OT: Evaluating an Application

Sun Dec 15 11:42:59 PST 2019

>> God know how often this has gotten me in trouble.  ;-)

That should be "God knows"......

Being this detail oriented is great if you are proofreading books,
articles, websites, etc. <g> In Internet posts, it often is the first
volley for an ugly fight more often than not.

Laura Brody

On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 2:27 PM Jose Lerebours <fpgroups at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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> 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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