Re: Programming tools (was DDS Support)

Donna,

I visited www.peeksoft.com to view pages promoting your PEEKDB product.  I
think you need to find a way better way to distinguish your tool from other
products in your market.

This may be a difficult suggestion to implement - your market is crowded
with other available options, some of which are free, others are ubiquitous.
Your product looks a lot like WRKDBF (free), for example.

Are you targeting programmers, technical support, or non-technical
end-users?

Some companies I've worked for provide an ODBC connection and some training
on MS Access, or MS Excel for non-technical people to view and edit database
records.  This may raise security and data integrity concerns, but
nevertheless appeals to a lot of people.  Others just use DFU.  Others write
green-screen programs.  Where exactly does your product fit in the market?
Your promotional pages should make that more clear.

Just a suggestion,

Nathan M. Andelin


<snip>

Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 12:46:48 -0400
From: "Donna Bryant" <peeksoft@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Programming tools (was DDS Support)

Buck,

It seems that your post and the other responses on this thread indicate a
lack of tools, yet no market.  That puts me in a dilemma.  I have recently
placed one of my tools on the market (PEEKDB- a file viewer and editor),
envisioning that affordability would be it's greatest appeal.  I'm not sure
the $399 price tag falls in the definition of affordability for a tool.  I
have been in the midrange market for 23 years, 10 of those consulting, and
have found that the greatest percentage of shops to be "tool-less" or
certainly tool-deficient.  I am in the process of trying to get the
utilities I've written over the years into marketable shape.  These include
a menu driver, data dictionary, and a report generator.  I think one of the
reasons shops are afraid to use a tool is that they do not want to become
dependent on that tool.  They still want to be able to use OS400 commands,
DDS or SQL, and RPG/COBOL  with their products.  Many of the expensive tools
currently available seem to tie you to them not only financially, but also
technically.  I try to avoid that dependence in my tools.  As a
 "tool-writer", I am dying to know what to try to deliver in terms of
technology and price (other than free stuff - that's kind of tough).

Donna Bryant, CCP
Peek Software Services, Inc
Savannah, Ga
(912) 598-9245
www.peeksoft.com

<end snip>



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