Re: [U2] Dump truck backup

Hi Dale

Since the people objecting are not the people who actually USE your system
day to day, 
a better approach is to look to the functionality in your system, and decide
how to partition this so that you can shine up the exposed parts in ways
that will add value and rebrand your software..

Which means (in practical terms)

a) you don't need to do it all! Where you have green screens doing drudge
work, keep them so long as they continue to work well. Talk about the
training issues if you don't. Instead of changing those ..

b) Is there information locked in there that can be nicely represented using
web pages? I took a financial system that had 15 screens of client
information, 8 screens of financial instrument data, difficult to find (no
search) pages to get to the transaction history etc. and put them all into a
few web pages with easy drill through that meant managers could very quickly
see exactly what they wanted - that's where intelligent design and use of
fonts can really win over green screen. 

c) You can get creative if you want with tools like Google Visualisation for
anything that can be trended. It's a good face lift and can even sometimes
prove useful. With the same organization I wrote pages that showed trading
volumes, with lots of drill down and slicing so they could better optimise
their resources in supporting those. I wrote an article in a back issue of
Spectrum (www.intl-spectrum.com) that shows how to do this from UniVerse.

d) As that was the view most of the management had, it was good branding
exercise.  Some of them are convinced they have a new system (and nobody is
about to disabuse them of that notion!) Getting information out of UniVerse
and into the web is very easy, and if you are worried about the learning
curve check out mvScript: it's a page markup language that looks like
UniBasic.

e) Ditto any reports or printed output - easily done. Check out mvQuery,
mvPDF or a host of other ways to do this. If you can link up a query tool
(like mvQuery) that opens your system and gives a nice front end to a lot of
management activity.

f) Oh and make sure you sell it as an upgrade to the 'current' version. That
way you can recover your time in doing this AND make them feel that they
have invested in their future (i.e. they are now stakeholders).

We can talk about this off line if you want.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dale Kelley
Sent: 10 March 2014 21:12
To: [email protected]
Subject: [U2] Dump truck backup

This is mostly for you folks who are contractors but I'd be happy to hear
from anyone.  I have a customer, Nashville Metropolitan Government, for whom
I have provided flea market reservation/registration and buiding event
rental software. (UniVerse.)  I am a 1 man shop.  I look both ways before I
cross the street and so far its worked out.  But the issue of continuation
of development and support has come up for a second time; along with it the
nature of my character based software and some reactions to UviVerse as a
product.  This is an email from the assistant director of the Nashville
fairgrounds:

"Subject: ITS Help Selecting New Software
Importance: High
Our Flea Market and Corporate Sales components have been utilizing
proprietary software that is ancient, and without documentation for many
years.  It has not been supported by ITS, and there is only one known person
in the Tennessee area that can serviced this software. With the upgrade to
Windows 7, it will not operate.  Obviously, we need to purchase a package
that will provide the functionality we need and that can be supported by
ITS. I am requesting a meeting, with the appropriate ITS staff at the
earliest possible time; to identify our needs and possible software packages
that can be installed."

He is incorrect in most of his conclusions, but this is his perception.  I
have left behind a number of great systems that are now defunct because
management viewed them as "ancient".  Does anyone else meet this attitude? 
My customer defended the system with the following email.

"Ken
Who said our software was ancient?  It is not, it aids in insuring the
revenue stream for both Flea Market and Facility Rental, you are correct
that the software is serviced by one individual since he wrote the program,
his name is Dale Kelley and he has other members on his team that know the
software in the event something happens to him.  As far as the upgrade to
Windows 7 who said that it will not operate?  This is certainly not the
case, the software can be updated to run with minimal effort.  You can
contact Dale Kelley if you like, I have copied him on this e-mail. 
Thank you for your time
Deborah"

Deborah's defense included a small lie about the "members of my team"; I'm
it.  This system is written entirely in BASIC; no procs, no scripts.  I
always have the source code on the system; it's theirs to use as they wish. 
I would be happy to provide it for review.  My question: is there anyone who
would have any interest in taking over this and another government customer
if I should become defunct or inoperable?  I know there are some great
people in Tennessee, but these guys could be supported from anywhere.

I would also appreciate any advice on products and time required to mouse up
the screens and present non-ancient images.  I intend to arrenge a meeting
with the Assistant Director to attempt to address his concerns and see if I
can sell some services.

Dale



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