I opened a new business recently called Phoenix Software International.
Our first software product will be a thing called "Totally" - it is a totally new way of storing information about practically anything, be it customers, suppliers, inventory, whatever. It can even store full documents - you'll never wonder again where you saved that file.
I'm very excited about it. Its not due for release for a while yet. You will be able to use it on as many computers as you like (within the one physical location) with no registration/activation codes.
For small businesses just starting up, the total capital cost of purchasing several copies of some well known small business management software really starts to add up. For example, the most recent version of a well known application costs around $1000 - if you plan on having a computer for each staff member, then you'd be up for $5000 right off the bat, and then you have to register each copy. Bah humbug.
What will be in Totally?
All the usual business financial needs - invoices, payments etc.
A magnificent data management engine, multi-user from the word go.
A datafile that will never need to be restarted each year.
Unlimited access to upgrades.
In the future:
Business to business e-commerce out of the box.
Business to customer e-commerce out of the box.
Role / User based security, right down to the field level. If you don't want certain staff to see certain fields, you can restrict that too.
Document management - create new documents or import current ones and store them in Totally, not scattered all over your hard drive. Keyword searchable too!
Totally also allows you to download new "applets" as they become available. These applets can, because of the single data store, be built quickly and allow new ways of working with your data, turning it into real information.
