Landscape Design Software Testimonials

My name is Kent Hammond. I am head of the Landscape Contracting and Construction Program at The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio. We selected Visual Impact Earthscape Software for use in our education program for five reasons:

• It is a free standing program with its own internal CAD engine
  
• It is a very user friendly program and can be operated several different ways
  
• It has excellent graphics
  
• It is reasonably priced
  
• The technical support is outstanding

- Kent Hammond, Head of the Landscape Contracting and Construction Program at The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio

Colleagues always say to me, "Tom, I know Earthscapes is easy to use, but is it professional enough to handle my size of company?" My response: "If I could use Earthscapes to manage the worldwide landscaping needs of $19 billion Goodyear, surely you can use it manage your company, whatever the size.

In my position as Corporate Grounds Manager at Goodyear, I used Earthscapes to plan the landscape concepts for over 100 Goodyear plants worldwide. With a $2 million annual budget, I relied on Earthscapes to design and plan numerous, major projects. Such projects included a landscape overhaul of Goodyear's corporate office, designing the irrigation system for the same corporate office and planning the landscape concept for a 750 foot long building that involved the incorporation of hundreds of plants and ground covers.

The fact is Earthscapes is a professional program. Yes, it is easy to learn and use, but it also offers all of the advanced design features required for the biggest, most complex landscaping jobs. In all my years of managing the worldwide landscaping needs of Goodyear, I never found a job that Earthscapes couldn't handle.

- Tom Riccardi, former Goodyear Corporate Grounds Manager

I have been a user of Earthscapes for 5 years.  When my customers tell me they can't afford Earthscapes, I ask them three questions to prove how affordable the program really is:

• #1 - How much money do you spend on design time?
  Time is money. The more time you spend designing, the more expensive the job becomes. Consider the following example:
  Let's assume that you design 20 jobs a year, each job takes you 4 hours to design and you pay a designer $20 per hour. That means you are spending $1600 (20 jobs x 4 hours per job x 20 dollars per hour) in design time per year. Now consider that, on average, Earthscapes users report a 40% reduction in design time using the software. So, you save $640 per year in design time alone. All things being equal, the program pays for itself in just 20 months. Don't forget, every time you have to redesign a project, you are spending more money. This is especially true if you have to completely redraw the design every time a customer wants a change made. If you are using Earthscapes, however, you simply load the file, make the changes and reprint the design - this takes you minutes as opposed to the hours it will take you to redraw the design.
  
• #2 - How much money do you spend on equipment?
  Most landscapers don't think twice about spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment, but they don't want to spend a thousand dollars on landscape design software. My question to these landscapers is "how many jobs has your equipment sold for you?"
  While it is true that good equipment is vital to delivering good work once a job is secured, very rarely is it the reason that you get a job. Conversely, landscape design software has been proven to help companies sell more jobs.
  
  My point is that landscape design software is a good investment. By spending just a thousand dollars now, it provides you with the tools you need to win more jobs and increase your revenues by tens of thousands of dollars down the road.
  
• #3 - How do you stack up against your competition?
  We all know that landscaping is a very competitive business. To stay ahead of the competition, you need to implement every advantage you can.
  If your competitors are providing customers with digitally designed proposals - including beautiful photo images, detailed site plan designs, clearly constructed estimates and complete plant care tips - and you aren't, how many jobs do you think you are going to lose? If the profit from those jobs is greater than $1095, than purchasing Earthscapes makes good sense.
  Alternatively, if your competitors aren't using landscape design software, how many more jobs do you think you can win by offering more professional proposals? Again, if the profit from those extra jobs is greater than $1095, purchasing Earthscapes makes good sense.
  

- Marilyn Dorota, Owner, Flower Bed Designs