I run a company that does 2257 software and services.

We looked at everything in the market and weren't satisfied technically or legally. Not to say there's anything wrong with what is out there or that it won't make you compliant, but we would like to see more data checking, security, encryption, audit trails, privacy, sharing among producers, import/export features, etc. Some software has useful extra fields (e.g. second IDs, model releases) but no way to produce a version for inspection that provides only what the government is entitled to have. They are also missing some fields that would be helpful -- like who entered the record and when, who owns it, where it comes from, and do we have the right to share it with other producers. I could go on and on. Also, not sure how well some of these will scale up for larger producers.

One promising package came from Mansion Productions, which designed a plug-in module last year for customers already using their content management and affiliate management software. I did not have the chance to test it but it looked very good from the literature.

Why isn't there more out there? The market is pretty small and the stakes for putting out bad software are high. Nobody is going to make money selling software to a few thousand users at $19 a copy, or $100, or even $500. If you're already in the business you have other fish to fry.

Given our concerns we decided to do our own version, which we will probably release for free. That isn't ready so I won't waste anyone's time on vaporware. In the meanwhile, if I were a small producer I would try a few demos and pick out the one that seems best. Make sure it allows for data import/export in case you deal with others or migrate to a new system later. As a larger producer I would design my own database to fit my particular needs. It's not that hard, and that's what most have done.

The key is the data. Whatever software you use, be sure you gather all of the records you need and keep them orderly.