The question is not, Why Delta? The question is, Why anything else?

or, Why buying networking from your machine vendor may not be a smart move.

Of the many firsts VeriStitch is responsible for bringing to the machine networking world, three things in particular have brought significant productivity and maintainability benefits to our customers:

• VeriStitch brought the idea of production tracking decorative sewing machines into the consciousness of the industry. Once just a dream, production tracking and management statistical reporting is now an everyday occurrence on the floors of the largest decorative sewing operations in the U.S., thanks to Delta ISN and Delta MCS.
• VeriStitch connected machines across the room and across the world by assigning globally routable IP addresses to machines. Our customers routinely connect machines to a single server across wide area networks spanning large geographical areas.
• VeriStitch introduced the convenience of wire-free technology to decorative sewing machine networks.

Since we created this market years ago and provided product that performs as promised, machine vendors have struggled to develop and introduce products that attempt to imitate our technology. That leaves you, the customer, in the position of deciding to whom you want to entrust your machine networking.

Once you spend some time answering the following questions, we're confident that you'll see the wisdom in entrusting your machine networking to VeriStitch, the industry's networking specialists.

10 Questions to Ask About an Embroidery Machine Network Before Buying

1. Does the network connect every machine on the floor, including your older models?

If the network only works with "the latest machine model," is the promise of networking being used as a motivational tool to get you to buy newer machines?

Why customers choose Delta:

• VeriStitch doesn't have any machines to sell. Networking with production workflow automation is our only business.
• We can network machines that are almost considered ancient by today's standards, right alongside the latest machine models.

2. Does the network connect different manufacturers machines?

Or does it work only with the machines sold by the machine vendor offering the network? In our experience, larger operations tend to purchase machines that are right for their particular production centers. Maybe you will find a Brother is best for certain things, but prefer a Melco Amaya, Barudan or Tajima for other things.

Why customers choose Delta:

• We have the technology to make no-fuss mixed machine networking a reality. We have customers running mixed machine environments every day, even running Barudan and Tajima machines side by side on the same network.

3. Does the network support both push and pull design access?

Push systems require someone at a central computer or software interface to stage a design for a specific machine. When the machine operator requests the next design, he or she gets whatever has been staged. Pull systems allow the machine operator to specify the design they want to load right at the machine. Push systems are the easiest to implement, but double the work it takes to get a design to a machine. A pull system is more sophisticated and best fits the workflow of large U.S. decorative sewing operations.

Why customers choose Delta:

• Delta supports both push and pull design downloads, with the following special pull-mode features: with bar code scanner option, no operator keying is required at Delta Terminal to download a job (immediate download after successful bar code scan); supports long job/design names such as are commonly assigned by mainframe order entry systems

4. Does the network allow designs to be referenced by job/work order numbers, or is the design name/number the only reference to a design?

In some operations, the machine operator works with a job or work order number, not the design number.

Why customers choose Delta:

• In Delta, a design is known by its design name and as many job/work order numbers as you want to create to point to it. Machine operators can download the design either by its design number or job/work order number.

5. How large of a design library can the network handle, and how does it store designs if it stores them at all?

Our experience is that a customer's design library is always growing, and they want all of their designs available to the production floor. Most of our customers have libraries that exceed 20,000 designs; some have libraries that number into the 6-figure range.

Why customers choose Delta:

• The current version of Delta stores in excess of 250,000 designs depending on the average design size. And we have expansion capabilities beyond that when the need arises. In Delta, a design is actually imported into a database where it can be accessed quickly without network overhead and file I/O. Yet, our database is easily maintainable with simple tools we provide; no SQL Server or certified database administrator required!
• Some networks, instead of storing designs in a database, simply look in a directory on the network for stored files. We abandoned this approach years ago because of the network latency involved in opening a directory with over 1000 files in it. Try it sometime. You'll see right away that this is no solution for large design libraries.

6. What client software is available for accessing the design database?

Nothing is more important than to be able to see exactly what design is on file to be downloaded to the production machine that will run an order. Will your people be able to do that?

Why customers choose Delta:

• Our suite of client software offers a simple way for all of your users, including production and sales people, to view the production database, while at the same time restricting them from adding, deleting or modifying designs. You can also provide complete access to the database to those who need it, so they can add, delete and modify designs as needed. And our client software works equally well over your LAN, WAN and the Internet if needed.

7. Is the network software a shrink-wrap solution?

Does the vendor also offer order entry integration or other custom programming that may be needed to get the most out of your investment?

Why customers choose Delta:

• We are not a shrink-wrap software vendor. Our software is hand crafted to meet the needs of our customers. Because we do all of the hardware and software development right here, we can respond rapidly to your unique requests. Want to pass information from your order entry system through Delta to your machine operators? We can do it. Need a report customized to your needs? We can do it. Read more about custom programming here.

8. Who do you call when there are problems with the network?

Does the vendor have people on staff who are networking savvy, or are they machine techs who are trying their best to deal with what is essentially a foreign technology to them?

Why customers choose Delta:

• Again, networking is our only business. When you call us for support, you are talking directly to the people who develop, document, install and support Delta every day. That's all we do. We'll do whatever it takes to walk you through a problem to a final resolution. All we ask is that you put a technical person on the other side of the phone with us and we'll take it from there.

9. What sort of track record does the network have?

Are there references you can call to discuss reliability of the product and the reputation the vendor has for supporting the product? Are there installations you can visit to actually see the network being used in production to support 70, 80, 90 or more machines?

Why customers choose Delta:

• We are happy to supply references on request, no problem. Want to visit an installation? That can be arranged, too. In fact, that's how we built our business, by one company visiting another. The unfortunate history of machine networking in this industry put us in the position of having to show customers the product actually does work, and works reliably enough to bet a business on it every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

10. This last question is more about you than the network, and it is simply this: Do you feel lucky?

Well, do you? If you're going to bet your business on an unproven product, your answer to this question had better be, Yes. On the other hand, if you want to leave luck out of the picture, bet your business on a sure thing: reliable, proven networking from the industry leader. So, what are you waiting for? Contact a sales representative now.