Will this software sell?

[pbpersson]

I have an idea to create some quality, affordable software for small business but I'm wondering if this sort of thing already exists out there. I just discovered I can have my software create pie charts as well and I think they are so cool - a picture is worth a thousand words! Please take a look and tell me what you think.


Phil Persson

[NetCafe]

Originally Posted by pbpersson

I have an idea to create some quality, affordable software for small business but I'm wondering if this sort of thing already exists out there. I just discovered I can have my software create pie charts as well and I think they are so cool - a picture is worth a thousand words! Please take a look and tell me what you think.

There are a lot of FREE software that are released in China that can do what you are proposing. Dunno about the rest of the world, but China definitely has no market.

[pbpersson]

Apparently I cannot post a link to the page where the data is located, so here is a list of the modules in the software I am writing:

Entity Management Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify My Company

Enter/View/Modify Departments

Enter/View/Modify Employees

Enter/View/Modify Customers

Enter/View/Modify Vendors

Enter/View/Modify Product Categories

Enter/View/Modify Report Groups

Enter/View/Modify Products

Enter/View/Modify Parts

Enter/View/Modify Payment Methods

Enter/View/Modify Shipping Methods

Entity Selection Screen

Import Employees/Customers/Vendors/Parts/Products

Reports:

Department Summary/Detail

Employee Summary/Detail

Customer Summary/Detail

Customers approaching support renewal

Vendor Summary/Detail

Products Summary/Detail

Products by Categories Listing

Parts Summary/Detail

Parts Where Used Report



System Setup

Screens:

Color Picker

Employees Listed Per Screen

Employee Access Per Screen/Report

Screen Field Placement

Inventory/Cost Calculation scheduler

HelpDesk Screen Selection Fields

Workorder Screen Selection Fields



System Monitoring/Maintenance

Usage logs (who did what when)

Database Health

Database Backup/Restore

Delete old data

Database Reindex/Shrink

Database Exception/cleanup

Re-create demo database

Back Door Access (Persson Technologies Only)


Contact Management Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Contacts

Enter/View/Modify Contact Types

Reports:

Contacts Listed Alphabetically

Contacts Added After Specified Date

Weekly call summary report


Customer Order Entry Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Orders by Customers

Reports:

Receivables Aging Report

Sales by Customer Report

Sales by Employee Report

Sales by Product Report



Parts Order Entry Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify parts orders by Vendor

Reports:

Part Cost by Vendor Comparison Reports

Part Purchases by Vendor Report

Production Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify production

Reports:

Production by products

Production by employee


Inventory Control Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Inventories

Enter/View/Modify Waste

Reports:

Inventory Value Report

Current Estimated OnHand Report

Inventory Level Variance Report

Item Usage Detail/Summary


General Ledger Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Transaction Detail

Enter/View Accounts

Enter/View Account Types

Reports:

Account Summary Report

Transaction Listing Report

Summary by Account Type Report


Asset Tracking Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Assets

Enter/View/Modify Asset Categories

Enter/View/Modify Status

Reports:

Assets by Category Report

Assets by Date Acquired Report

Assets by Department Report

Assets by Employee Report

Assets by Vendor Report

Depreciation Summary Report

Maintenance History Report


Resource Scheduling Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Resources

Enter/View/Modify Reservations

Enter/View/Modify Resource Types

Reports:

Resource Schedule Report

Resources by Type Report


Time and Billing Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Time Cards

Enter/View/Modify Expense Codes

Enter/View/Modify Work Codes

Reports:

Client Billings by Project Report

Client Listing Report

Employee Billings by Project Report

Project Billings by Work Code Report



HelpDesk Ticket Management Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify HelpDesk Tickets

Reports:

Open Tickets By Customer

Open Tickets By Employee

Open Ticket Aging

Open Tickets By Priority

Ticket Processing Summary by Employee for Dates


Service Call Management Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Workorders by Customer

Reports:

Revenue Entered by Employee Report

Sales by Month Report

Finished Workorders in House Report

Unfinished Workorders Report

Workorder Summary Report



Bid And Quote Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Bids/Quotes by Customer

Reports:

Outstanding Bids/Quotes by Customer

Outstanding Bids/Quotes by Age

Rejected Bids/Quotes

Accepted Bids/Quotes (converted to workorders)



Expenses Module

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify Expense Reports by Employee

Enter/View/Modify Expense Categories

Reports:

Expense Report Summary by Category Report

Expense Report Summary by Employee Report





Product Catalog Creation

Screens:

Create Product Catalog



Automated customer emails

Screens:

Enter/View/Modify/Send emails to subscribed customers



Customer postal label printing

[pbpersson]

Originally Posted by NetCafe

There are a lot of FREE software that are released in China that can do what you are proposing. Dunno about the rest of the world, but China definitely has no market.

Can you give me some links.....oh, don't give me live links but tell me where these companies are. I have been looking on the web and can't find anything for under $3000 that does everything my package will do.

[pbpersson]

Originally Posted by NetCafe

There are a lot of FREE software that are released in China that can do what you are proposing. Dunno about the rest of the world, but China definitely has no market.

The beauty of the suite is that you have one tool and you only need to enter your data once.

Let's say you have an employee named Albert Johnson and Albert produces bids and quotes for customers to go out to their site to install equipment, sometimes he takes orders for customers, sometimes he does telephone support for customers, and sometimes he travels to seminars in other cities to get better at his job.

Now, I don't have to enter Albert's activities in three different software packages - I can just enter it in one. I can do one report and see what work Albert has been accomplishing for me. Also, as the president I can logon to ONE SCREEN and get real-time bar graphs and alerts on what is happening in my company.

Which parts are low on stock?
Which customers have open workorders with us?
Which customer quotes are outstanding that I should call on?
How many open helpdesk tickets do we have with our customers?
How many technicians are out on call right now?
How many systems have we installed this week at customer sites?
How many people do we have on training trips right now?
How many products have we shipped this week?
Which products are selling best?

Now, notice that we might be a furnace repair/install shop, we could be talking computers, plumbing, whatever. My goal is to produce one easy-to-use tool for small businesses at a reasonable price that will provide all their data in one place, updated constantly - without the president needing to fool around with creating charts to get the information him or herself. I'm sure they have more important things to to.


Does that give you a better idea of the power of this software?


Phil