A Look at Some of the Competition
Here are some of the competition that is out there for small business financial software:
Microsoft Small Business Financials:
http://www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/.../default.mspx
Sage BusinessVision:
http://www.sagebusinessvision.com/products/bv32/index.html
Netledger NetSuite:
http://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml
You get one point if you can figure out the price of the product, two points if you can get a demo without filling out a questionnaire or talking to a representative and then waiting for 2-3 weeks, and another point for each screen shot of the product you can find. My guess is you won't get a lot of points.
Microsoft seems to be the best out of the three listed above; at least they let you see grainy low-quality videos of their product and you can find the price if you dig deep enough. However, in the days of downloadable demos and buying software right off the Internet, there is just no excuse for the poor presentation these companies give. It is impossible to figure out if their software will fit your needs just by looking at the website and that is not acceptable. And these are three of Intuit's biggest competitors, not just some random picks off the Internet. This market is desperate for an easy to use, easy to buy financial software.
Open source small business financial software is even worse. Much of it requires you to setup PostgreSQL or Oracle on a Linux server just to use it. That is just conceptually out of reach to most people.
It is one of Geebis's goals to be easy to install and presented clearly. The only external requirement Geebis has right now is a JVM and we are working on automating that step as well.
The website isn't much right now, but once we have something more to show we will present the software's capabilities clearly. We intend to provide free downloads and perhaps an online demo. We understand that screen shots are necessary to show off the software. We will never require you to fill out a questionnaire and wait for a CD in the mail or make you talk to a representative. Basically we want Geebis to be customer friendly, forget all the secrecy and smoke and mirrors. I think that would be a welcome change.
Microsoft Small Business Financials:
http://www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/.../default.mspx
Sage BusinessVision:
http://www.sagebusinessvision.com/products/bv32/index.html
Netledger NetSuite:
http://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml
You get one point if you can figure out the price of the product, two points if you can get a demo without filling out a questionnaire or talking to a representative and then waiting for 2-3 weeks, and another point for each screen shot of the product you can find. My guess is you won't get a lot of points.
Microsoft seems to be the best out of the three listed above; at least they let you see grainy low-quality videos of their product and you can find the price if you dig deep enough. However, in the days of downloadable demos and buying software right off the Internet, there is just no excuse for the poor presentation these companies give. It is impossible to figure out if their software will fit your needs just by looking at the website and that is not acceptable. And these are three of Intuit's biggest competitors, not just some random picks off the Internet. This market is desperate for an easy to use, easy to buy financial software.
Open source small business financial software is even worse. Much of it requires you to setup PostgreSQL or Oracle on a Linux server just to use it. That is just conceptually out of reach to most people.
It is one of Geebis's goals to be easy to install and presented clearly. The only external requirement Geebis has right now is a JVM and we are working on automating that step as well.
The website isn't much right now, but once we have something more to show we will present the software's capabilities clearly. We intend to provide free downloads and perhaps an online demo. We understand that screen shots are necessary to show off the software. We will never require you to fill out a questionnaire and wait for a CD in the mail or make you talk to a representative. Basically we want Geebis to be customer friendly, forget all the secrecy and smoke and mirrors. I think that would be a welcome change.
posted by John at
9:14 AM
1 Comments:
The small business accounting market is truly desperate for an easy-to-use, Google-like, accounting package that runs on Mac, Linux & Windows.
Having recently migrated from Windows to Mac OS X, I could not find one proper open source small business accounting package. After failing to install & build GnuCash on my Mac I really felt disappointed.
Then I discovered Geebis, and although I haven't worked with the product, from what I see & read so far, I can say that I'm truly ecstatic about it. It looks exactly like the accounting package that I've been searching for!
I'm definitely keeping a close eye on this project. I can't wait for it to be finished. If you guys pull this off, you will be a new force to be reckoned with in the small business accounting & open source worlds.
By
Jacques, at 12:35 AM
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