA) flagship product, Yosemite Software Solutions Inc of Mariposa has aided forklift sellers in efficiently assembling quotations since 1994.

The SRA software application contains data on more than 50 forklift, battery and equipment brands, says Sean Phillips, vice president of business development. Some manufacturers, however, restrict access to data and provide their dealers with proprietary software systems.

In July, the Yosemite Software database added content for the line of Maximal forklifts on behalf of the brand's North American distributor, All Terrain Truck and Equipment Inc of Anchorage, Alaska. Zhejiang Maximal Forklift Co Ltd of Hangzhou, China is the manufacturer.

Yosemite Software listens to its customers and potential users about their needs and recognises that dealers want a consistent quote system with branding on it.

"Sales people are our bread and butter," Phillips says. "We provide ideas and features to make them more accurate (in their quotations and their calculations for financing, freight, attachments, battery configuration and dealer margins).

"Our program cuts down on the time it takes someone on a sales force to create a proposal," Phillips says. "I have yet to see a forklift sales guy not liking it."

More than 1,700 users and 100 dealers and manufacturers make use of SRA's capabilities.

A dealership with multiple forklift brands can benefit, says Phillips, characterising that Yosemite advantage as "our strongest point".

Yosemite Software creates custom-designed brand templates and offers an inbound-type marketing approach to dealers, Phillips notes. "They know who I am and what we are doing."

Users express their appreciation.

"Being that we are a dealer for many manufacturers, we need a software application that can provide a configuration tool unique to each individual product," says Jeff Merryfield, project analyst for Wisconsin Lift Truck Corp in Brookfield, Wisconsin. "SRA gives us the ability to build a worksheet in a short period of time and deliver a professional quotation to our customers in a timely fashion."

Cabrelle Phelps feels positive about Yosemite Software. Phelps is marketing manager at the Sterling Heights, Michigan branch of Fraza Forklifts, a Blackwood Holdings company.

"I have been a completely satisfied user of SRA for many years now," Phelps says. Members of "the technical and support staff at SRA are extremely responsive, knowledgeable and professional. I look forward to more of their continuous improvements."

Tech-savvy Ray Marean is the owner and president of Yosemite Software Solutions and functions as the chief SRA programmer. Yosemite Software has nine employees in California, Ohio and Washington.

Mariposa in the rugged foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range is located within a short driving distance of the software company's namesake, Yosemite valley, falls and national park.