Re: GUI necessary and QUICKEN -- MIDRANGE-L

Bob,

OK, here's where we separate the hot dogs from the weenies.

According to the standard practices of accounting, every entry is written in ink
and there is no such thing as white-out.

If you own Joe's Latte and have a business income that doesn't qualify you for 
an
IPO on NASDAQ, run QuickBooks Pro or PeachTree or more likely throw the receipts
in a bag for your CPA to sift through. Then enlist Dowey, Cheetem & Howe to sign
off on your financial reports when you go to the bank or IRS.  Not only can you
have a complete set of books, but you can cook them too! <g>

IMHO, a part of what the users of an AS/400 want is credibility.  Not all, but
most.  There was this judgment made back in the mid 80's that said that if a
software author intentionally permitted the user to engage in an illegal
activity, the software author was held liable for damages.  We write 
applications
that write in ink, no white-out provided. (see plug below)

Even for the AS/400 few NEED to spend $50K for a fully integrated accounting
application.

PLUG(*BLATENT)

Progressive Data Systems, Inc. (among others) provide applications that will 
pass
an audit by any big 8 firm and cost far less than $50K  We provide quality,
domestic based, integrated applications for half that amount.  The world may be
getting smaller, but the 10-20M/yr companies are still mostly domestic and the
backbone of the US economy.  The $50K you mention doesn't even start to cover
training or customization.

Just as an addition, we had 70+ installations which mostly moved on to AS/400.
We have three that are still holding out.

There was a fourth that tried an NT network for 6 months then went and bought an
AS/400.  There's another that has looked for two years to find as robust an
application (PC based) and server (PC) with equal S/36 up time to no avail.  We
are now offering data center services for the Joe's Latte that need AS/400 level
of applications but can't quite get their nephew off the Payroll to afford a 
170.
<g>  This is via a CISC 200 on V3R2 at level 40 security allowing Telnet through
a Linux firewall to full Y2K compliance applications starting @ $150/month. 
Whew!

PLUG(*DONE)

But wouldn't it be a great thing if we could have a few thousand people working
for us that have a room temperature IQ using a Quicken interface to record our
bills? Man, we could beat the socks off the competition! <VBG>

This may again fall into the 80/20 rule of life. 80% of the AS/400's are sold to
20% of the "installed base" and the remaining 20% fill up 80% of the customer
list.  Like Farmer's Insurance buys 5,000 machines but only counts as one
customer. JDE gets Farmers Insurance and counts 5,000 license fees.  Now don't
quote me, I made up the names and numbers just to make a point.  Neither Farmers
nor JDE are the bread and butter of AS/400 installs to anyone that plays third
party. They are just the dreams/nightmares we hear about.

But, IMHO, you won't see Quicken on an AS/400 because it must compete with 
AS/400
applications.  The AS/400 does not fit the SOHO market.  I'll put a bag over my
head and feel shame if the AS/400 ever tries to reach that low of a level. <G>

James W. Kilgore
email@James-W-Kilgore.com

Bob Crothers wrote:

> Ditto for Peach Tree.  It lets you do stuff that just shouldn't be
> allowed.
>
> But, for a small business (ISV in my case) it is just not worth 50k
> for an accounting package.
>
> Perhaps this is an un-tapped market for somebody out there who knows
> accounting (and that is NOT me!).
>
> Bob
>

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