Modernization

[GCC Consulting]

Here's my 2 cents.

As a developer, I do custom system mostly for niche markets.  My clients
have, for the most part, evaluated canned packages or "industry" packages.
In most cases they have found them missing important features or too
expensive.

One client, who has been running a custom system from me for almost 15
years, has had other software companies approach them to replace my
application.

The presidents of the company asks the same question of each, if I need a
modification how long will it take?  They usually respond that they will
send of an analysis to review the requirements; then they will review it
with programming and then get back with a price.  Then it will be about xx
weeks before they can start and xx weeks to finish.  My client the asks,
what if I need it right away?  Sorry, that's our procedure.

How long does it take to get a new report?  The usual answer was 8 weeks.
Again they ask, what if I need it now?  8 weeks is the answer.

My client then usually says that my current developer will come in and get a
report done in less then 2 hours.  As for new programming that we need, it
takes him from 1 day to a few weeks from the time we ask him not months.

I recently closed a deal for a new system with an old friend who ran 2
previous ventures he was in using filePro.  His 2 partners in this new
venture and well as some of the investors wanted them him to have their
system developed in a "modern" SQL type database.  My friend convinced them
that developing in fp would be faster and more cost effective then using any
of the SQL databases.  His two primary partners were not convinced.
However, once the application was up and running and they saw how quickly
new features could be added, they too were convinced of fiklePro's
advantages.

They are running ODBC version, just in case they ever want to migrate to a
SQL database.  However, as time goes by, this requirement is fading.

For the most part, filePro has been meeting all of my requirements.  The new
5.6 with data encryption, as well as the rest of the new functions, is
meeting what I need.

Granted, there are a number of wish list items I would love to have, but I
can, for the present, live without them.

The one place I think fp is falling down on promoting 5.6, is not coming to
John's chatroom and offering some demonstration programming of the new
features.  This would give us a chance to see how they envision using these
features as well as how they are programming them.

When memos was demonstrated and the fp conference a few years ago, Ken
showed, quickly, how to resize the memo window in the fly.  A lot of us said
"wow how do you do that".  Ken showed us the programming.  That's the type
of thing fp needs to do to promote 5.6.

Sockets can open up a lot of new areas for filePro to be used.  One could
use sockets to act as a trigger from an ODBC database to filepro to start a
process rather then the reverse.    

Instead of ruminating about what filePro doesn't have, why not consider what
it does have.  Think about how to use the tools you have in filepro along
with the third party add-ons to accomplish those things you need to do.

And to those of you who are still using version 4.XX, I would strongly
suggest upgrading to 5.6. Even though you may not feel that you need the new
functionality now, the 5.XX feature set may open up new programming
possibilities that you hadn't considered once you have had a chance to
"play" with these functions & features.  Besides, you will be using a
supported version of filePro.

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting
 





 

Richard Kreiss