Software makes boat sales a breeze
Cara Baruzzi, Register Staff 03/11/2005
NEW HAVEN - The 19 brokers at Westbrook-based Brewer Yacht Sales are used to being inundated with paperwork.
"We shuffle a lot of paper," said General Manager David Pugsley, noting a typical yacht sale entails between 10 and 15 different forms that must be completed.
"We've been doing it manually for a long time," he said.
Now the brokers, who work in 13 offices throughout the Northeast, are starting to use a new software program designed by a New Haven company to complete the process online.
"In theory, our productivity will go up," Pugsley said.
Secured Marine Trust LLC designed the software, called ONEtoolSM.
"We saw an opportunity to help the industry," said Secured Marine Trust CEO Jeff Turner, adding the marine industry traditionally has been slow to embrace new technology.
For a $400 annual subscription fee, ONEtool provides yacht brokers with a central online location where they can interact with dealers, mortgage lenders and insurance agents, as well as complete necessary
documents.
"Today, that process is done fairly manually; documents are filled out by hand," Turner said. He said data often must be duplicated on various paper forms, an inconvenience that the companyís
software eliminates.
With ONEtool, brokers can prepare documents ó purchase and sale agreements, for example - online and then print, fax or e-mail them. They also can access vessel information by tapping directly
into a U.S. Coast Guard database.
The software also includes escrow and title holding services, among others.
"It provides one place where all the information can go," Pugsley said.
Nationwide, there are 6,000 independent yacht brokers and another 2,000 who belong to organizations such as the Yacht Brokers Association of America, Turner estimated.
The Yacht Brokers Association of America has endorsed ONEtool.
Turner, who was president of Shelton-based Swiss Army Brand Inc. until 2002, founded Secured Marine Trust three years ago with partners David Bohonnon and Robert Towse.
ONEtool, which took a year and a half to develop, is the company's first software venture. Secured Marine employs six people at its 205 Church St. headquarters.
© 2005 New Haven Register.
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