August 25, 2007 at 9:41 am
I have been in contact with a potential customer, it is a trade association that is currently using Lotus Approach for their membership database of about 3,000 members.
I've been offered an opportunity to join the "IT Committee" and although I usually respond with an automatic, enthusiatic Yes! to anything relating to data, I've heard of Approach but never worked with it, or even seen it being used anywhere.
I've already done some checking of their website membership directory, and at least 10% of the member data is suspect - bad addresses, company moved, etc.
Any thoughts about Approach would be most appreciated. TIA.
August 27, 2007 at 8:42 am
<post traumatic stress disorder disclaimer>
My eyes go buggy every time my ears hear the phrase "Lotus Approach". It probably had something to do with having to field support calls on the versions prior to Millenium edition. Hellish years....
For what it's worth - I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with the current version of Lotus approach (which interestingly enough looks to be called "Millenium Edition", which means it's 7 years old at least). The versions I had to tangle with were however highly unstable, feature-poor and likely to corrupt data. The forms builder and how to create sub-forms/sub-reports in particular was a minefield likely to send you screaming for the hills, naked and tearing your hair out.
It was like having the "ghost in the machine" also be the database administrator, or playing soccer in a minefield.
If the most current version is anything like the older ones - run, run away from it as fast as you can. Should you take on that IT committee thing - do yourself a favor and talk them into switching away from it, as fast as you can.
</post traumatic stress disorder disclaimer>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
August 27, 2007 at 9:32 am
Thanks Matt for your comments. I found some VERY old info via Google, the web pages mentioned "the OS/2 version" so I knew this was a dinosaur. Is it true that they used dBase IV as the native file format? Yikes. Sounds to me that any data migration efforts would be pointless, it would be better to simply print everything out & get an intern to re-key into a new system.
I guess I'll "pass" on this opportunity.
August 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I don't know about the product, but not sure I'd pass. Maybe they'd like an upgrade? Could be some nice long term income if they have $$
August 27, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Actually, I was invited to "volunteer" for the IT Committee which is considering options for converting from Approach to something else. Like many trade associations, this is a not-for-profit corporation so I doubt if there would be much paying work coming out of it. The only benefit might be to meet my peers.
Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply