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ISTech Support Forum
http://www.istechforum.com/YaBB.pl General >> EziJobz/Next Generation >> How many? http://www.istechforum.com/YaBB.pl?num=1050165524 Message started by aricon on 04/12/03 at 10:38:44 |
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Title: How many? Post by aricon on 04/12/03 at 10:38:44 I'm curious as to how many companies that are currently using DBA will very likely go to Ezijobz? Would love to hear responses on this. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Karen Mason on 04/14/03 at 06:31:22 This is our 1st year using DBA. I, in NO way, plan to make a change. Too much time and money is currently invested in getting DBA up and running...with still more to go. Need to reap some benefit from this system, as well as giving it a chance. Although it is not perfect, it is better than what we had and with the continued improvements, I'm here for the long haul. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by penz on 04/14/03 at 06:38:47 I'm not sure I'll make the jump right away even though it is what I really want. I feel DBA, as they promised years ago, should be making improvements to the standard software. Lynn does a great job at this I'll problably buy her interface in the near future but I still feel it should've been DBA's responsiblity to improve the interface. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by fredh on 04/14/03 at 07:25:42 We've invested way too much time and resources in DBA to switch. We came on board with DBA because our old software wasn't Y2K compatible. We had 2 other packages that we liked. They were Windows based but more expensive than DBA. Since DBA promised a 100% Windows compatible version by the end of 2000 we went with them. There have been too many promises on the Windows version, tons of bug problems and mediocre support. (Lynn excluded) My president went ballistic when he found out about EziJobz. If it wasn't for ISTS I believe we would just suffer in a non-enhanced version of 2002.4 until another Y2K-type crisis comes along. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Bill Lee on 04/14/03 at 08:34:35 We don't intend to to switch to Ezijobz anytime soon. One major conversion every 5 years or so is enough of a challenge for us. Also, it does not appear to have enough power on the build-to-stock manufacturing side to warrant a change. I think Lynn's package, plus some some improvements in MRP would satisfy our needs for the next few years. |
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Title: No way!!! Post by samir686 on 04/14/03 at 11:37:14 Hi, I still remember the time when DBA made a transition from DOS to windows. It was a disaster( for end users).It took them couple of years to get that platform stable. I would not switch to this "NEW" dba or whatever they call it. ps: I might rethink if they offerd the source code to us right now or down the road. samir |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/14/03 at 12:02:57 They cannot offer the source code to you, as DBA (ss you know it) doesn't have access to it. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tommy Johnson on 04/14/03 at 13:57:01 Just converted to DBA, so no plans to change now. We will use add-ons and internal custom enhancements to get what we need. No software package will give most businesses exactly what they need or want without some customization. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by David Waldmann on 04/14/03 at 14:38:28 At this point I have no plans to convert to anything other than Evo DBA. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/15/03 at 08:25:46 No one else has any input? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by tcook on 04/15/03 at 08:47:07 We just converted to DBA about 1 year ago. We are still learning this system. We do not have any plans to invest in anything other than making our current system work. Tara Cook |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by ccg on 04/15/03 at 09:04:01 since we will get a copy of Ezijobz as DBA users, i will load it in and evaluate it. if i think it meets my needs better, i'll switch. it seems the main reason for not switching is the time and effort of getting a new system up and running in general, not just the fact that people don't want the Ezijobz software. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tommy Johnson on 04/15/03 at 09:35:30 Current DBA users will not get the new software as a free upgrade, so I'm not sure how you will get a copy without buying it. I was told in Nov. 2002 that the new system will be twice the price of current DBA cost. You may get a credit for your current DBA purchase price toward buying the new software. It will also not be feature compatible with DBA. This was directly from DBA sales manager. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tim Keating on 04/15/03 at 09:51:22 From Michael Hart's email of 4/4/03: "All DBA customers will receive a free matching system ========================================= As previously promised, all DBA customers are entitled to receive a free Ezijobz SME system for the same number of users as their DBA Manufacturing system. The annual license fee is unchanged and covers both products." So I assume its true for all DBA users, those with lifetime licenses and those without. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/15/03 at 09:54:02 Tommy, You MAY have gotten some mixed messages. When I talked to Mike afew weeks ago, what he stated unequivocally was that current up-to-date with annual maintenance and lifetime maintenance agreement customers would receive the version with a conversion utility at no charge. Any additional licenses would have to be purchased at the new Ezijobz price point. A price point which is still very reasonable in comparison to mid-range offerings. He also indicated that the lifetime maintenace agreement thing would carry over to the new software as well, although I have some difficulties believing that he is going to continue to cut into his revenue stream with that, without finding some way to recoup some of that money. But maybe.... |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tommy Johnson on 04/15/03 at 10:52:58 No, I have not heard that news, but I come to expect DBA's story to change depending on the day of the week. We have not gotten any emails from DBA. If that is the case, we will take a look at it to see if will work better for us or not. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Karen Mason on 04/15/03 at 11:06:39 We have not "heard the news" either. There doesn't seem to be anything on the DBA site. When this Ezijobz was first mentioned, I figured it was another program, not something DBA was migrating to. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/15/03 at 11:14:31 Karen, They are not truly migrating to it. It isa new program. But there will be a utility to convert some data from your existing system to the Ezijobz system should you want to go there. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by mtp137 on 04/15/03 at 14:35:52 We to will evaluate it, if the "free" copy is forthcoming. But, no plans to switch, as we have not even finished getting DBA up and running yet. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/15/03 at 14:39:59 Hmmm..... All these folks that haven't gotten DBA up-and-running, and consultants like me looking for business......yet I don't get very many calls...... ??? Something wrong with this picture, or is it just me? ??? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by mtp137 on 04/15/03 at 15:02:16 At least for us, it is simply a data entry issue. Not too many snags yet, just too few people working on it. (And all of us, only when we aren't doing any of our 10 other jobs.) :'( |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by dorner on 04/15/03 at 20:14:00 We have been using DBA for 2 years and have to need or desire to change to any other software. It does what we want it to do and everyone is familiar with it. We will probably look at Ezijobs but unless it transfers data completely (which I think I read it will not) there is no way we will use it. Mike Balsewicz Dorner Products, Inc |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 04/16/03 at 10:08:25 Well....if the posts on this topic so far are a reasonable statistical indication of the likelihood of adoption for Ezijobz, then I would have to say that Mike had better roll out the marketing and sales machine to start seelling it to NEW customers..... ;) |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by JLZimm on 04/19/03 at 14:22:40 I have had enough trouble just getting the feathers smoothed down here each time something changes. We will evaluate the new product, but are extremely unlikely to switch soon, unless there are overpowering functionality reasons to do so. Jeanette Zimmerman Lowery & Company Inc. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by kathySMC on 05/05/03 at 15:30:37 aricon wrote:
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Title: Re: How many? Post by kathySMC on 05/05/03 at 15:33:41 If we don't switch, are we going to be left in the dust by DBA with unsupported product and updates? ??? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/05/03 at 16:01:15 Kathy, Obviously no one except Mike could answer this with certainty. What I can say, is that in my experience with Great Plains when they re-wrote GPA DOS version into Dynamics, they supported GPA fully for 2 years after the launch of Dynamics. They then did limited support for another 2 years. And then clients were cut loose on their own. Now, Great Plains was an $500 Million+ corporation at that point and that is the longest they were willing to go. DBA is NOT $500 Million. So you will have to make your own conclusions.... ??? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Lynn_Pantic on 05/05/03 at 16:34:35 The reason I started IS Tech Support is to do exactly that - provide support and updates for the existing product. DBA has already taken the stand that there will be no more updates to the existing product other than essential bug fix patches. They say they will "continue to support it" meaning they will be happy to take your tech support money and let you talk to or email the support staff but if there are program changes or enhancements you want, it isn't going to happen to DBA Manufacturing. IS Tech Support on the other hand, is offering continual updates and enhancements to DBA Manufacturing in an effort to provide a valuable service to however many of the 3800 customers that elect not to dump what they have spent considerable time and effort implementing and start over learning a new system. Based on the responses to Lorne's original post, I suspect that will be a significant percentage of them. Unfortunately, for services other than this free forum, there is a modest cost involved. A $35/month company (not per user) support subscription will get you all the program enhancements and higher level will get direct and unlimited email and telephone support. The $35/month level is not great enough to be a major financial decision for most companies but with enough participants, we will be able to provide programming resources to continually improve the product and be responsive to user requests. See www.istechsupport.com/download.asp for a description of what has been done in a few short months. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Ed on 05/06/03 at 08:55:55 We plan on converting to the new Program, we will wait for a while to see on it is doing in the real world. We had a IBM system and we made the mistake not to keep updating the system. Then one day we started having programs and found we would have to update if we wanted any support because no one have the old code available. The Cost of the update was unreal. That when we switched to DBA. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by wjlx on 05/06/03 at 11:37:37 We have been running DBA since 6/1/1996. DBA doesn't do everything we would like in the mannor which we would like, but it is serviceable and a good value. Two of the main drawbacks in DBA are resolved in ezjjob. The DBA database design is, to be polite, primative. The TAS 5.0 language is a little slow. Both of these ought to be resolved in ezijob. We have a lot of data and hope the performance of ezijob is an improvement over the current version. Bill Leventhal Circle Gear |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/06/03 at 11:58:56 Bill, While I would agree with your statement as it is now, I would make one defense for the database design in that when it was originally planned in like 1991, it was fairly consistent with the state of things at that time. Problem is that it never changed and grew with the rest of the industry. Ezijobz is Mike's answer to that long, long, long long overdue change. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tim Keating on 05/06/03 at 17:26:37 The latest product info from DBA indictes that Ezjobz will import some transactional data from DBA. I'm keeping a more open mind now. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by David Waldmann on 05/07/03 at 06:00:54 David Waldmann wrote:
Just to clarify, I do plan to get my "free" copy of EJ-SME and check it out. It seems like it would be foolish not to. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Karen Mason on 05/07/03 at 07:42:44 Ditto |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by kkmfg on 05/07/03 at 09:06:09 It's overdue, thats true. However, the new program quite frankly looks like it will suck. One of the main things I like about DBA is the availability of source code. Granted it's in an archaic programming language that no one I know programs in... but it's still available. I'm not sure why any of us would want to switch from a program w/ available source code that is working for us to a program w/ no source and that doesn't even import all of our data. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to do a near total data import when you are designing the new system and you have the source code to the old one. With all of the problems they've had getting Ezijobz out I'm starting to wonder if they hired highschool VB programmers to do this thing... aricon wrote:
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Title: Re: How many? Post by fredh on 05/07/03 at 09:15:55 I'll try out the new program as long as it doesn't effect anything; but my boss doesn't even want to talk about it. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/07/03 at 10:05:54 kkmfg, The difference with Ezijobz and DBA is that because you are given an open SQL editor, it is FAR less necessary to have access to the source code. Consider.....if you make a modification to the source in DBA, you must constantly maintain that with every new mainstream update. Maybe that is a problem, maybe not. Depends on your situation. With access to the SQL, if you want to make an application "on-the-side" so to speak, you can write the app in whatever language seems appropriate and connect it directly to the database through the SQL. If there is an update, then your related application should not have to be re-written. Unless of course it is a quite significant change in the manistream app. But even DBA tries not to do really major changes too often. And the open SQL editor tied to the open report writer in Ezijobz should solve one of the most frustrating problems with DBA in that it should be possible to get reports that provide the information that YOU want in the format that YOU want. All of that said, according to Mike, there are still some BIG limitations on the import of the historical transactional data. The reason for this is the totally different structure of the information in Ezijobz. It is FAR more complex than you think to convert data when you have to change and combine and cut and paste and such with that data in order to get it in to a new format. And, of course, it has to be done WITHOUT error or it should not be done at all. And THAT is where Evolution comes in. You can slowly get some new capabilities without making that leap. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by deburr on 05/07/03 at 10:32:24 We have been with DBA for 10 years now. We went through some real horrible times with many of the upgrades. DBA 2002.4 works reasonably well and I cannot imagine torturing myself with another 10 years of developement with a new program. Lynn has been more responsive than any other DBA personel over these 10 years and I will stick with her as she continues to support the original DBA. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by kkmfg on 05/07/03 at 11:10:18 Yes, the SQL interface will be nice. It would be better to be able to add on w/ seperate programs than to have to add on to source code that will change (of course, that's what diff, perforce, cvs, etc are for.) I agree that the new program will be far easier to interface with. Still, to a lot of people it might seem like a ripoff when they are used to source. I guess it isn't a huge deal really. My biggest problem w/ making interfaces to DBA was how stupidly the database format was laid out. It was probably fine in 1991 but it's terrible now. The new SQL interface will be a breath of fresh air. And, I happen to have had the distinct honor (if you want to call it that) to have done some of that cutting/pasting/restructuring of database fields from one format to another. You are right that sometimes it's really tricky. Still, these people had the old design in front of them. They had an OPEN slate for the new design. Maybe hindsight is 20/20 but I would have thought that their overriding goal would have included support for a total conversion of data. It should have been possible to facilitate that to a large degree. Granted it does have to be done 100% or nothing but I still maintain the someone with access to the old should be able to design the new to be not impossible to convert to. Granted the old database layout is terrible... So maybe they just shot themselves in the foot 12 years ago. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by mtp137 on 05/07/03 at 11:44:22 The boss has decided to evaluate EJ-SME and is leaning toward switching to it, as we are still entering the basic data in DBA, we have no historical data yet. Also, we have not yet begun to train the rest of the staff, so the new UI looks like a big plus. I will reserve my final judgement until I can play with it some, not just watch the "demo" videos on their website. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by sadaymfg on 05/15/03 at 13:08:38 We've been running dba since 1999 and don't plan on switching until the day that dba no longer supports it. Have enough trouble everytime we update. Don't want a lynch mob coming after me. Gary Lampka S.A. Day Mfg. Co. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/15/03 at 13:22:51 Gary, THAT was funny! Lynch mob, indeed! ;D |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by wjlx on 05/20/03 at 07:45:25 Has any one run the EziJobz demos? Comments? Bill Leventhal Circle Gear |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by mtp137 on 05/20/03 at 09:08:02 The only "demos" I found on their website were videos. :-/ I did watch them, and there was a powerpoint slide show, which I also watched/flipped through. The GUI looks promising, very user friendly, but, I would really like to be able to play with the program myself. Especially with the bosses thinking about pre-buying additional user licenses. :o (Even before we get the free copy.) |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Tim Keating on 05/20/03 at 09:47:00 We need to wait and see what kind of manufacturing capabilities are in the new product, specifically build-to-stock. The demos I watched showed a product geared towards a service-type business or maybe a small job shop. I assume the new product is still under development and that the intention is to modify the original Ezjobz product to make it attractive to the same user base as DBA. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/20/03 at 20:11:26 Tim, Actually...no. What you see on the Ezijobz site is what you rae going to get this summer with a few additions such as multi-currency and integrated native payroll processing. If you are truly a make-to-stock, sell from stock shop, then you can still use Ezijobz, but it won't be as purely fit to your likely comfort zone as what DBA is today. Of course, if you find that Ezijobz is NOT what you want, but you want some improvements from your current state you can either:
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Title: Re: How many? Post by linnent on 05/23/03 at 13:15:22 I am really torn - I see some serious advantages to Ezijobz but am reluctant to migrate because of the time-learning curve. I am the office manager and responsible for learning new software - Have had DBA for 2.5 years and just really liking it, limitations and all. I can identify with the earlier "lynch mob" comment. Most of the folks I work with use computers only because they have no other choice. They don't enjoy them at all. Can anyone indicate just how much data will migrate? I will not go thru all that cold entry again if I can help it- that is awful. I too want a copy that I can play with. We are a manufacturing company that builds to order with some special equipment building and some standard - We stock very little. Need to actually see how it will fit our needs. Rhonda Linn Enterprises, Inc. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by kkcables on 05/27/03 at 15:21:20 We have paid for a lifetime license with DBA , I dont see any reasons for us to switch to a new system. If we were going to it would probably be with a totally new software company. ;) |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 05/27/03 at 17:51:17 kkcables, Well if you do ever want to look at a new software, I am a VAR for another very nice product line from Epicor Software and could make some suggestions on which way to go and could also set up some preferred pricing through a VAR close to you. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by JLZimm on 06/04/03 at 22:19:49 I doubt that ezjobs will get many of us until it duplicates all current functionality. I for one won't change if I have to give up integrated GL and payroll. Nifty new things are always nice, but only if they actually replace what you currently have with something better. Jeanette Zimmerman Lowery & Company Inc. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 06/05/03 at 08:22:17 Jeanette, According to Mike, Ezijobz will have an integrated payroll this year. And it already does have an integrated GL. Apparently with the capability to even have up to 3 COA's for one company and a map that translates the postings across those 3 different GL's so that you can have one GL for internal use and operational reportability, another that is structured more simply for submission to the bank, and yet another for your CPA that is set up in whatever wierd way they like to have it for tax purposes. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Steve Stoneman on 07/16/03 at 10:06:29 I, for one, am seriously looking at Ezijobz, mainly because DBA features and options does not have the functionality I need. Our options are incorporated at lower levels in the BOM and Sales orders does not slot them in the proper level BOM. Although this improvement has been discussed by DBA and other programmers, I have never seen a final offering. I think Lynn has done an outstanding job, but this ability is core to our company. All our attempts to bring DBA fully online with manufacturing (in spite of my F&O issues) have been halted pending this evaluation of Ezijobz. Believe me, I feel much more comfortable with Lynn, the other DBA programmers and the service we get through forums like this. Her communications have always been welcome. Most of the time they are the only "sound" heard in the vacuum of DBA silence. Shoot, Ezijobs website hasn't even hardly changed or been added to for months. The top headline news is still from May. (Gee, did I just talk myself out of Ezijobs!!!???) |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by Lynn_Pantic on 07/16/03 at 10:20:21 Steve - We have made some headway into inserting the F&O Components into the appropriate lower BOM levels, have you looked at it recently? Call me if you would like to discuss whar functionality you still need that it doesn't yet have. 866-516-3282 |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by mtp137 on 07/18/03 at 14:21:04 ::) Does anyone else find it interesting that the EziJobz site was "Completely revamped" just 2 days after the previous mention of the staleness of their site. ;) Coincidence? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 07/19/03 at 11:43:22 Actually I had talked to Mike about 3-4 weeks ago and he indicated that they were in the process of creating the new site.... So, I guess it truly was coincidence.... |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by penz on 07/22/03 at 08:46:48 I think I would definitely think about switching to EZIJOBZ if they come up with a Data Collection module. But until that happens I'm stuck with DBA. Thats the only contraint I can see. One other issue is when the EZIJOBS is going to be available to DBA users? They say this summer but the summer is now 2/3 gone and no EZIJOBZ yet. I heard promises 3 years ago on the release of DBA-SQL but that never happened so I'm kind of Skeptical. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 07/22/03 at 11:59:18 Can only tell you what Mike told me..... August 15 supposedly and by 1st quarter 2004 there will be a full DC capability. That is what he tells me. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by melrath on 08/22/03 at 06:13:15 When was that newsletter? Oh yea - July. It seems odd that I was getting tons of emails about the wonders of EziJobz all the way up until it was supposed to be available. Then...silence........ I'm starting to get that "Haven't I been here before?" feeling. :-/ |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 08/22/03 at 10:09:31 You should see what it is like from a consultant's point of view! Would be nice to actually get some traction with this thing....but even I dont have the bloody software yet. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by LindaKay on 10/16/03 at 07:33:20 ??? We are going to install Ezijobz & get a feel for how it works before we take the plung. Not sure where we'll go at this point & time. We just got the CD to install. Time will tell. By the 1st CD not letting all the information flow from DBA to Ezijobz isn't a good thing. I see posts where others have only been able to get customers, vendors, and inventory items into Ezijobz...so what happens in the time frame betw partial & fully transferred info....lost .... keep 2 systems running in parrell? |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 10/16/03 at 09:04:52 No, I think the point of getting the 1st version out is to let people finally see the wayyyyy overdue product. Mike is quite aware that until the full conversion routine is perfected that extremely few people will switch. Even then, it is going to take quite a while before there is any significant switch in the customer base. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by karaya on 10/16/03 at 09:12:58 Keep in mind this first release of Ezijobz is classified as an early release version. Best put, "kick the tires" and see how it looks. The DBA to Ezijobz data transfer utility is due out any day. It is my understanding that this first version of the data utility will allow transfer of general data files from A/R, A/P, Inventory, etc. Routings and Bill of Materials will be on the next Data Transfer utility. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by agsansoo on 10/30/03 at 09:46:09 At this point we have no plans to convert to anything other than DBA. My company is currently using MS-Access, MySQL and DBA. We won't need another program to learn. We need our current apps. to get better ...! Besides I used the current conversion program (DBA -> Ezijobz), It's not enough. I need all the data in DBA to get converted before we can use Ezijobz. We currently hold 10 life-time licenses Estimated time to convert ---> @ 1-3-2005. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by aricon on 10/30/03 at 13:59:08 Apparently DBA Software's employee programmer IS in fact working on a whole company conversion program. Supposedly. Ready when? They say 1st qtr. 2004. They say. |
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Title: Re: How many? Post by karaya on 10/31/03 at 04:55:07 Hmmm, my information source paints a slighty different picture. First, a new conversion program was setup on DBA's web site a few days ago. Here are the details: v2 (10/27/2003) Everything from v1 plus: Now supports DBA versions back to 2001.1. Now fully clears all Ezijobz data before starting Transfers DBA Shop Calendar, Work Centers, Machines and Tools Machines and Tools go into Ezijobz as Assets, with service Events created for each Ezijobz Resources and Descriptors are created for each WC, Machine and Tool v1 (10/13/2003) Initial posting of the conversion program: Supports DBA versions 2002.1 and higher Transfers company setup info from DBA (e.g. bank accounts, next SO#, etc.) Transfers GL Chart of Accounts, GL Mapping (defaults), accounting periods Transfers Customers, Salespeople, Territories, Lead Sources, and Tax Authorities Transfers Vendors Transfers Inventory, Locations, and Location UOH Stock items end up as Ezijobz Items, non-stock items as Ezijobz Descriptors BOM and Routings will be coming up on the next data transfer update, but I'm told there are still no plans to include transaction data. I'll do some more checking on this though. |
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