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In the last newsletter we announced the plan to develop IPM Classic,
and this newsletter, we're announcing its release! How's that for a fast
turnaround!
IPM 10 is now thouroughly in 'enhancement' mode, with major
new features on the horizon, including A/P and 'favorite reports'.
That makes the choice of where to go seem more urgent, but we know it isn't
really. We're just giving you more options when it's time.
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IPM Classic or IPM 10?
Part II
More on 'Which is right for me?'
The logic of changing
from IPM 2007 to IPM 10 or IPM Classic was described in our last
article: what can your PC support, what new features do you need, and how clean
is your database. You can look at the previous newsletter for that discussion,
here. However, there's more to the
question than just that! Here we're going to talk about two less-easily
quantified topics: the human cost of changing, and predicting the future!
Let's talk about the second topic first. The future, is
inevitably the "undiscovered country" into which we're always moving
(to steal from a bad Star Trek movie). Fortunately
the past does give us some hints about what's next. In the PC world, we know
that it takes a couple of years for new standards to establish themselves, and
for manufacturers to "dump" older technologies. Heck, some cities still have
"new" Pontiacs for sale! The big news of interest here is Intel's 2010
processors, the 64-bit i3, i5 and i7. Each of these processors is like a
quad-core (4 processors) of just last year's processor. What this means is that all of us
with "relatively new" (2 year old) dual core PCs are obsolete, and anyone on a
single core processor has a boat anchor. Remember what the Pentium did to
80486 PCs?
Now that doesn't mean that buying a new PC
off the shelf will make you current: all the PC manufacturers will be "dumping" their dual
core and even quad core machines for a while, especially in a sluggish economy.
In other terms, think about it as if new 200mph cars were just invented, but
you're driving a car that tops out at 80: you know that it'll eventually be
unroadworthy, but not necessarily for a while, and maybe not for a long time if
you stay off the freeway. The reason we're belaboring this is because
you'll have to eventually deal with it. In '95, we saw the same thing
happen with Windows 95 replacing DOS. Now we know that we're all heading toward 64-bit
processors, and new software will be designed for them. And that means
everything you use now will be as obsolete as Word Perfect and Lotus 123.
(Except IPM 10 or IPM Classic, of course!)
So how do we get there? For large and mid-size offices, it's a huge issue
because obviously you can't replace all your PCs. In fact, the larger the
company, the longer it takes for change to percolate. A one-person office
can be current by buying a single PC, but a 3-5 person office is an undertaking,
and anything bigger had better have its own IT guy! And Bank of America still
has "green screens".
This brings us to the point of this half of the conversation: plan ahead. We
all have limited resources, and we all plan everything else in our
business, but we generally have a fairly vague plan for our technology. If your
PC isn't making a funny noise, do you think about buying a new one? You should
plan on where you're going, even if that plan changes with every announcement
from Microsoft or Intel. If you want to do paperless reporting and collect your
rents online by 2013, the first step is figuring out what it'll take to get
there.
Even a changeable plan will reduce your "technology stress"
when something new comes out, and give you parameters to develop an answer
when you ask yourself "Do I need to jump on this?" The conclusion here
is that just
because we've released IPM 10 and IPM Classic, don't feel like you have
to jump. What do you need? What's in your plan? Think it through and chill out.
Think of the Fidelity commercial: do you want a comfortable retirement, or that
shiny sports car? So figure out where you're going before you figure out which
IPM fits your company - and recognize that IPM 2007 may be right, right now.
And that brings us to the human cost of transition. Changing PCs and
software is often more expensive in people as it is in money. It's stressful, it reduces
productivity sharply, and upsets even the best-established apple-carts. If you've
been using IPM for years, you've probably built your business around its methods
and its processes. Changing that process puts everything in question, even
if the new way is easier or better. If your business is growing or you have a lot of
staff change, training can be a big issue. Review your staff dispassionately. If key people
are nearing retirement, you may want to stay on IPM 2007 or go to IPM Classic with a
transition to IPM 10 after the gold watch. If you've got new people coming
in, we'd suggest IPM 10 so their web-honed skills are maximized and they aren't
too frustrated. The key here is to consider people as a element in your
technology plan: No use getting the best software and hardware if you lose the
staff who know your business!
So, which version of IPM is best for you? It depends on where your business is
going, who you've got going with you, and how long you plan to take to get
there. IPM 2007 is good for "staying the course"; IPM Classic will ease
the transition, buy time and reduce the stress of change; IPM 10 will take you
into the next decade. Now it's up to you to "make it so". |
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IPM Classic Release Date:
August 1, 2010
The Newest Member of the IPM 2000
Family
We announced IPM Classic in February, had our first beta in
April, and now are pleased to announce a general release on August first. So
ends the fasted development cycle anyone associated with FullHouse Software has
ever seen anywhere! We've beaten our most optimistic plan by releasing the Beta
two months ahead of schedule, and the release almost three months before we'd
expected. Actually, we could release it a couple weeks earlier if the calendar
cooperated!
Part of the reason the cycle was so fast is that
IPM Classic is mostly a re-build of IPM 2007 in a newer development environment.
This means that all significant concepts, screens and functions are the same as
IPM 2007, but you have all the advantages of a newer development language. And of
course we learned a few things from IPM 10. Those include online licensing
and updates, nicer screens and a better bank reconciliation. Visit here for a
complete rundown of what's new and what's familiar.
The big news is that IPM Classic can use your IPM 2007 database
with no import. In fact, you can use IPM Classic and IPM 2007 with the same
database at the same time! (We've even taken care of the bug on the Tenant
screen that popped you out of the program). It also means you can use long file names, have tool
tips, use your mouse's roller ball, change printers more easily, create PDFs
faster, etc. Truly the best of both worlds!
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Free Webinar:
'Introducing IPM Classic'
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
2PM Eastern
We will be hostng a one-hour webinar to introduce IPM Classic, compare it to IPM
2007, and talk through making the choice between IPM Classic and IPM 10. It will
run about an hour, or until Bill runs out of hot air. The
webinar will be recorded and posted on our website.
The webinar is available at no additional cost for everyone on the Maintenance plan,
so send us an email to reserve your space now:
sales@fullhousesoftware.com Space
is limited!
IPM 2007 Forever!
No sundown in sight
For the record: IPM 2007
is not going away any time in the foreseable future.
As long as you need it, and you pay your maintenance, we will continue to
support IPM 2007. HOWEVER, once IPM Classic is released, we will no longer
do updates to IPM 2007 except to fix bugs. We believe IPM Classic is a perfect
transition for anyone using IPM 2007 on older PCs, or who are having printing
issues or who are using IPM 2007 in a Windows 7 "Virtual XP" environment.
We know many people won't switch until they have to. We reserve the right to
nudge you toward either IPM Classic or IPM 10, and once no one is using IPM
2007, then we'll retire it. Until then, we'll contiue to support IPM 2007. We do
hope you switch, but we aren't holding our breath. |
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