Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business?

#51

Me? Trolling?

I hope I post regularly enough in this group for everybody to know my tongue
is firmly in cheek!!

As far as the wiki goes- you are right... whilst the layout *can* be open,
you need some pretty strict guidelines to stop it becoming a mess.

However, in any case, the indexing on our wiki is pretty good - and it's
freeware (http://www.high-beyond.com - it's written as a dotnet web
application and uses Windows indexing).

Regards
Simon
"Joe" <nobody (AT) home (DOT) now> wrote

Quote:

"Simon" <simon (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com> wrote in
news:1166601268.131847.272430 (AT) t46g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com:

major snippage
Suitably ignoring all "respectful" comments, along with discussions on
the CDP Clique (I thought that was reserved purely for the WI ?).

In a kind of response to Joe's original question, we are a software
development house. Historically, we always had a "not inventef here"
attitude to our internal systems. However, these days, I work more on
the cost/benefit equation and it's often much easier and cheaper to
outsource systems rather than spend time writing and supporting your
own.

So, these days, whilst we use our own accounting system (our
"customer" standard system works fine with some minor additional
subroutines for our licence billing), we no longer use a Pick based
Helpdesk system - thats outsourced and is Apache/Tomcat/mySQL based.

Custom-tailored to your operations I take it?

We have embraced the concept of a "WIKI" for internal technical
documentation and the like (we used to use a home-grown pick based
system to store and retrieve).

I've seen more than one house do this successfully. However, the issues
I've seen stem from different groups (e.g., support, sales, programming)
wanting to "organize" it in different ways. Thus, a contributor from
sales might post a particular document in a way that a programmer would
find inconvenient.

Our source code and revision management is MV - a home grown source
control system - it's not pretty but it does the job it's sposed to
do.

I'm no longer in the camp of "pick is best" these days.. Having spent
20 years in the MV world, I *like* MV but concede that anything *can*
be done using a non-MV database should it be required. (I guess I've
proved this as our latest software has a MV back end, with a dotnet
thick client front end with XML based web service calls sticking the
two together!).

Anyways... hope that that is enough information to keep the OP going!

Indeed, and many thanks for the response.

So.. ok.. who are the members of the MV Clieque ????? <G

Simon

Well now, wouldn't _that_ question be considered trolling?

Actually, it's not all that hard to discern from reading other recent
posts...

Regards,
Joe

#52

"Simon Verona" <xx (AT) xx (DOT) com> wrote in
news:45894ee7$0$8752$ed2619ec (AT) ptn-nntp-reader02 (DOT) plus.net:

Quote:

Me? Trolling?

I hope I post regularly enough in this group for everybody to know my
tongue is firmly in cheek!!

As far as the wiki goes- you are right... whilst the layout *can* be
open, you need some pretty strict guidelines to stop it becoming a
mess.

However, in any case, the indexing on our wiki is pretty good - and
it's freeware (http://www.high-beyond.com - it's written as a dotnet
web application and uses Windows indexing).

Regards
Simon

Thanks for the tip, Simon. As long as you get a bit more than you paid,
free is usually good.

Regards,
Joe

Quote:

"Joe" <nobody (AT) home (DOT) now> wrote in message
news:Xns989F5814A3252nospamforme (AT) 216 (DOT) 77.188.18...
"Simon" <simon (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com> wrote in
news:1166601268.131847.272430 (AT) t46g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com:

major snippage
Suitably ignoring all "respectful" comments, along with discussions
on the CDP Clique (I thought that was reserved purely for the WI ?).

In a kind of response to Joe's original question, we are a software
development house. Historically, we always had a "not inventef
here" attitude to our internal systems. However, these days, I work
more on the cost/benefit equation and it's often much easier and
cheaper to outsource systems rather than spend time writing and
supporting your own.

So, these days, whilst we use our own accounting system (our
"customer" standard system works fine with some minor additional
subroutines for our licence billing), we no longer use a Pick based
Helpdesk system - thats outsourced and is Apache/Tomcat/mySQL based.

Custom-tailored to your operations I take it?

We have embraced the concept of a "WIKI" for internal technical
documentation and the like (we used to use a home-grown pick based
system to store and retrieve).

I've seen more than one house do this successfully. However, the
issues I've seen stem from different groups (e.g., support, sales,
programming) wanting to "organize" it in different ways. Thus, a
contributor from sales might post a particular document in a way that
a programmer would find inconvenient.

Our source code and revision management is MV - a home grown source
control system - it's not pretty but it does the job it's sposed to
do.

I'm no longer in the camp of "pick is best" these days.. Having
spent 20 years in the MV world, I *like* MV but concede that
anything *can* be done using a non-MV database should it be
required. (I guess I've proved this as our latest software has a MV
back end, with a dotnet thick client front end with XML based web
service calls sticking the two together!).

Anyways... hope that that is enough information to keep the OP
going!

Indeed, and many thanks for the response.

So.. ok.. who are the members of the MV Clieque ????? <G

Simon

Well now, wouldn't _that_ question be considered trolling?

Actually, it's not all that hard to discern from reading other recent
posts...

Regards,
Joe

#53

"Chandru Murthi" <cmur_xyz_thi (AT) xyz_seeinggree_xyz_n (DOT) net> wrote in
news:xNbih.4906$WS4.2831@trndny07:

Quote:

My God Dawn, (apologies if you're an atheist like me, mostly,) but you
are exhibiting a level of restraint that would make the eyes of Mother
Theresa glaze. My 2 cents:

Joe:
1. If you won't identify youself, you have a problem, Usenet or no.
It's called common courtesy.

Sorry, but I don't agree. Telling someone they have a problem simply
because they wish to remain anonymous is called disrespect in my camp.

Quote:

2. You started this brouhaha with an ill-conceived post about pus.

Again, I don't agree. I commented somewhat descriptively about what I
see as a smugness and pompousness exhibited by some. The "brouhaha", as
you call it, was propagated by most of the participants of this thread.
It may be ill-conceived in your opinion, but it's accurate in my
opinion.

Quote:

Not, generally speaking, a way to elicit meaningful dialog. Some of us
who've had chicken pox don't like the image.

Perhaps Mike's description (IIRC) might be more apropos. As for
eliciting meaningful dialog, the same can be said for the posts to which
I originally responded, except for Jeff's. Your point?

Quote:

3. You're wrong about the group not liking "outsiders" (btw can one be
an outsider to a public forum?). If anything seems too harshh, member
of your so-called clique rise to defend the newcomer...happened often.

Some "outsiders" have been branded as trolls and run out of Dodge.

Quote:

Happy belated Diwali.

Chandru Murthi

Thank you. Merry Christmas.

Regards,
Joe

<snip>

#54

Joe,

I've been on holidays or I would have chimed in earlier, but am happy
to stand in the (surprisingly short) "Jeff Queue"

We use our own software (the stuff we sell to our clients) for all
aspects of our own business - GL, AP, AR, Costing/Project Management,
service/help desk, payroll, asset register, financial reporting etc etc
etc

All modules are fully integrated, with links as appropriate to external
systems (eg: electronic banking - for some reason the banks will not
trust us with direct access to their systems)

It doesn't "cost us" anything to keep our applications current - this
IS what we do for our clients anyway, but we do have people devoted to
full time product R&D, maintenance & support for all of our clients.
SO, whilst I say "it costs us nothing", you could just as easily say
that we spend +70% of our budget on keeping our own applications
current, but it then costs us nothing for our clients (who DO pay us
money on an annual basis)

In terms of "satisfaction" - if there is something we don't like, we
can change it - typically via parameters if possible (we have LOT's of
options that can be switched & changed to adjust functionality of the
base system)

All of our processes are automated, with the exception of manpower
allocation in our case, so that we can allocate the "right" people to
specific tasks.

We have hundreds (OK, thousands) of standard reports, which are
supplemented by a data warehouse (Visage.BIT - once more "ours") for
extended analytics & "data discovery/exploration"

HTH

Ross Ferris
Stamina Software
Visage > Better by Design!

#55

"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote in
news:1166925460.375292.317670 (AT) 73g2000cwn (DOT) googlegroups.com:

Quote:

Joe,

I've been on holidays or I would have chimed in earlier, but am happy
to stand in the (surprisingly short) "Jeff Queue"

We use our own software (the stuff we sell to our clients) for all
aspects of our own business - GL, AP, AR, Costing/Project Management,
service/help desk, payroll, asset register, financial reporting etc
etc
etc

All modules are fully integrated, with links as appropriate to
external
systems (eg: electronic banking - for some reason the banks will not
trust us with direct access to their systems)

It doesn't "cost us" anything to keep our applications current - this
IS what we do for our clients anyway, but we do have people devoted to
full time product R&D, maintenance & support for all of our clients.
SO, whilst I say "it costs us nothing", you could just as easily say
that we spend +70% of our budget on keeping our own applications
current, but it then costs us nothing for our clients (who DO pay us
money on an annual basis)

In terms of "satisfaction" - if there is something we don't like, we
can change it - typically via parameters if possible (we have LOT's of
options that can be switched & changed to adjust functionality of the
base system)

All of our processes are automated, with the exception of manpower
allocation in our case, so that we can allocate the "right" people to
specific tasks.

We have hundreds (OK, thousands) of standard reports, which are
supplemented by a data warehouse (Visage.BIT - once more "ours") for
extended analytics & "data discovery/exploration"

HTH

Ross Ferris
Stamina Software
Visage > Better by Design!

Ross, it's not really surprising that the "Jeff Queue" is all that
short.

Sounds like you have the package pretty much down to where
you want it. Thanks very much for the info. I appreciate the honest
response.

Regards,
Joe

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Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business?

comp.databases.pick comp.databases.pick

Re: Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business? - 12-20-2006 , 08:55 AM

Re: Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business? - 12-20-2006 , 11:00 AM

Re: Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business? - 12-20-2006 , 11:19 AM

Re: Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business? - 12-23-2006 , 07:57 PM

Re: Question for Software Houses/Vendors: What Runs Your Business? - 12-23-2006 , 09:37 PM