Spokane-based software developer Softechnologies Corp. says it has launched a new product designed to help businesses with field-service workers track and organize that work force.

That new software suite, called Mobility Suite EMB, is a direct result of Softechnologies' acquisition last year of a field-service communications product called Mobile Command Center, says President and CEO Vance Blakely.

That software, formerly owned by New Jersey-based Antenna Software, was created so that field-service businesses could assign, dispatch, and track work completed outside of a company's brick-and-mortar facility. Some common industries with a large number of field-based workers include heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) companies and repair businesses, among others.

Companies offering those services range from small, locally-based operations with only a few employees working in the field to ventures with multiple offices and large fleets, Blakely says. That said, Blakely asserts that Softechnologies' new software is tailored to the largely untapped market segment of micro businesses in the field-service industry, and that such businesses are "largely underserved by other vendors."

Softechnologies offers its customers the option to purchase, based on their business needs, any number of what are called application modules that are part of the basic Mobility Suite EMB software package, Blakely says. The four applications separately are used to communicate with field service workers, to manage inventory, to remotely place orders, and to collect and record data out in the field. A fifth and optional application for mobile tracking also can be included in the software purchase, he says.

Mobility Suite EMB can either be cloud-based or installed on a business's own computing system. The software's cost is based on how it's installed and which applications the user selects, Blakely says.

A customer who purchases the software in a cloud-based form pays a monthly fee that's based on the number of users it has and the applications it has the rights to access, says Gary Hirst, Softechnologies' vice president of sales and marketing. Those monthly fees range between $30 and $90, he says.

For a company that wants the Mobility Suite EMB installed on its own network, Hirst says the initial purchase price would be similar to the total cost of a three-year subscription, and that the customer could opt to go through a 12- to 18-month payment period rather than pay for the software up front.

Hirst says the option to purchase only the software applications a user needs is beneficial to an emerging business that doesn't want to invest in a product that has more functions than it would use.

"As a micro business, you can start out with the one product and as you grow, you can grow into additional ones without having to make the upfront purchase of a product that does too much," Hirst says.

In addition to developing its new software suite, in the last year, Softechnologies also has beefed up its management team, with the addition of Hirst, as well as a vice president of product engineering and a vice president of finance, Blakely says.

In all, the company employs about 25 people. Blakely says Softechnologies has remained profitable in the last year, with sales growth between 5 percent and 10 percent compared with the year-earlier period.

Softechnologies is headquartered at 1504 W. Northwest Blvd., and also has an office at Sirti in the University District. The privately-held company was founded in 1996. Up until its acquisition of Mobile Command Center, Softechnologies had mostly specialized in contracted software development for companies' specific business computing needs, and it continues to offer those services.