RE: GUI necessary and QUICKEN -- MIDRANGE-L

Jim,

I don't want Quicken or Peachtree on the AS/400!  I want "Real" and 
"Affordable" accounting on the AS/400.  Something for those of us in 
the 1-10M/yr range.

And I agree.  I cant speak about Quicken, but Peachtree will pretty 
much let you do anything to anything at anytime.  Don't like the 
invoice you created last year?  Just delete it. It makes the 
financials pretty much a moving target and fairly meaningless.

The 50k number was pulled out of the air and a bit inflated.  But I 
know of only one AS/400 financial package that we could get into for 
less than 10k.  And I know way to much about it and wouldn't touch it 
for free.

Bob


-----Original Message-----
From:   James W Kilgore [SMTP:email@james-w-kilgore.com]
Sent:   Friday, December 04, 1998 5:58 AM
To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject:        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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