New Awesome Business Software on the Market

Ok. I have responded to many posts talking about my excitement of this new product that is on the market: Evolution
Since I have done so, I have decided to create a new thread so that people can honestly tell me what they think of the software. It is so easy to talk so much about it because it does so much.

I won't talk about it any more in at the moment but please tell me what you think of their product and site. I really want to know.

http://darwinproductions.net
and:
http://theevolutionofbusiness.com
http://darwinproductions.info

I think this product is the answer to any business's prayers.

Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Many posts? When you posted this you had made 4 posts...

Anyway what's so awesome about it? Who is it targeting? I am skeptical about "all in one" packages as they rarely do everything you need and since they are designed to be all-in-one they are not good at being open to integrating with another niche product which gives you the last 5% you need.

But maybe this one's different... :)

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Originally Posted by asr_guy

Anyway what's so awesome about it? Who is it targeting?

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4 posts talking about a specific business is lots for me :)

The software is quite unique in that it scales to fulfill any company size and any industry sector. It facilitates small businesses with even one or two people in it (because of its cost effective price tag) and is presently running multinational multi million dollar companies. It can be easily customized to any industry and any specific need using their Plugin architecture. Through that architecture it can change functionality, language use, create business specific processes and other things like that. I have not seen their API as of yet but I understand it to be quite clear and easy to use.

I agree with your comment that “all in one” packages tend to ****! This product stands out in my mind because they didn’t just to and try to “re-invent the wheel”. They seem to have taken the best features of every world and integrated it into one centralized application. For example: Their email behaves exactly like outlook 2003 (but better). Their accounting is as powerful as Simply Accounting, but easier to use and more automated. Their CRM seems to be a hybrid of all of the greatest ideas of CRM without duplicating the bad. You get the idea.

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Originally Posted by asr_guy

not good at being open to integrating with another niche product which gives you the last 5% you need

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They have opened their products for niche areas most definitely. I think I even saw some pictures of where they custom branded and created a plugin for Toyota. I think it used to be in their image gallery section… hmm can’t find it. You can ask them about it. Oh yeah, they did one for a custom contracting customer for example. He needed the software to do the entire job costing to build a house. Right down to every light switch, hammer and nail. The software did not do that kink of thing out of the box so they built a custom plugin for a couple hundred buck to fulfill that specific need. I hope that answers your question.

I know you are sceptical about “all-in-one” packages. I was too. I mean look at SAP!!! OUCH!!!! Anyway thanks for giving it a try. Their site is pretty informative and I am sure it can answer all of your questions. This post is too long already. Sorry… It takes time sometimes to answer questions I guess.

Dynamo...

I'm skeptical about your affiliation with this "awesome" software --- what's in it for you?

Dynamo - what's your interest in it and your connection? Most of us are just trying to help.

You will get better feedback if we know the context.

My husband works for the company. I now run our all of our old businesses through the software myself and love it. I sometimes use his user id in forums. Should I not? He creaed this account and told me about this awesome forum. So I decided to write using his login. I am sure he will post when he has time to himself.

I have two personal benefits:
1) yes there is financial benefit to the business's success
2) Most importantly since I have experienced such a personal difference in my work, I get truly excited about sharing this software with others. I love seing the same things happen for other people too. Should I create my own user name you think? Sorry if I caused confusion

I hope I didn't get my hubby in trouble. :( as you can tell I know quite a bit about the software itself. I am married to him :)

It sounded like you are also married to the product :) Just kidding.

It might mention somewhere in the registration terms of service for this forum that you can't share the account but it's ok with me.

So tell us what sort of businesses you use it for? A personal recommendation from someone like you may help steer some other similar businesses to check it out.

By the way, does Evolution handle affiliate tracking? I.e. if you decide to set up your own affiliate programme for one of your businesses, can it handle the affiliate signup, management, tracking, payments, login panels, etc.? Just curious.

Cheers,
Peter

I appreciate your humor :)

I currently use it to manage our small ISP company:
http://radiantwebproductions.com
our Music School
http://spauldingschoolofmusic.com (site not built yet):
and our executive search firm:
onlythebest.cc:

we have all three operating as divisions within the software with indipendant logins and the whole nine yards.

I have see the software used for multinational corporations:
eiki.com (right now the site really sucks but it will be getting better soon I understand)
car dealerships like honda.
ecommerce sites like:
http://kartwarehouseworld.com

small businesses like:
http://xtrememotorsportsgroup.com
and http://winningcolours.com

anyway you get the idea. I use the appointment bookings very heavily, the automated accounting is a god send (saves me tons of work) and the integrated email rocks. Other staff use the CRM heavily. That's about all I know.... oh yeah and I use their knowledge base too. Other companies are benefiting from other areas I have not used too much.

as for affiliate tracking, yes that is all integrated into the software. It can be done oneline through the member services area or thorugh the software itself through the dealers section. That's about all I know about that kind of thing.

Thanks for writing back :) talk soon

Thanks for the info. I will follow up with them re their affiliate tracking, as they might be a candidate for my site which lists affiliate software or packages that support affiliate management. Online merchants starting from scratch or upgrading to a better integrated ecommerce package might want to take a look at this and compare it side-by-side with other options.

Nice to see some entrepreneurs with such varied businesses as you have.

Cheers.

Hi,

I would like to say it is hard to believe companies who try to develop "all in one" software.
I worked last 7yrs with a company in this space developing enterprise solution, it is not an easy game to sell such software, so I would highlight some of the drawbacks of such solution.

Firstly I hate the website Darwin Productions has got no corporate look to it, navigation is ugly with frames based, it doesn't tell who the founders of this software, what kind of expertise they bring in and how long have they been in business and how long this software been in production? Where is the Beta?? Where is the VAR - Value Added Reseller program or partners page...

To sell software of this magnitude you need to let people download FREE software and you need sign up resellers or customers for beta candidates and should hear "what they have to say" before even going into market.

I have seen several companies who are in this space and NetSuite beats everyone, when it comes to "All in One" software except "POS" and other areas ...

I reviewed their website and did find some error while navigating
..................
Server Application Unavailable
The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request.

Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the application event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur.
.............

They have 4 desktop products, 5 Web products, 6 Services and 5 developer products WOW!!! Is this real? How big is their software development team to accommodate such big suite of products?

Talking about products what depth of functionality/features they cover any kind of comparison matrix sheet available on website, so they can compare the greatest and latest ones to see how this software rates, it is very important, coz when you reference against other software’s such as Simply Accounting, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Interprise etc people can co-relate with features and the value it can bring.

Any new software introduced in the market is bound to have BUGS/Defects/Issues so it is very important to see in which version they are if it is 1.0 or 2.0 or 2-3 yrs in production I can say it will stay have some critical bugs here and there ....

I looked at some ecommerce sites samples, none of them have good standards of doing eBusiness, not search engine friendly, business owners will kill themselves if they can't attract search engines to index them...

Well this list can go on and on .... I would cut short for now and hear some of other user's comments or the topic originator to speak back ...

There was a recent post from another Company called "Interprise", who fell flat on their face trying to provide beta copies even after I registered over a month back and I haven't heard form them, they seemed like a potential candidate but haven't heard from them nor the thread is active and moreover no response from user community also...

So I would say Darwin is entering into an Ocean, without a product roadmap this would be a uphill task coz "One Size doesn't fit all...." (Unless proper focus on product, sales channel and marketing is done ...)

Best of luck guys !!!

WOW long post with many questions. I am sure it will lead to a long reply. I will most likely not have time to proofread after I have invested the time to write back but here goes:

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

Firstly I hate the website Darwin Productions has got no corporate look to it, navigation is ugly with frames based, it doesn't tell who the founders of this software, what kind of expertise they bring in and how long have they been in business and how long this software been in production? Where is the Beta?? Where is the VAR - Value Added Reseller program or partners page...

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Great comments!!! I will take your comments and see if we can make the site more suitable. The site is not frames based. It is completely layer based using CSS. The original design was based on a Microsoft beta release when it was new and because of database functionality limitations we had to (at first) build the site in frames. We now need to re-design our site now that we are running version 2 of the .net framework (or something of that sort). I know our site looks basic. Other sites we drive (or will soon drive under our new framework) are http://mapleview.cc http://kartwarehouseworld.com. Now there is no limitation to the creativity we can drive through our technology however yes the original limitations still look to be there. Take one look at our source code and you will immediately find this is not the case 
We will add who the founders are:
James Hancock CTO and chief architect of the software. Comes from a strong custom consulting background with major fortune 500 companies. It is through this experience he began the concept and now implementation of Evolution.
Damian Spaulding CEO comes from a strong business management and marketing background.
Gordon Woodill Director of Quality Assurance and Tech Support worked directly with James Hancock to produce what you see today.

Software has been in production 6 years. Been in business for 7. The bata is long gone. The software has been in production stages for the last 2 years. We are now approaching version 1.5 and are as stable as stable can be 
We are quite selective as to our VAR accounts. They are handled on a one by one basis every time. It is not our intent to flood the market with VARs and have no one enjoy themselves or make money. We have found our approach to be quite powerful and satisfying for our VARs and will most likely continue to do things this way. Most people that want to re-sell our product, contact us directly. A partners page may be added soon; thanks for the comments.

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

To sell software of this magnitude you need to let people download FREE software and you need sign up resellers or customers for beta candidates and should hear "what they have to say" before even going into market.

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I could not disagree with you more. Software of this magnitude can not be given out free. It may take weeks to transfer your CRM, ERP, Accounting, Projects and others one by one into the system. By the time that is done, your 30 day trial will have expired, you have experienced no ROI and you leave the relationship feeling frustrated. You wouldn’t get a trial of XP or SQL server would you? Normally you make a strategic decision to try the product and work through the learning curve and implementation time. A free trial is just a bad way to go. As for talking to our VARs on our beta implementations, you can feel free to contact them directly. One is already mentioned in our press release section and you can feel free to contact them directly at any time. I believe their contact information is even in there for you to grab if you would like. I should go check to make sure. Their name is Evolution Solutions. We are beginning to create a “What people have to say” secion of our website. This section will soon be filled with customer comments that came readily without coercion. Feel free to look at that page in our Evolution product page. I believe there is only one in at the moment. I believe Jamie will be putting three more in as soon as he gets time. But hey, don’t choose a package because of who else is using the software package. Ask us for a demo if you would like and we can go blow by blow through every are and make sure it perfectly suits your business model. That is what demos are for  We have done it time and time again and have found a far better result than the standard shareware, interpersonal and cold approach of other vendors. Your time is important to us and we will invest our time wherever we can to help you or walk you through. I say develop your own opinion of our software and see for yourself. Because we are so comprehensive everyone uses the software in their own customized way so the best way to judge our product is for yourself. At a cost of $750 even the risk level is almost a joke. Many companies rollout Evolution on their company visas without even going to management because it is so affordable and works for them. We do stand behind our product in every way; put us to the test that’s all I have to say.

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

I have seen several companies who are in this space and NetSuite beats everyone, when it comes to "All in One" software except "POS" and other areas ...

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That’s great if you think so. I have no real comment in this regard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

I reviewed their website and did find some error while navigating
..................
Server Application Unavailable
The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request.

Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the application event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur.
.............

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Please let us know the page you were trying to access and if it can be duplicated we will rectify the problem. Our site is designed that upon any error it will re-direct to our sitemap page, so you finding such an error would be quite surprising to me. None the less, if it is there, please let us know and it will be fixed momentarily . Thanks for the input.

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

They have 4 desktop products, 5 Web products, 6 Services and 5 developer products WOW!!! Is this real? How big is their software development team to accommodate such big suite of products?

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I know isn’t it great!!! We spent 6 years at our own cost building what you see today. Man did it take time! We have a number of developers, tech support and consulting staff on hand and growing every day. We do try to keep things lean though.

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

Talking about products what depth of functionality/features they cover any kind of comparison matrix sheet available on website, so they can compare the greatest and latest ones to see how this software rates, it is very important, coz when you reference against other software’s such as Simply Accounting, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Interprise etc people can co-relate with features and the value it can bring.

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That is soon to come. As soon as we have time to build one. On our site is over 100 slides talking about our product and over 120 pages of written content to help people understand how things work and how we can work for their business. That alone took many many hours. The next step on the list now that that is finished is to put your “comparison page” on our site. We know it is needed.
Think of the time that would involve. We would have to list the features and benefits of:
QuickBooks, Simply Accounting, SAP, Siebel, Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com, Outlook, Outlook express, A pile of Ecommerce managers, Project manager, knowledge / information managers, file and data managers, a pile of POS managers, Oracle solutions, … Listing them alone is a pain, let alone purchasing every one, auditing them and putting a comparison chart up. This will be a project that must be done over the better part of a year. It can’t be done well, quickly. In the mean time every company has specific concerns that even a product comparison chart can’t answer. Therefore we maintain the service model of “contact us” we will be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions over the phone, over email, or shoot in person if you would like. Noting beats having the CEO or CTO or high level programming person on the phone with you answering your every question and even showing you the specific areas you need to see to make an educated decision. Beats a cheesy chart any day! w

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

Any new software introduced in the market is bound to have BUGS/Defects/Issues so it is very important to see in which version they are if it is 1.0 or 2.0 or 2-3 yrs in production I can say it will stay have some critical bugs here and there ...

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As you now know, our software is 6 years old. It quietly went through Apha, Beta, Beta2 RC1 and production a long time ago. You are correct in saying that any software our size will have the occasional bug. We get an average of maybe 1 bug reported a week and because of our unique update service those bugs are fixed within 24 hours of being notified. This fast turn around time is because Evolution is self correcting and even reports what line of code failed in any given sequence. We are not required to bug our customers about bugs, we just fixed them. That was something we did many years ago and oh boy has it ever decreased tech support demands and bug fixes all together. Once again, this product has been quietly in use at many different stages for the past 6 years. We are well beyond the testing and bug fixing stage. Now it is time to “Sack the competition” before they even know what hit them. Not unlike what Microsoft did to IBM. By the time IBM woke up it was too late . The only difference, we are not half as buggy as even Windows 98 was, and we are just strategically exposing ourselves now.  OOH this feels good!

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

I looked at some ecommerce sites samples, none of them have good standards of doing eBusiness, not search engine friendly, business owners will kill themselves if they can't attract search engines to index them...

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Not to be overtly contradictory, our site is very Google friendly. In fact every section of ever site makes sure every detail is attended to in order to make sure search engines can rank accordingly. Not only keywords and title tags and such being embedded into the software, but also things like putting important content at the top of HTML page instead of the bottom when pages are rendered. There are many details we have attended to in order to make sure our pages rank properly. We are just creating our web ranking kick ourselves and are already finding great results. Older sites using web Version 1.0 didn’t rank well because of the old frame required architecture, but thanks to Microsoft’s new .net release that is now a thing of the past. Evolution for Web version 2.0 is world class and Google ready for any company. Of course that was one of first priorities; that on top of functionality of course. People often see an improvement when switching to our web management technology to be quite honest. It takes time sometimes for search engines to re-index but hey, it’s worth it.

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

Well this list can go on and on .... I would cut short for now and hear some of other user's comments or the topic originator to speak back ...

There was a recent post from another Company called "Interprise", who fell flat on their face trying to provide beta copies even after I registered over a month back and I haven't heard form them, they seemed like a potential candidate but haven't heard from them nor the thread is active and moreover no response from user community also...

So I would say Darwin is entering into an Ocean, without a product roadmap this would be a uphill task coz "One Size doesn't fit all...." (Unless proper focus on product, sales channel and marketing is done ...)

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Hey we have it all in place. We are not new. We are no in beta. We owe no bank or investor any money, everything is in the black. We are always profitable because we don’t give free software (therefore we can afford to be here tomorrow). Our corporate costs are low. The partners did not sacrifice 6 well vested years of their lives for nothing.
You can try to compare us to a lot of failed companies. It doesn’t matter to me. You can even compare us to the many broken light bulbs that Thomas Edison built, no skin off of our backs  All I know is that over the last 6 years we finally built the light bulb that works. At $750 try it yourself  not as if you are buying another package for $500000 and still paying for customization features or other headaches.
I hear your bitterness toward us but please don’t judge us from the failures of other companies. Judge us for what we are. Anything else is just prejudice  I do mean that in the best of ways. Thanks for your post

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Originally Posted by InfoSourcing

Best of luck guys !!!

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I don’t think that comment was sincere but I will say thank you anyway. This long post is not meant to be combatitive in any way. That is not my intent and I am not that kind of person. It is my intent to simply set the record strait where I can and answer your questions or comments. Great points Infosourcing. I can tell you have great experience and I do respect that.

Hi,

My comments here are no means to put your hard work and effort aside, it was my perception as "I had my business owner hat", who is looking for a software and when they land in your website how do they perceive.... I just wrote down those points, Pls use any of my comments/suggestions as per your business needs..."

After reading your replies my perception has changed WHY? Coz now I know lot about Darwin Productions and their software evolution and their future growth strategy, thanks for taking precious time to update all of us here on Small Business computing, my objective was to pull you out from your demos/development and answer some of the concerns business owners have and you did so, applause !!!!

Thinking about the software Your PRICE rocks!!! If it does all what you guys claim I see a breakthrough for all business owners ....

Regarding evaluation of the software, there are pros and cons to it, what you mentioned is true a enterprise software needs training/learning curve and somebody to do hand holding, and that's where VAR comes into picture provided your sales pipeline doubles and triples ...

Also let's view it from other angle, if you could add all the content you posted here on your website most of the questions get answered, Free eval will give experts like us to download and play with it.

If your users can download and evaluate in 30 days then they are serious to use your software coz they spent 30 days of effort in learning and if they are successfully the message is "Your software is intuitive enough to be used by Novice" which sells by itself at least the basic features/functionality they can have their hands on like accounting, inventory, ecommerce and see the business up and running, CRM and advanced features may need training still though...

My comments "Best of Luck guys!!!" was purely admiring the vision of the Company and how determined you guys are to solve the missing link, I like the caption "missing link ..." You guys have put in 6+ yrs to develop, this answers it all that you not only focused on breadth but also depth and BUG free (almost) ...

I have to say your team and product has a "substance" in it and I would love to download and play with it, so I can post more about my perception on using this software and maybe hook you up with my network of customers, who are also looking out ...

My message to business owners "this is sounding to be GOOD and as Dynamo321 says "At a cost of $750 even the risk level is almost a joke..." and I do stand by it compared to what others are charging/offering in this space, finally I see light at the end of the tunnel for $1000 hmm that is impressive for SMB (Small and medium business)...."

Since our conversation are long here, if you want to reach me via email pls do email to [email protected] (not sure I can post my email here ...)

Thanks for your comments.
We are being very strategic with our VAR accounts because we don't want to saturate the market with VARs everywhere and have no one make a decent living. Yes your point about VARs is right on the money and very true. Well done.
As for a 30 day trial, we had thought about it and decided against this strategy. Yes your model does make sense but we have experienced that that model is not best suited for our business. Select VARs do have copies of our software to create dummy divisions and explore and they do enjoy them. Fringe benefits I guess you can call it. 

Our thought about 30 day trials is that if you were serious about the software you would purchase it after educating yourself to make sure it is the right thing for you, instead of experimenting intermittently for 30 days without any real commitment to realize its full potential. We have (from experience) found that when Evolution is deployed as a well thought out, strategic and intentional "Solution", rather than a experimental trial, customer satisfaction goes up, tech support loads go down, software implementation effectiveness improves substantially and the general performance of our GBM technology is simply better utilized. Quite frankly, everyone was happier for it . We have personally found the way we presently do it is the best way for all parties involved. I do hear your points though and if we were another type of software solution we may approach things separately. The trial business model did not (and does not) work well for our business. :) It simply is not a path though we wanted to go down any way. That’s just our humble experience. ;)

Great comments and I can hear the brilliance and experience in your writing.

As for our site content suggestions: It is funny our site contains well over 100 pages of written content and about 100 slides of information and there is still more information we need to add in order to cover all of the bases :) I have already added the backgrounds of the partners in the about us section of our site and will try to make sure all of the other bases are completely covered on our site too. :)

I hope this conversation has also been helpful for other visitors as they partake in the forum.

Talk soon everyone!
Great to speak to you InfoSourcing

Folks,

Provide free handouts to experts who frequent this forum? Hmmm . . . nobody wants to hear what I have to say about that!

Anyway, I've been in the market for this type of all-in-one product for more than a year (closing on two actually). Today I had a very well done demo with these guys of Evolution (Darwin Productions) and they pretty much answered all my questions to my satisfaction. Like someone noted above, their website looks a litttle minor league, but despite that, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and instead of asking for a freebie, I'm biting the bullet and taking a leap by buying $4k worth of software from them - and this isn't chump change for me.

Frankly, I'm rather tired of my hodgepodge of ACT!, QuickBooks Pro, Excell, Outlook Express, and website software . . . and while I looked at Mailware, Stone Edge, Mail Order Manager, Everest, NetSuite, and Response, these guys were the ones I've decided to go with.

Yes, I know what they say about leaders (the ones with the arrows in their backs), but these fellas really gave me a good feeling. Their business model is realistically priced for my budget and expectations, their answers were complete, the demo was solid, plus an intangible thing . . . I never got the feel they were ever saying, "You want a steering wheel with that new car?"

I definitely got that uneasy feeling with NetSuite, MOM, and Everest. Conversely, I was pleased (very pleased actually) with Lloyd Merriam of Response, Barney Stone of Stone Edge, and Bruce K of Mailware 2005 - they were all three straight shooters whose product performs exactly as they say it will. Damian and James of Evolution are cut from the same cloth.

Why didn't I go with one of the latter three? Simple, I live in ACT!, my contact manager because I frequently call my existing dealer base and prospect for new dealers using this tool, and none of these guys had what I felt I needed to replace ACT!, i.e. wholesale-CRM, but Evolution is pretty decent - good enough for me anyway. NetSuite's and Everest's CRM are very good, but there was the afore mentioned feeling I was being sheared a little too close to the skin.

Naturally, I rather hope I'm not making a mistake, but I really have a good feeling about this. Time will tell of course . . . actually, I kind of feel like the people who recognized genious and bought one of Henry's first Model T automobiles while most were hanging onto their buggy whips. Furthermore, like many people who start businesses, I've always been one of those guys who sees a trend early. Hence, I really think these guys will go far once their cash flow goes positive. In addition, I still have very fond memories of most of my early clients and similarly, I hope that perhaps (by stepping up to the plate early) I will also get the benefit of being an early adopter (lots of things play a role in any decision, this was a factor and I would be remiss to not mention it). Hence, maybe my business will be rewarded with more personal attention than usual - lucky for me if this is the case, eh?

Check in with me in a few weeks, or months, and I'll be happy to share how it's going/gone. Frankly, the work involed in migrating my accounting data, my customers, my products, etc. into Evolution will be daunting, so yes, this is a huge step for us. That said, I am nonetheless feeling splendidly pleased, giddy even, with my "discovery". While it's waaaay too soon to say Evolution 2.0 is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I also happen to think that ignoring this development in the business if you are in need of this class of software is to be derelict in your fiduciary responsibility to your business.

My 2¢

John Beech - GM (and janitor)
Genesis Hobby Distributor