Re: GUI necessary and QUICKEN

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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