Who is Famhost?

Famhost is a family of business-critical hosted applications sold as a service from a secure server farm. The main application (JaRay's SBMS-Service Business Management System) includes dispatching, billing, payroll, complaint and customer follow-up, inventory, purchase orders, job history, job costing, productivity analysis, etc. Options include alpha-paging, caller-id, white pages, call recording and media tracking, scanning, marketing, graphing, and mapping, web site integration, a credit card gateway and GPS vehicle tracking.

Call-Recording and media tracking, GPS maintenance and tracking, and the Linkwriter digital pen solution can be purchased as either integrated products into JaRay, as stand-alone products, or integrated into each other or into other software applications. Have your software vendor contact us for more information. We can private label the applications to work for them. We also host other web applications and services.

Why do you only sell hosted systems?

Software programs get obsolete in a hurry. The more complex they are, the harder they are to manage. We no longer sell the software. We provide a service. Many business systems that at one time were done in-house are now contracted as services including trash, water, electric, security, cleaning, equipment repair, plumbing, drain cleaning, pest control, lawn service, etc. It doesn't make sense to buy a trash truck, get the necessary permits and containers, train a driver and take the time to haul the trash to the dump once a week. The case can be easily made for computer servers, networks and administration. You don’t have to be an electrician to turn on a light switch and you don’t need to be a computer expert to run our software. We make it easy to concentrate on your core business.

Why should we buy your system?

Security is a big issue. Over the years, we’ve had too many cases where our customer’s data was corrupted by faulty equipment and wiring, backup procedures weren’t set up properly so data was lost and customer’s disgruntled employees embezzled, sabotaged or stole information. As businesses are forced to go to paperless and provide more services to their customers, the need for increased security and redundancy grows exponentially. It takes highly skilled and dedicated people to manage today's systems. We believe it makes sense to hire us to manage the system rather than try to do it in-house.

Many of our services simply can't run on local systems because of the security and certification requirements of our partners. The cost of call-recording servers, gps and mapping servers and licensing, imaging servers, digital pen software and licensing, backup servers, backup power supplies, fire and climate control systems, firewalls, and both physical and Internet security systems become extremely expensive when duplicated by our clients. By using our hosted services, our clients can concentrate on their core business, not on their computer system.

What makes you different from your competitors?

The system was developed within a service business. Other software packages are usually developed to a global industry and are lacking in the specific needs of a particular business. We have a personal interest in the product since we use it ourselves to run our own family's Roto-Rooter franchise. We understand the service industry and are the only software company that automatically verifies the job address to prevent duplicates, has the white pages and real caller-id and gps integration. We have been in business longer than most software companies and our customers trust us to keep them up to date with the latest technologies.

How can you help our business?

Since we are associated with a service company ourselves, we know what the company needs to stay in competition with other service companies. Our customers also benefit from the input and experience of all the companies that have purchased our software. Since the franchisee doesn’t have to make a large investment in software, networks, administration, and equipment, they can concentrate on what they do best: running their Roto-Rooter business. Most customers will immediately see labor savings and productivity equal to many times the cost of the service.

We have the records for all of our family's Roto-Rooter customers since 1936 in the computer system for Wichita. The time savings is huge. The people living in the houses may change, but the pipes and infrastructure don't. The ability to market to our own customers has made new technologies take off. Knowledge is power, but shared knowledge makes profit.

How do you you purchase the system?

The process is simple. In most cases, the customer does not have to purchase any equipment. Just call us and we do all the work. We will fax or email a form to fill out so we know what counties you serve and what interfaces and options are available to you. We will send you a proposal showing all the costs and monthly fees. We customize the program to the specific area of the country (white pages, street names, etc). We usually try to match your existing chart of accounts to the SBMS setup.

We will quote a price based on the number of users, options, and trucks. Since the application is hosted, you do not have to purchase the software, special computers, or servers. Usually we can have everything set up before the customer can mail us the check. Anyone who can click a mouse can set up the program. A small security program is downloaded on each computer that you want to have access to your data and an icon is automatically put on the computer. The computer is rebooted, and then when the user wants to run the program, they just click the icon. We do not need to come to your office to set up the system, but we can send a trainer to your office to help you get going and set up processes.

We do not charge for 800# support. Technical support is available 24x7. User manuals are available both in print and online. Training opportunities happen regularly. For larger operations, we recommend that a management team comes to our office for an in-depth training session or that you have a trainer come to your office.

How long have you been in business?

Our parents started a sewer installation business in 1947. They purchased the Wichita Roto-Rooter franchise in 1960 and all eight of the siblings participated in the family business in some way while we were growing up. After dad died, we incorporated the plumbing business as P&W Incorporated on December 31, 1992. "Roto-Mom" is still the boss! Rita-Rooter is the CEO and radio advertising spokeswoman.

Paul and Shirley bought a coffee service company in 1968 and sold it in 1985. We still use the same coffee service, serviced by an employee we hired, at our corporate headquarters.

In 1978, we started computerizing both the coffee company and the Roto-Rooter franchise. The software has evolved for 30 years! We sold the first copy of the JaRay software in 1985 to Luke Lennon who owned a Roto-Rooter franchise in North Carolina. Now we service most of the larger Roto-Rooter franchises. We started using the JaRay name in 1985 and purchased the domain name in 1996.

JaRay Software Inc. was incorporated in Kansas on Dec. 4, 1997 by Jane and Ray Jantz. It operates as a separate but strategic partner with FamHost.

We decided to go only hosted in 2001, long before it became popular. Mgmt TV Inc. dba Famhost was incorporated in Kansas on January 18, 2002 to manage the hosted applications, buy the servers, routers, firewalls, etc., and deal with all of the administration. All of the critical servers are owned by Famhost and housed in a secure collocation facility with redundant power generators, backup storage, fire and security systems and direct connections to four of the nine Tier 1networks.  A Tier 1 network peers with every other network to reach the Internet. Tier 2 networks peer with some networks but still purchase IP transit to reach at least some portion of the Internet, and Tier 3 networks solely purchase transit from other networks to reach the Internet.