Travel Pac - About Us

History

In 1989, Darrell Cooper was in the cabinet business and handled a wide range of products.  To give various quotes to a customer on different combinations of cabinets was a time consuming process since it was all done manually.  Steve Cooper, Darrell's son, saw the need to develop a software program that would do the pricing of of all of the different styles of cabinets easily and quickly for any customer.  Steve has a background in electronics engineering and has studied software engineering.  He took a lot computer courses while in college and was quite knowledgeable in various computer languages.  Steve developed the software to do the quotes/pricing for his father's cabinet business, The Cabinet Warehouse located in Columbus Ohio, using C Language and named this first software package ProPrice.  A representative from a large cabinet manufacturer saw the software and presented it to company management who decided that they wanted to purchase it for use within their organization.  A couple of other companies also saw the advantage of using this software and picked it up as well.

In 1989, Data Pro Software was formed as a LLC with the growing demands of software.

In 1992, Data Pro Software  developed a software program for the Mt. Sterling Ohio  Police Department which was UNIX based.  The purpose of this program was to track their vehicle maintenance, inventory, purchase orders, employee hours, employee vacation and sick time, records for issued tickets and payments, as well as other in-house accounting functions.  Portions of that same program were used by the Hillsborough County Sherriffs Department in Florida.

The founders of Data Pro Software have always had a love of boats and realized that there was a need for software to track maintenance, inventory, loran settings, and other expenses for boaters.  The resulting product was called Sea Works.  The product was only lightly marketed since, at that time, many people did not have computers on their boats and personal computers were still at their infancy stage.

Darrell and Steve Cooper always have had RVs and have always loved traveling and camping.  During that time, they found that the original software called Sea Works, with a few modifications, could be tailored for RV and motorhome owners.  This became the foundation of the software now known as Travel Pac.

So in 1994, Travel Pac Software was introduced and quickly became the program of choice for the serious motorhome owner.  By 1996, Travel Pac was being sold through various dealers and distributors as well as through various online catalogs.

In 1997, Motorhome Magazine featured Travel Pac Software in one of their issues.  Part of the article stated: 

 "..We found the programs to be geared to the needs of motorhome owners and comprehensive without being overly complex... We think it offers good value to those who travel with computers."     - Copyright 1997 Motorhome  Magazine

After the article appeared, Travel Pac quickly became the #1 software for RV owners.

Also in 1997, Data Pro Software developed the first ISP for Mt Sterling, Ohio.  They provided all internet related services such as e-mail, web page hosting, and internet access.  During this same period, Data Pro Software was contracted to develop software for small libraries to track books, the checking in and out of books, and late fees since everything had been done manually up to that point.  The Librarian Software was developed and was used by several libraries until the State of Ohio provided a grant allowing small libraries to become a consortium which lead to a collective UNIX based system for all of the libraries to use.

In December of 1998, Travel Pac Software surpassed 10,000 users.

Data Pro Software then introduced a home based software system called Home Port (formerly called Travel Pac Home Edition) which quickly gained acceptance by the home owner that liked an easy way to track home expenses, home inventory, home repairs, auto maintenance records for all family members, service and repairs for each auto, recipes, calendar of events and schedules, and addresses and phone numbers.  Based upon the Travel Pac Software engine, Home Port quickly gained wide acceptance.

In 2004, Data Pro Software was sold but the rights to Travel Pac for RV Owners and Home Port were retained by the founding members of Data Pro.

In 2006, Travel Pac Software operations were moved to Sarasota, Florida.

Because of increased interest and newer technology, Travel Pac Version 5 was released in its beta form in 2007.  In March 2008, Travel Pac Version 5.1 was released for sale to the public.  Home Port Version 4 is currently in its beta testing phase and is scheduled to be for sale to the public in May 2008.

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ATTENTION DISTRIBUTORS!!

Travel Pac Software is currently seeking distribution partners to help solidify our position as the number one provider of software for RV owners and home owners.  For more information on becoming a distribution partner, just click here then fill out the form and click on submit.