Re: [mv] Using Interchange as a POS system

["birgitt" <birgitt@cais.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from "birgitt" <birgitt@cais.com>     ******


----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Foster <jfoster@augustmail.com>
To: <minivend-users@minivend.com>
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2000 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: [mv] Using Interchange as a POS system


> ******    message to minivend-users from John Foster <jfoster@augustmail.com>     ******
> 
> Thanks for the comments folks. It seems I hit a nerve with this thread.
> I will explain my situation for those who are interested. I make a large
> part of my income from the sale and installation office back end
> systems, and servers for various types of businesses. My specialty is
> small mom and pop retailers. They are for the most part start ups or
> they are operating on a shoestring budget. My goal is to be able to
> provide a turnkey solution for those with few computer skills. I am
> presently using Debian Linux (slightly customized) for that purpose. All
> installations have StarOffice 5.2 as the main interface. I know its
> sorta hoggish but the customer never does, because the systems I put it
> on are real brutes. I am able to make this work because ALL of my
> software is free or VERY inexpensive. That allows me to give them a
> better hardware solution to their problem. An example was a recent
> bidding war with Gateway for a chain of carpet cleaning stores. I was
> able to compete effectively because I offered a sizzling hot price while
> providing the same software solutions that they did (and more). All the
> customer cared about was that when his staff logged in they have a GUI
> that "looks and feels" like Windows. The folks at Gateway wanted to
> charge him $8,000 for software alone. Yea, I sorta tricked him. I sat
> him down in front of one of my systems without telling him it was
> running Linux, and he didn't know the difference until I told him. By
> then he had sold himself.
> I want to expand on this by now providing those customers a way via DSL
> to become web retailers (the carpet guy is foaming at the mouth ;-) I
> have most of the software selected to do this however the key presently
> seems to be in adapting Interchange to work with Adabas D. I do have two
> shots though because StarOffice 5.2 claims to use any DBM system. I just
> need to work out the details. For those interested I will post my
> results from time to time. PLEASE; if you have any experience with
> Adabas D let me know. It seems to be very poorly documented and I am
> just now experimenting with it. I am already working on getting the
> bar-code reader to serve my needs, but I need to know how to get it to
> input directly into interchange. I will get that to happen in time. Perl
> is my friend :-).
> Thanks for your interest.
> -- 

Go for it ! And give mom and pop what they need !. Just get the picture.
Perl is your friend and Minivend your tool. Why all of it needs to stay open 
source ? (and why it doesn't hurt if it costs something as long as it's affordable)

Because mom and pop may have a son and a daughter (or crazy grandparents) 
who have just a lot of fun to learn the stuff you are showing them. Before you know
it, they do it on their own. Don't fear to loose business because you help make
a complex technology transparent to your clients. It's exactly that transparency 
which makes loyal customers and users.

Aah, and it's still fashionable among the majority to become mom and pop. So
no problem here, always enough customers out there to be served. 8-)
 
> AdVance-Computing Systems
> 
> We sell fine quality servers and workstations.
> We specialize in multiprocessor units. 
> We install Debian Linux at no extra charge!
> 
> John Foster                                
> jfoster@augustmail.com 
> ICQ# 19460173
> -
> To unsubscribe from the list, DO NOT REPLY to this message.  Instead, send
> email with 'UNSUBSCRIBE minivend-users' in the body to Majordomo@minivend.com.
> Archive of past messages: http://www.minivend.com/minivend/minivend-list
> 

-
To unsubscribe from the list, DO NOT REPLY to this message.  Instead, send
email with 'UNSUBSCRIBE minivend-users' in the body to Majordomo@minivend.com.
Archive of past messages: http://www.minivend.com/minivend/minivend-list