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Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

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    Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

    If you're not already an Alpha Five convert, I want to ask you to take a look at the last few threads. Specifically, some of the people who are particpating in the threads.

    Richard and Selwyn Rabins are the owners of the company. Selwyn is the big guy behind A5.

    Cian Chambliss has been developing for Alpha for something around 20 years - maybe more.

    Lenny Forziati is the brains behind the web application stuff, and so much more.

    Individually and collectively, these guys (and others we see: Aaron, Dave, etc) are amazing. Their intellect, desire and ability to both create A5 and serve customers is something to behold.

    No where else in the software world are you ever - ever - going to find support, attention and responsiveness like this from such capable people.

    There are a lot of reasons to buy and use Alpha Five. But I was just looking through the last few threads and decided this needed to be pointed out for those who don't know. For those of us who do know, it is very satisfying to know that we've made the right choice, will have the company support and care that we need, and the attention of some pretty darned smart people.
    -Steve
    sigpic

    #2
    Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

    Steve,

    was just thinking the same thing. Thanks for conveying my thoughts. :)

    And thanks to the Alpha team!!
    Tim Kiebert
    Eagle Creek Citrus
    A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

      Indeed, each patch has more great new features, too! :)

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

        OK, I'm considering buying A5. The forum has a good feel and the owners are responding to user requests. But I still have some doubts.

        Is V9 ready for end-users? I don't need 20 calls per day because a system I install at a client's site isn't working.

        I currently use Visual Foxpro with a framework. I need to rewrite an old Business Basic system. A5 has some features that my framework is missing but is it substantially better than Foxpro?

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

          This needs to be made a Sticky at the top. Either it is going to fall to page 2+ or become so long it will not be read.

          By the way I have posted in past as to how impressed I am with Alpha. Even more so after dealing with other software vendors.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

            Originally posted by aRob View Post
            OK, I'm considering buying A5. The forum has a good feel and the owners are responding to user requests. But I still have some doubts.

            Is V9 ready for end-users? I don't need 20 calls per day because a system I install at a client's site isn't working.

            I currently use Visual Foxpro with a framework. I need to rewrite an old Business Basic system. A5 has some features that my framework is missing but is it substantially better than Foxpro?

            Rob - at the very least, get the free trial download. 30 days of free, and nothing's held back.

            Yes, V9 is "ready." You're finding problems here because this is where people come with 'em. And, you've also noticed they get solved.

            I can't compare it with Foxpro because I'm not familiar with Foxpro. Has the Search feature of this board turned up anything useful for you? Maybe an ex Foxpro user will jump in here.

            I don't have any full V9 implementations out there, but plenty of V8 and I'm not spending my day answering the phone.
            -Steve
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

              Originally posted by aRob View Post
              OK, I'm considering buying A5. The forum has a good feel and the owners are responding to user requests. But I still have some doubts.

              Is V9 ready for end-users? I don't need 20 calls per day because a system I install at a client's site isn't working.

              I currently use Visual Foxpro with a framework. I need to rewrite an old Business Basic system. A5 has some features that my framework is missing but is it substantially better than Foxpro?
              Foxpro is (was? - I understand Microsoft has killed it) a very good product.

              So is Alpha Five.

              Both are very large products. There are no doubt some things that Foxpro offers that A5 does not have and there are certainly some things that A5 offers that Foxpro doesn't.

              While Foxpro certainly has a lot of raw power, my experience with it is that you have a much longer learning curve to be productive with it compared to A5.

              A5 has been around a long time and there are thousands of applications that have been developed using it.
              Last edited by Selwyn Rabins; 05-01-2008, 02:58 PM.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                Rob,

                Foxpro is a VERY strong product, but the death is on it's way for Foxpro. It also takes longer from start to develope anything with it.

                alpha is a thriving environment that is much easier to deal with and MUCH faster to get things going.

                There really is no comparison when you know about both products.
                Dave Mason
                [email protected]
                Skype is dave.mason46

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                  I'm evaluating V8. Unfortunately with limited time and 30 day evals, one is only scratching the surface.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                    Originally posted by aRob View Post
                    I'm evaluating V8. Unfortunately with limited time and 30 day evals, one is only scratching the surface.
                    ... and yet there is another 30 days on V9 as a trial... 60 days is plenty to get stuck in :D

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                      Rob

                      You probably should be evaluating v9 - there are a lot of enhancements that you probably want to take advtage of

                      the new features are summarized here http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/platinum/
                      Richard Rabins
                      Co Chairman
                      Alpha Software

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                        Alpha is great, but I had one thing I didn't like. The numerical formats weren't what you would see on a formal financial statement. Zero's should be displayed as dashes, negative numbers in parenthesis, with totals and first lines having a dollar sign. I emailed Selwyn about a month ago, asking if there was still time to put it into the final version. I'm glad to say he did it.

                        I really like how the report writer has conditional objects. I can set up a report with a variety of conditional objects, each with different fields and/or formatting. To the best of my knowledge, more expensive stand alone report writers can't do this.

                        As an accountant, I like how I can import info in and easily work with it. I just export the transactions from quickbooks into a .csv file, index it, and have a gl I can analyze. By the way, use a csv rather than a wks, as quickbooks messes up the dates.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                          Originally posted by quinster View Post
                          Alpha is great, but I had one thing I didn't like. The numerical formats weren't what you would see on a formal financial statement. Zero's should be displayed as dashes, negative numbers in parenthesis, with totals and first lines having a dollar sign. I emailed Selwyn about a month ago, asking if there was still time to put it into the final version. I'm glad to say he did it.
                          And I'm sure Microsoft and most other database companies would have provided the same level of service for you!

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                            Originally posted by quinster View Post
                            Alpha is great, but I had one thing I didn't like. The numerical formats weren't what you would see on a formal financial statement. Zero's should be displayed as dashes, negative numbers in parenthesis, with totals and first lines having a dollar sign. I emailed Selwyn about a month ago, asking if there was still time to put it into the final version. I'm glad to say he did it.

                            I really like how the report writer has conditional objects. I can set up a report with a variety of conditional objects, each with different fields and/or formatting. To the best of my knowledge, more expensive stand alone report writers can't do this.

                            As an accountant, I like how I can import info in and easily work with it. I just export the transactions from quickbooks into a .csv file, index it, and have a gl I can analyze. By the way, use a csv rather than a wks, as quickbooks messes up the dates.
                            actually, we did a lot more as a result of your request than just add a new format.

                            we realized that there will always be some format that a user might want that we could never anticipate, so we add a generic feature that allows a user do install their own formats.

                            this is done by creating a specially name UDF to do the formatting.

                            this feature is described in the 'what's new in v9' document.

                            http://support.alphasoftware.com/Wha...V9/NewInV9.htm

                            navigate to the Form Layout-->User Defined Formatting section.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Considering Buying A5? Read This Please.

                              Getting back to the original intent of this thread:

                              Read Selwyn's last message. Then re-read my opening message. Is this great or what?
                              -Steve
                              sigpic

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