Harry Catharell wrote:If this does become a possible way of supporting a shopping cart solution then my advice is to speak to Servoy sales and see what the comparable cost would be for a license per cpu !
Harry, I've read or heard the "speak to Servoy sales..cost would be" suggestion a couple of other times.. don't recall the circumstances.
Perhaps there is a cultural difference involved here the Servoy folks aren't aware of. I don't know. Assuming, egotistically, that the US is the largest potential market for Servoy; is it possible that Servoy doesn't "get" yanks?
The aforementioned suggestion has a kind of Bazaar, "let's haggle" flavor to it that puts Americans off substantially. Most Americans will look at a price and either make a purchase or walk away. We will look for bargains, but absolutely do not want to bargain. The underlying feeling is that if the price is negotiable, then there is always a lower price than the one I'm being offered; the result is a nagging suspicion of perhaps having been cheated. This is why you see American tourists in the Middle East or Latin America do such a terrible job of haggling. We don't like it, have no experience and are no good at it. (I lived in So. America for a number of years, so I'll leave you standing there in your underwear. But most of my countrymen are not hagglers.)
I'd really like to see Servoy succeed, but frankly I have serious doubts. They certainly wouldn't be the first company with a brilliant and revolutionary idea to end up face down in the dirt due to overzealous price structure or poor marketing. (I remember making comments along these lines to two other software companies in the past, both of which are now belly-up. It seems that programmers, in addition to being lousy graphic artists, are generally also poor business people.) Perhaps they should consider taking on the services of a marketing firm(s) specializing in dealing with different parts of the world.
I don't think Servoy really understands that they are going head-to-head with the FileMaker juggernaut, and that though Servoy is the first product I've ever seen that is actually good enough to win (easily), it requires more than just a stellar product. Their marketing and price structure are going to have to be a lot more aggressive to have a prayer. On that note, I'll leave with just one word: "BetaMax"!