On Monday April 2nd 2012 dBase LLC was introduced and dBASE was reborn. Since then, we have been in the process of reintroducing the new dBase LLC, the company that is reinvigorating the dBASE product lines. It has been roughly one-hundred-fifty days and we wanted to touch base and share a quick review of what has been accomplished, and where the new company stands.
In the initial press release and announcement, we made a promise to the dBase community that we would be working around the clock to provide the best products and services to ensure our users could manage data, build cutting-edge applications, and tools. We also made the promise that we would communicate as much as we could, take feedback from you, and make decisions that will best reflect the needs of our vast community of users, developers, and fans. In case you missed it, here is what we have done thus far:
- Restarting the new company: There was a great deal of work behind the scenes since this was a massive undertaking, and the new team pulled it off in spectacular fashion. It involved not only integrating the existing employees with new employees, it was revitalizing the very core of the operational side of the company. Everything from Email, Newsgroups, Accounting, and even the Office Furniture needed to be updated, reviewed, and reset!
- Worldwide Distributors: One of the main concerns was reestablishing strong connections to our worldwide distributors to ensure that we could deliver great products and services around the world. I am pleased to announce that by working closely with the distributors and understanding what they need to be successful that we have rebuilt the team and will be expanding in areas that we currently do not have coverage.
- Update dBASE 2.8: As our first major product undertaking, we wanted to show the community that we could deliver. Within the first month of operations, we had reintroduced a new standard license agreement, one that would protect both our customers and ourselves as well. We also introduced new STANDARD pricing. No more massive sales discounts or waiting until this day or that day to purchase, the standard pricing for dBASE PLUS 2.8 is $399.00 USD new version, $299.00 USD upgrade. Then, as a token of appreciation to all of our loyal customers that had already purchased 2.7x and shown support for the product, we provided an upgrade to dBASE 2.8 free of charge.
- Introduction of dbDOS™: Not every dBASE application has kept up with the changing times. For many, the philosophy of “if it is not broken, do not try and fix it” still applies. This is certainly true of many existing dBASE for DOS applications that are still operational today. The problem is that maintaining the underlying DOS operating system on modern updateable hardware is becoming a serious challenge. The software is outliving the hardware. dbDOS™ was centered around the idea that we wanted to support the ENTIRE dBASE community, not just the latest and greatest dBASE products. It is unbelievable the number of developers and users around the world that are still using the DOS-based version of dBASE. These MS-DOS based versions of dBASE will not run on Windows Vista and above. dbDOS™ not only allows you to do that, but it also allows you to print, which was not possible using the current Virtual Machines (VM’s) on the market today. The response has been wonderful, and if you want to learn more about dbDOS take a look at the website: http://dbdos.com
- New dbase.com website: This was a huge challenge because we had over 10 years of information located in a rather old style website that was very hard to maintain and update in a timely manner. The main concern was to make sure that the “information” that the community relies on was there and as close to the same URL location as possible. In addition, we wanted to add as much media as possible to tell the story, so the team spent a good amount of time optimizing images, videos, and sound to ensure a speedy experience even when the internet connection is less than optimal. It also had to be available on mobile devices of all types. We are very pleased with the outcome. The new site has a modern look and feel, is easy to update and maintain, and you can search for information located across the website. It is a strong foundation for dBase to launch new and existing products in the future. If you have not visited the new website, please take a minute or two to check it out: https://www.dbase.com
- Introduction of dBase lead training: Another one of the requests that we received almost every day was for training classes. We heard you loud and clear! We began offering dBASE Plus training in the month of July, gave the first training at the beginning of August, and made it an official product offering later in the month. We had our first class with paying customers this week. Be on the lookout for more classes coming in the next couple of months. The next new one will be dbDOS training and then more dBASE training. For more information on training look at the new website overview: https://www.dbase.com/training/
- Introduction of dBASE CLASSIC™: This product, which is based on the dBASE V (5.0) for DOS, was put in place because of the number of requests we received from the dBASE community. Before the introduction of dBASE CLASSIC™, it was a less than intuitive ordering process that was expensive and time consuming. We have resolved all of those issues, added in a copy of all the full manuals in searchable PDFs, and set a low introductory price. If you want or need more information on dBASE CLASSIC™ please check out the website: http://dbaseclassic.com
This list is just the start. Our re-established research and development team is working hard on many new features to our existing products, as well as some new offerings that we hope will meet your personal and professional needs. In the coming days, we will be enhancing the online store to give a better experience when purchasing products, which will make it faster and easier to use.
We hope you like what you are seeing from the new dBase company, and we would love for you to take a few minutes to answer some survey questions focusing on what we have been doing and what we can do better. Please go to the survey here:
www.dbase.com/survey and answer this short questionnaire. We will use this information to help craft a long-term strategy that will keep dBASE in tune with what you need, and turn dBase LLC into the company you always wanted it to be.
Thanks again for your time and consideration.
Go dBase!
Mike Rozlog
dBase, LLC.
President and CEO
