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_ sion 2.01) for spreadsheet work.'She wanted to know if it was

upgrade,

ception, It could not read First Publisher version _seems minor, but tell that to the one percent who have laser " version 5:0, an, ACCPAC user was supposed, to be able to run a

“worked 99 percent of the time, ‘but the one percent incompatibili-

‘number of upgrades is need for more machine resources. Itseerms : _ a etic every new version has to be ‘Bigger & Better’ than the last. Bach Blanket Blanket. Blanket = time the publisher decides to sugar coat the product with more 7 ‘ oy ‘pe Ek layers of icing. The price you pay is more disk space, more B.C. and YUKON . ALBERTA-NWT ‘ SASKATCHEWAN memory space, more machine cycles, to the point where once Ws 00 “households | $ 00 .e5,0 1$ 00 wes your business managed happily with a basic minimal machine 1 59 ade Tb community f 1 T Bwords households ty | 7 002... households . . ‘ .00 per word for, ‘ ay ; °110¢ i] $3. wordfor _ *77 commun setup suc as th xT eae disk, you now need at each word over 25 aes 4 es per word ies newspapers fy gach word over 25 newspapers - os ae y : . Mase = ee ee eed wee My 5 Lat aa aa setters Atha ibtitont cs Raw The major cost then in upgrading is in data conversion and & . |: i learning time, with the added possibility of hardware upgrading. [| Blanket a Blanket i Blanket Although in cases of good compatibility between old and new MANITOBA é ONTARIO-QUEBEC b ATLANTIC PROVs versions, this transition can be fairly quick and painless, I’ve . o $ " HI 00 heard of enough problems that my suggestion is ‘expect the worst | +8 00 0253,412 . 275% °1,220,532 fh. $99 5 *385,000 ; 2words households bz Zwords households |: word households and hope that you're pleasantly surprised’. . sd $3.00 per Wordfor = #5t community - a Ore me eros #54 community | $3.00 per word for #58 community Tf so far I've presented a biased view against upgrades, don’t each wordover 25 newspapers [| $7 each wordover 50 newspapers f<| eachwordover25" newspapers i think standing pat is without dangers too. I know people who rar nS eee EE ~~ " : ar Ta EB,

| + ~ Knowledge Is Power

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sday, September'6, 19 io"

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Computalk

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Recently I received a call from someone asking about software upgrades. Her organization was and still is using Lotus 123 (ver-

worth their while to upgrade to version 2.2 or version 3.0, both — recently released. Fe 7

Upon further discussion it became evident that the organization was perfectly happy with their current version, especially as they had gotten almost all members of their organization comfortable about using a spreadsheet for solving numerical problems. On the

other hand, they were afraid of being ‘left behind’ if they didn’t

My first inclination was to just give them the ‘If it-ain’t broke don’t fix it? answer and suggest that if their current software was doing the job, they should stand pat-and not bother with the upgrade, However, even a decision about a software upgrade has to be made with care. Here one has to deal both with visible - costs and hidden costs. ee

On the surface the visible cost should just be the upgrade fee one has to pay for the newer version of the software. The prob- lem is that software publishers often give current software owners

only limited time in which to purchase the new version. Once this. -_ ) oo - as time expires, one has-to pay the full price for the new package. Al Cheshire, district governor for Rotary District 504 that includes Terrace, was hererecent-- In some cases the time limit is too short to ascertain from other ~ ly with his wife Stella (left). Terrace Rotary Club vice-president John Jack and his .wife - users whether or not-the upgrade is worth the cost and trouble. Doreen (right) were part of the group present to hear an evening meeting. address by. . - - The hidden. costs can be muct higher. New versions of pro- Cheshire regarding - some. of the changes occurring In. Rotary as a result of: the. grams are supposed to be ‘data: compatible’ with older versions. organization's. worldwide growth. : ee This means that the new version is supposed: to be.able to work: . 7 i Pere with data created by the older versions. In most cases thisistrue, PRT | ne en Gee paige rr re but occasionally one runs into rude surprises. For example, when “hy ae oO a Feo gory sf rail 9 angen the new version of First Publisher was. released.it was capable of | "> reading all documents created with the older version, with one ex- | ~~ Lfiles that were © | created for printing with Postscript laser printers. Since 99 per- cent of First Publisher users never need this feature, the problem .

is

printer files. . -. — ; - Similarly, when Computer Associates first released ACCPAC ~ ; oo

number of ACCPAC 4.2 modules in conjunction with ACCPAC 6 5.0-System: Manager and ACCPAC 5.0 G/L. And this actually

ty caused difficulties in the transfer of data from some of the 4.2, B. subsidiary modules to the GL; Fortunately, more recent releases. . ed, OF Bh” of ACCPAC 5 have solved this problem, | _ sy a6,

- Another hidden cost which can creep up as a result of a ~

function quite well with spreadsheet and word processing fet TB 7 aa oa packages currently over five years old. And they may be content fina a » | 2 so. £4 . with them for another 10 or more, However, in the area of ac- counting software one may have to upgrade (for example, payroll software often has taxation law changes built into the programs). More importantly, if one uses very old versions of software one may no longer be able to get either publisher or even third party support for that program. .

In conclusion, upgrade decisions should not be made lightly, with each case measured on its own merits, And if you feel that the software publishers have you ‘between a rock and a hard place’, you are justified in your suspicions because they probably have. -

Ay,

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