Shippers, freight forwarders and delivery service companies use Datatrac's flagship shipment tracking product, eTrac to track package location and movement in real-time. Adding, connecting, and integrating new clients such as shippers and other customers required custom programming. Whether they were using such standards as EDI and FTP, were providing data in their own format, or needed a new protocol that Datatrac had not implemented, the company had work to do for every connection.

Datatrac constructed a RFP document that described all its requirements and submitted this to many companies. Once the company had determined who had products that satisfied our requirements, it met with each, saw product demonstrations, and requested demo software from each for testing.

After reviewing the various offerings, Datatrac chose and implemented the Extol Business Integrator (required). EBI satisfied the requirements of the company's RFP and was the most price competitive. The alternative was to hire an in-house developer and spend the time to develop the application to the company's needs.