#Good Bye
34 messages in this thread
I want to let everyone know that Brown-Wagh will no longer be supporting
the sales and marketing of Pen Pal.
We've just completed our 3-year agreement with Softwood and will not be
renewing. Obviously the Softwood/Brown-Wagh relationship was very
succesful, keeping Pen Pal at the forefront of Amiga word processing for a
long time.
As an active Amiga publisher since its inception in 1985, we find the
market potential for Amiga business/productivity software in the US to be
too small for us to continue. Although the 3000 is a great machine, we
cannot endure CBM's 4th *launch* of the Amiga.
Softwood Company (Woody Williams) will try to do their own sales/marketing.
Their product plans for future Pen Pal releases have changed radically from
what Brown-Wagh had anticipated. I cannot say, nor will I vouch for,
anything about future versions. Any comments that I've previously said
here, or excitement shown, should be purged from your memory (ala Total
Recall). In this way, the slate will be clean, and Softwood will be given
the opportunity to properly prepare their marketing efforts.
For more info about Softwood and Pen Pal, call them at (602) 431-9151.
Over the last few years, I've spoken to many of you via this forum. You
are my friends and associates. I thank you for all your help. Please stay
in touch.
If the Amiga market comes back (I hope so), you may find Brown-Wagh back in
the hunt. Until then, you will see us concentrating on the PC market.
There, we are very much involved in the multimedia market, with sound
boards, CD-Rom, authoring software, video titling, etc — all the things
the Amiga can do. The difference is that in the PC market, a lot of people
care.
If I can help any of you, please let me know. I can always be reached by
CI$ or by phone (408) 378-3838. Better yet, why don't you come visit us in
Los Gatos (when the earth isn't shaking)?
Cheers, Steve
Steve, speaking for myself, and hopefully many others, I'm sorry to see BW
and you personally leave the Amiga market. You've brought a great deal of
enthusiasm and knowledge to this market and benefitted it greatly, and we
will miss that. So, thanks again!
BTW, if you do have reason to talk to Woody one more time, can you please
tell him that he seems to be unreachable by phone? I've tried many times
since his theasaurus letter came out and been unable to reach him.
Ron
Ron;
What would you like to know about ET?
=> 73 <=, bill => KB7LX@K4IWW <=
Oh, you mean the theasaurus; the one thing Woody never said in his brochure
is what you need it for; why you would want to have it. You could have the
best 'gonculator' ever made, but if it doesn't do anything anyone can use
.. And he didn't say, given whatever its supposed to do, what or how you
use it inside of Pen Pal.
Ron
Ron;
If you have a use for a Theasaurus, then Woody's work well. I don't use
Pen_Pal (I still use WP almost exclusively). ET is a seperate program.
=> 73 <=, bill => KB7LX@K4IWW <=
I haven't used one in years, but I have one. But how would you use it from
inside a word processing program?
Ron
Ron;
You don't. I can't even get snap to cut from ET, but at least the program
works well. I am impressed with how fast it operates (at least on an 030
w/hd).
=> 73 <=, bill => KB7LX@K4IWW <=
I still haven't figured out what you use an et for within a wp program.
Ron
Ron;
You don't….. exactly. It is an electronic thesaurus. When writing, you
can look up words to find substitutes. ET is very much faster than WP's
built in thesaurus.
73, bill
Ron:
Thanks for the kind words. Now that Woody is on his own, he will have to
face up to the responsibilities he will incur, such as telephone support,
customer relations, shows, billing, invoicing, ……….
I think he's hired someone to help him. I wish him the best.
Steve
P.S. I'll stick around for awhile on CI$ because we still support
BGraphics, EasyLedgers and Service Industry Accounting.
Steve;
Sad news indeed! I'll miss you sir. Your assistance has been much
appreciated. Your patching up the (now ancient) difficulties with Softwood
a couple of years ago, has turned me into a supporter. I still don't use
Pen_Pal but did order and receive the Electric_Thesaurus. It is a fine
program and should be a success. It is strictly thanks to you that I even
considered purchasing such a program from Softwood.
Again, Thanks Steve, and all the best to you. Hope to see you back soon!
=> 73 <=, bill => KB7LX@K4IWW <=
Bill:
Thanks for your support. I remember your first message to me, vehemently
complaining about your experience with SoftWood Write & File. Whew — what
a start to a relationship!
Now that I've gotten to know you, I feel you are one of the most
knowledgeable and respected members in this forum.
It's been my pleasure, Bill.
Steve
P.S. – It amazes me when I think back at the people who said BW could never
sell productivity software for the Amiga … then we proceeded to sell
Analyze!, Scribble!, Online!, BBS-PC!, Flipside!, The Works!, Excellence!,
TV*Text, TV*Show, Midi Magic, Express Paint, Spritz, PAR Real, File IIsg,
Write & File, Pen Pal, Project Master, BGraphics, Easyledgers, and Service
Industry Accounting. So much for those *experts*, eh?
Cheers
Steve, what will happen to the products like EasyLedgers and Service
Accounting? Will you no longer sell those, either?
……Betty
Betty:
Wow, I haven't heard from you in ages!
We are still selling EasyLedgers and Service Industry Accounting. We sell
and support those products across platforms – Amiga, IBM and Macintosh.
We have been doing great with them, but we are now planning a major attack
on the market — Instead of $295 and $395 suggested retail price for
EasyLedgers and SIA — the new price is $99.95, with a 30-day Money Back
Guarantee !!!
EasyLedgers is for general accounting and Service Industry Accounting ties
in the Job Costing and Estimating features. It's one helluva deal, don't
you think?
We will be selling direct to end-users and dealers; no distributors. There
just isn't enough margin at this price to do 2-tier distribution.
The ads will hit later this year. In the meantime, we'll just spread the
word.
Nice to speak with you again Betty.
Steve
Steve, I may need a copy of EasyLedgers soon, and I hoped you would still
be selling it. It's about time my son computerized his bookkeeping. (Or
found SOME way to get it done!) I believe EasyL. will do all he needs, or
at least all I can get him to do.
I'm especially sorry to see you leaving, Steve. I've been over here every
day – just lurking. You give excellent support, and I do hope you will
stay around for as long as you can.
Still love Pen Pal.
……Betty
Betty,
I'll stay tuned in here as long as your group doesn't kick me off. When it
comes to marketing, you know I'll give me 2 cents worth regardless of the
product.
I'll save an EasyLedgers for you.
Steve
It's good that you'll be around for a while, Steve. We will certainly miss
you when you leave.
……Betty
Betty-
EasyLedgers is primarily a business accounting program, not one for
personal fianances. It has many good features, but even the current
version (B2) will crash under heavy use. No one has been able to figure
out why.
The PC version is receiving all the development dollars.
Tim
Tim, my son runs a small business that really needs to be computerized.
……Betty
Betty-
Easyledgers is OK for light use. The program will crash under pressure
when you undertake extensive data entry like big batches of invoices, etc.
EasyLedgers has a big brother called Service Industry Accounting –
Elite. It runs on a PC or clone, and can be networked.
Tim
Steve,
That is quite a product line-up for a platform less than 5 years old! I,
for one, sincerely wish that your company would reconsider its decision to
leave the Amiga line. You have been quite helpful and responsive since you
came to us, and we will surely miss you. Best of luck with the hoi poloi!
Bill, K3OZM
Thanks Bill, for the nice words. We feel very attached to the Amiga
market, so we'll keep a close eye on it.
Steve
What will be the future for BGraphics? Will you be upgrading it or
are you planning on selling the rights to someone? I was interested in the
program but my interest will DEFINITELY be tempered if no one is going to
upgrade it! 8^>
— Ethan
P.S. Please reply by easyplex cause I don't read amigav much, trying to
keep the bills down!
Steve, I've missed the beginning of this thread, but from what I've
garnered here is that BW is dropping the Amiga platform, but will support
EasyLedgers and SIA. Is this right? Your outa here?! 'Tis a shame, I always
enjoyed reading your suggestions, comments and product announcements. We've
been considering SIA for use with our service bureau, but if there won't be
any upgrades I'd be buying another acccounting program that is only going
to get support no upgrades. (I'm referring to RAGS to RICHES by CHANG
LABS). Of course $99.00 is a lot less risk than $495.00 so maybe I'll still
bite. But when looking over the demo disk I received it left me a bit
apprehensive. I'm not sure if I followed the program closely enough to
understand how to properly use it without first seeing the manual.
I sure hope I was wrong about BW dumping the Amiga line, am I?
chris AT&G
Chris:
Brown-Wagh hasn't totally dropped the Amiga line — we still are working
with BGraphics and the accounting programs; EasyLedgers and Service
Industry Accounting. We have just dropped Pen Pal. We will continue with
BGraphics if we see the Amiga market improving. We will stay with the
accounting programs because we market them on 3 platforms; Amiga, Mac and
IBM.
Steve
Steve, Well if Service Industry Accounting will be upgraded as the needs
arise, I'd like to order the program, you did say $99 for it, eh? I'm using
Rags to Riches right now and I think SIA might be more capable in dealing
with our Service Bureau accounting. So E-mail me the order info or just put
it here and I'll call in with it.
chris AT&G
Chris:
Call my office and order from Will or Lloyd.
Price is $99.95. Shipping/handling is $10 (I think). 30-day Guarantee
Visa, M/C or Amex accepted. Checks are fine, but we wait until cleared.
(800) 451-0900 or (408) 378-3838 in CA.
P.S. – tell them you spoke to me and maybe they'll give me a pat on the
back.
Steve
Steve –
Does this mean that you are also pulling away from the SIA/EasyLedgers
support on Amiga systems. I know that those products are doing well for
you on the PC format, but I have customers using it on the Amiga. And we
were hoping for a Payroll mod. for this platform sometime in the near
future.
What are your future plans for SIA on the Amiga?
– Roy Pahnke – Crazy Mountain Software
Casper, Wyomin' – 1-800-76 AMIGA
Roy,
We will stick with SIA/Easyledgers. We've just begun shipping Payroll on
the IBM platform. We plan to follow it up with the other platforms later
this year.
Steve
Roy-
How do your customers rate EasyLedgers? It crashes on me (or I should
say our data entry person) every time we enter lots of invoice in one
sitting. Other Amigas running the program in our sales office processing
maybe one invoice every 10 minutes or so do fine.
Tim