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I see Platinum opening doors

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    I see Platinum opening doors

    I haven't had the stamina (or the time) to read through all the rants and raves posted in other, multipage threads, but some of it seems more like a monolog than a dialog.

    For me, Platinum is an opportunity to break into a market that we Alpha devotees have been locked out of for too long. You want to build a $99 app? Then Version 8 should more than suffice.

    I, however, have a $8500 app that can more than compete with many $30,000 apps out there, but I can't get the Corporate IT departments to look at it because it isn't SQL based. As one Corporate VP of a Multinational Fortune 500 company told me, " we don't see ever using AlphaFive, so we are not interested."

    Well, now, with Platinum, Alpha isn't just for recipies and cd collections any more (their perception, not mine), it's a grown up player.

    Now I have a product that out reports Crystal Reports and speaks multilingual SQL. Now I can get a foot in the door.

    Let's see...one corporation, over 70 divisions worldwide, all needing my product at $8500 each (say $8000 in quantity?).

    That should get me through the winter...

    Pat
    Pat Bremkamp
    MindKicks Consulting

    #2
    Re: I see Platinum opening doors

    Originally posted by Pat Bremkamp View Post
    I haven't had the stamina (or the time) to read through all the rants and raves posted in other, multipage threads, but some of it seems more like a monolog than a dialog.

    For me, Platinum is an opportunity to break into a market that we Alpha devotees have been locked out of for too long. You want to build a $99 app? Then Version 8 should more than suffice.

    I, however, have a $8500 app that can more than compete with many $30,000 apps out there, but I can't get the Corporate IT departments to look at it because it isn't SQL based. As one Corporate VP of a Multinational Fortune 500 company told me, " we don't see ever using AlphaFive, so we are not interested."

    Well, now, with Platinum, Alpha isn't just for recipies and cd collections any more (their perception, not mine), it's a grown up player.
    I suspect that was Alpha's thinking exactly, and with ideas of a 'lite' RT flying around, more along the lines of the V8 RTs for allowing folk to use the new controls etc. even with DBF only apps, and without paying per seat, they would allow package developers to offer custom apps or SQL versions of their existing software at a higher price while still allowing them to keep offering the DBF only single and multi user apps, developing both on the same Platinum version.

    Fingers crossed, eh?

    For us, V8 with WAS offered a way to move our customer interface and remote access onto a single platform. V9 on the other hand now allows me to move all internal development onto Alpha, away from an outdated Powerbuilder app we don't have the budget for any more, (we are a printing firm and also do typesetting etc. - when that app was commissioned they had a software budget in the tens of thousands of GBP, and it was designed as a client server app for our network.

    They originally had the budget to afford a few more tens of thousands on development, the Sybase app server etc. We still had a software development department back then, even.

    By the time I came onboard, all that was over, production had to move to China after we lost major printing contracts and the apps they spent so much on was useless for the new situation, with data entry suddenly needing to be done from China, less than ideal with the severe restrictions on data transfer by their government.

    Anyway, rant over ;)

    Comment


      #3
      Re: I see Platinum opening doors

      And if they price it right, it will open doors for the rest of us, too

      Comment


        #4
        Re: I see Platinum opening doors

        Pat,

        You are so right.

        By the way, in 1989 I sold an app to a major oil company made with clipper87 that I thought a good price would be 700.00 and a friend (who gave me the lead) said I would never get the bid because I was too low. It went for 9500 to them, 9500 to another oil company and 11300 to a third who wanted changes. Do not price yourself out of the market by being too low to big corportions.
        Last edited by DaveM; 03-25-2008, 05:49 PM.
        Dave Mason
        [email protected]
        Skype is dave.mason46

        Comment


          #5
          Re: I see Platinum opening doors

          Originally posted by DaveM View Post
          Pat,

          You are so right.

          By the way, in 1989 I sold an app to a major oil company made with clipper87 that I thought a good price would be 700.00 and a friend (who gave me the lead) said I would never get the bid because I was too low. It went for 9500 to them, 9500 to another oil company and 11300 to a third who wanted changes. Do not price yourself out of the market by being too low to big corportions.
          Phew... thankfully you had your friend advising you - it's weird how some companies seem hell-bent on spending FAR more than they need to, but hey if it gets you a good profit who are you to argue! :)

          Comment


            #6
            Re: I see Platinum opening doors

            Yes Andrea,

            When I sent the bid in, I pretty much wrote it off as a loss of time. The bid had to be sent with a mockup(no data) of what it would look like and how it would work. I spent a week(part time) halfheartedly making it and my friend said to wait another wee to send it in(???). I thought it was junk. They sent me half the money up front and on recieving the product, I got the other half. I was so dumb back in those days, I didn't even put in a failsafe to shut it down if I did not get the other half. No real contract or anything(learned about that one later too).
            Dave Mason
            [email protected]
            Skype is dave.mason46

            Comment


              #7
              Re: I see Platinum opening doors

              Originally posted by DaveM View Post
              Yes Andrea,

              When I sent the bid in, I pretty much wrote it off as a loss of time. The bid had to be sent with a mockup(no data) of what it would look like and how it would work. I spent a week(part time) halfheartedly making it and my friend said to wait another wee to send it in(???). I thought it was junk. They sent me half the money up front and on recieving the product, I got the other half. I was so dumb back in those days, I didn't even put in a failsafe to shut it down if I did not get the other half. No real contract or anything(learned about that one later too).
              Phew, lucky break I guess - and certainly a great encouragement for your career in (part time) programming/software development. Great to have a friend who could advise you and tip you off too!!! But sounds about typical (Re: the waiting another week etc.), some companies aren't happy to part with their money unless it's taken longer than necessary ;)

              Comment


                #8
                Re: I see Platinum opening doors

                Originally posted by Pat Bremkamp View Post
                For me, Platinum is an opportunity to break into a market that we Alpha devotees have been locked out of for too long.
                I'm early in my current eval - day 2 :) - but so far, I completely agree.

                This product is a coupla steps away from really kicking some butt.
                Frank R

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