OT: Evaluating an Application
Jose Lerebours
fpgroups at gmail.com
Sun Dec 15 11:27:50 PST 2019
On 12/15/19 2:18 PM, Laura Brody wrote:
> I think that all of us have had to deal with writing marketing copy
> at one point or another. Our big problem is that we are nerds. Nerds
> don't think like the rest of the population. We are more logical,
> detail oriented and usually less in touch with our feelings. Like
> everything, this can be a plus or a minus, depending on the situation.
> When it comes to writing marketing copy, it is a big minus. My first
> attempts at marketing were a total failure. My error was that I talked
> about product features. I later learned that the public wants to know
> how my product or service will make them happy. Big difference. This
> breakthrough came from reading books by Dan Kennedy.
>
> In the case of my local computer repair business, I realized that my
> customers were very concerned about losing their data. The policy of
> Best Buy is to wipe and reinstall Windows almost all of the time. My
> customers regularly brought me infected computers. I could remove the
> infections without losing their photos, emails, speadsheets, music
> collections, etc. I decided to put on my business cards " Computer
> Repair\nVirus Removal\nWithout data loss!" big and bold. I got
> customers and many referrals because I addressed a fear that they had.
> I tell the customer that I can't guarantee their data, but I will make
> every effort to safeguard it. That is what they wanted to hear.
>
> For your business application, I would try to imagine yourself as
> the business owner. What does he want? He wants his business to run
> smoothly. His retail customers should be able to check out quickly and
> be able to pay him several different ways. He wants to know what is in
> inventory and to be able to reorder more products with just a few
> keystrokes. He wants shipments to the warehouse checked in quickly
> (the solution is to use a barcode scanner which is faster and has less
> errors than a person typing it in). How you accomplish "faster,
> cheaper, easier" are details that most owners don't care about. Just
> deliver "faster, cheaper, easier" and you will get the business
> owner's attention. The owner doesn't really care if filePro is under
> the hood making all of the magic happen. He just wants the magic.
>
> Laura Brody
>
How refreshing to know that I am not the only one having this inefficiency.
I love this: "We are more logical, detail oriented and usually less in
touch with our feelings."
God know how often this has gotten me in trouble. ;-)
Very good and simple to follow pointers!
Thanks,
> On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 1:37 PM Jose Lerebours via Filepro-list
> <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> <mailto:filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>> wrote:
>
> On 12/15/19 11:11 AM, Fairlight via Filepro-list wrote:
> > When evaluating an application -in what state-, for what
> purpose/to what
> > end?
> >
> > It's incredibly hard to give an intelligent answer to a question
> as vague
> > as the one you posted.
>
> Fair enough!
>
> I left it open intentionally hoping that each would possibly offer
> points based on their own perspective/experience and/or particular
> business of interest.
>
> To be more specific,
>
> 1) a retail business that does both, store front and back office.
> 2) single or multiple warehouses (with ability to manage inventory
> movement & location)
> 3) single or multiple stores (with ability to restrict sale based on
> warehouse designated to a given store)
> 4) mixed product types with need to sale in multiple units of measure
> (dynamically converted by system)
> 5) need to track samples sent to prospective customers, designers and
> other retailers
> 6) ability to have a built in shopping cart or integrate with
> existing
> via API
> 7) ability to process credit card payment
> 8) ability to process Factoring
> 9) track/manage short and long term projects
> 10) ability to do partial shipping/billing
> 11) track job cost
> 12) track expenses associated to any given project (expense not
> same as
> cost of goods sold)
> 13) automatically draw commission for up to three sale persons per job
> 14) unlimited inventory
> 15) unlimited users
> 16) cloud based
> 17) Account Payable
> 18) Account Receivable
> 19) General Ledger
> 20) Financial Reports (P&L, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, GL Audit
> ...)
> 21) Purchase order
> 22) Repacking
> 23) Pick & Pack
> 24) Freight Tracking / Quoting
> 25) PO Will Call
> 26) Sample Management
> 27) Claim Management
> 28) Help Desk
> 29) ... much more ...
>
> You can imagine that these are more of a list of "features" in the
> application not the "need" of a particular business but, given
> these as
> true features, how valuable are they? How meaningful can they be
> when
> evaluating the application if you had a retail/wholesale/distribution
> outfit?
>
> Whatever your business needs, could these be of any use to you? If
> so,
> how can this be presented or how would you expect it to be
> presented to
> you (not even sure how to phrase this) ???
>
> If not, how are these overkill or not necessary to a retail,
> wholesale,
> distribution outfit?
>
> As a side: I am asking this simply because I am in the process of
> preparing marketing material in hope to release an application I have
> been developing for a while now. I am no sales person and I am known
> for "saying too much" (lol) and really want to limit the out pour of
> information so that instead of encouraging interest, too much
> information often kills it.
>
>
>
> > m->
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 10:28:16AM -0500, Jose Lerebours via
> Filepro-list thus spoke:
> >> When evaluating an application, what are the top 10 questions
> you ask?
> >>
> >> If not questions, prerequisites in the form of features or
> >> properties that you figure are "must have"!?!
> >>
> >>
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