Appraisers' Free Forum

To: All Day One and United Systems users
From: Dave Biggers, Chairman, a la mode, inc.
RE: Day One/United Systems rescue plan

Note: It’s imperative that we reach all Day One and United Systems users in their time of need, so please forward this to any colleagues whom you believe might benefit from this rescue plan. This is long, but critical to those in need right now.

It’s been a rough time for everyone in the appraisal business, but especially bad over the last couple of years for Day One and United Systems software users. First there was the sale of each brand to Zaio, and now the equally turbulent fire sale resulting from Zaio’s financial collapse.

Statements from ACI have been vague and even contradictory, and conversations with their sales staff indicate that contracts or services you had in force with Day One or United Systems will not be fully honored. You’re starting over, paying yet again, with a virtual gun held to your head. Meanwhile, you’re forced to figure out a confusing array of positions taken by ACI, changing on a near-daily basis. It’s a common outward sign that a transition isn’t going well.

But you don’t need to panic or feel pressured. We have a solution – at no cost, without losing your prior investment. Consider it our own version of a “financial bailout”. There are two simple, crystal clear components of our rescue plan.

First, for all Day One and United Systems users affected by this calamity, we’re giving you our top of the line “WinTOTAL Enterprise” formfilling system at absolutely no charge whatsoever, permanently. You don’t have to buy anything and it doesn’t “expire”. Download it and start working today.

Whatever your software loyalties may have been in the past, and I certainly respect those, it’s known and accepted that WinTOTAL Enterprise is the most comprehensive, feature-rich appraisal system on the market. And since every new user of WinTOTAL always gets 100 days of free support and updates, free flood data, free street maps, and free satellite, aerial, and birds-eye photography, you aren’t pressured into making an expensive decision right now under less-than-optimum conditions.

It’s very important to note that WinTOTAL does mass convert your existing Day One and United Systems appraisal files, and even brings over your standard comments database, your photos, your comps databases, and your tracking system data. (As far as we can tell, ACI doesn’t comprehensively convert you over to their system. Ask them yourself if they do more than just convert the forms, one at a time.)

All copies of WinTOTAL also include our DaVinci sketching system, allow you to be in complete personal control of your own secure signature (at no charge, and without going through us), and everything runs on a network with absolutely no per-seat charges. Two users or twenty, network seats are free.

By the way, we also have a lean-and-mean brand new forms system without all the bells and whistles which you may also enjoy: Our new Vista Certified “Armstrong” generation of WinTOTAL, which is also free and available for download. Armstrong is the only appraisal forms program to pass the rigorous laboratory testing required to be granted Microsoft’s “Vista Certified” logo for rock-solid stability. You’ll enjoy reading about Armstrong on the web page shown at the end of this memo.

Second, we will honor, at 100% credit, every dollar you’ve spent with United Systems or Day One in the past 12 months.

Just fax us your invoices from the past 12 months and we’ll give you a full credit for the same amount toward any and all products and services we offer. Contrast that to ACI’s handling of the situation. Even in its plethora of ever-changing policies, ACI isn’t doing that for you. In our opinion, if they want to get the benefit of saying they bought the companies, then they should act like it and treat the customers who come with it properly. It’s the right thing to do, but that concept is in short supply these days.

With our credit policy, you’ll undoubtedly be able to use an XSite to generate new non-lender business, get on our Mercury Network to get HVCC-compliant lender business, or add on our industry-exclusive XSellerate automated marketing and advertising system, all without paying us a single penny.

I know this bailout offer is radical and may be unbelievable to some and bothersome to others, but we’ve been staunch appraiser advocates for decades and this is simply the right thing to do.

We hope everyone will understand that we have to break some rules here. I don’t like giving software or services away for free – I’m in business too – especially when others have paid for it. But letting a whole group of appraisers be told that they’ve lost what they spent the past year and have to start over just doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. You’d want me to do the same if it were you.

Then again, I’m not just out to save the world. There’s no doubt that in the long run, it is good business. Until then, I’ll eat it for the benefit of those left out in the cold. It’s a win-win outcome.

So why didn’t we just buy Day One and United Systems ourselves and avoid all this? You may have had the same impression of Zaio that I did: financial shell games, over-hyped spin, and verbal tap dancing. When I can’t get definitive answers to simple financial questions, I lose my patience. Maybe some companies aspire to that approach and therefore enjoy negotiating in a silly spin game, but I have no tolerance for it and just move on when it’s clear there’s no truth in sight. Enough said.

Likewise, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the ironies in ACI’s announcement, where they refer to having acquired seven companies. They fail to mention that their mergers and acquisitions experience also includes being bought and sold themselves several times under less than flattering conditions. I know they didn’t like it when they were on the block in bankruptcy court in Delaware a few years back and the judge ordered them to open up their books to us. Suffice it to say that proclamations of size and leadership need to be taken with a grain of salt. Numbers speak volumes.

While we’re on the topic of corporate approaches, we’ve put together something everyone can use as a checklist in evaluating vendors: http://www.alamode.com/checklist/checklist.pdf. As is painfully obvious from firms like Zaio failing, and ACI’s previous stint in bankruptcy court, you’re not just buying software. You’re buying into a company, and even into its parent. You’re buying into policy decisions and a corporate culture.

So whether it’s with regard to Day One, United Systems, ACI, Bradford, or anyone else, there are tough questions everyone should be asking vendors today, focusing on solvency, advocacy, and competency. Feel free to ask us the same questions too, and don’t worry about offending anyone. Business is a contact sport and we’re comfortable taking hard but fair hits. If you tiptoe around the issues, you’ll wind up doing yourself a disservice.

We follow the same advice. We’ve never been afraid to tell the hard truths or take the tough questions, and the industry benefits from that in our straight-talk advocacy. We don’t apologize for being appraiser advocates and we don’t apologize for ruffling competitors’ feathers either.

Bottom line, we’re ready to help Day One and United Systems users right now.

Ultimately, this isn’t about us, ACI, Zaio, or anyone else. This is about you. That’s why we’ve focused on making our rescue plan clear, concrete, easy, and free. It’s the best way to keep you in business, or at least to give you the option to make a more informed and comfortable decision in a turbulent period.

So don’t feel pressured, and don’t spend money you don’t have to. Not under these economic conditions. Just visit our dedicated emergency bailout web page at www.alamode.com/bailout, where you’ll find detailed instructions for how to get started and how to fax over your invoices, or simply call us at 1-800-252-6633.

We’ll make this whole thing as stress-free as possible. Our webinars and technicians will walk you through the conversion process just as we’ve done thousands of times before (it’s probably safe to say that, given our dominant market share, we’ve smoothly converted more appraisers than anyone). We have the resources and experience to handle this sort of transition without impacting our service levels, which is why we’ll also offer it to the customers of any additional software companies that fail in the future. As I said in a recent AppraisalPress article, the industry has lost vendors in every single downturn, and I don’t think we’re done in this one either. There will likely be others who fail too.

Also, if you’re one of the many Day One or United Systems customers who switched to us recently, rest assured you’ll get the benefit of our 100 day refund guarantee. We’ll refund 100% of your money and switch you over to the same free plan as all the other Day One and United Systems users.

To our existing customers, you know that we’re always here to answer your questions. Thank you for your long-standing patronage and support as we offer our help to these new a la mode customers during their difficult times.

Please forward this announcement to everyone who could benefit from it. Thanks in advance.

Dave Biggers
Chairman
a la mode, inc