FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AMSJava
Development Commences
A
Replacement for AMSWin is in the works
October 16, 2008 – Development of a replacement for AMSWin
has begun.
Due to the intense development
effort required, all support for AMSWin is suspended until the development of
AMSJava has been completed. This is
expected to take three to four weeks.
The reasons for the development of
AMSJava instead of upgrading AMSWin are:
1.
Many of
the problems with AMSWin are due to the age of the code. AMSWin is written in Visual Basic 6.0, which
is an old technology. In addition, the
database structure it uses is out of date and the report printing service it
uses, Crystal Reports, is very much out of date. AMSWin needed to be brought up to date.
2.
People
have been requesting the availability of AMSWin on other systems than
Windows. AMSJava, being written in Java,
will be portable among many different operating systems, including Apple®
Macintosh®, Linux and UNIX.
3. There have been numerous requests for significant improvements to AMSWin. While fighting the fires of the problems with AMSWin, it is all but impossible to find time to address these requests. The rewrite into Java will allow the inclusion of many of the requested improvements.
4. It is expected that AMSJava will be much more reliable and less brittle (easily broken) than AMSWin, as well as being easier to maintain.
5. AMSJava will allow for adding extra-cost features as AMSOIL dealers request them. This process will be explained later. This may include such features as integration with contact management systems and automated email to contacts.
What
about the current AMSWin?
For those who are satisfied with
the current AMSWin, the price/inventory files will continue to be
available. There will be no additional
development on AMSWin and support will be limited to resolution of known problems. If, for any reason, AMSWin stops working and
the problem resolution is not already known, then the
only alternative will be upgrading to AMSJava.
What
is the price of the new AMSJava?
AMSJava Regular is priced at $300.00 for the first year. The cost to upgrade from AMSWin Regular is $200.00. There is a $100.00 per year Maintenance Fee after the first year.
AMSJava Lite is priced the same as AMSWin Lite at $30.00 per year. The features available in AMSJava Lite may differ from AMSWin Lite, but the product is intended to fulfill the objective of providing business support for the new or smaller AMSOIL dealer.
AMSJava (or AMSJava Lite, as appropriate) will be automatically sent at no extra charge to all new purchasers since April, 2008 and those who have their maintenance fee paid. This offer is good until AMSJava is ready. After that point, the regular upgrade fee ($200.00) will be in effect.
What about compatibility with current AMSWin?
Because AMSJava uses a different database structure, and structures many things differently internally, a database conversion utility will be included to convert from AMSWin to AMSJava. Customers and Dealers will be combined into Clients and identified by appropriate type. If one individual is both Customer and Dealer, then that individual will end up twice in the Client file, once as Customer, once as Dealer.
The videos available on the www.amswin.com website pertain to AMSWin. In time, the intent is to have new training materials for AMSJava.
Watch the website for more information about AMSJava.
For More Information Contact:
AMSWin
455 S Owasso Blvd W
Tel: (651) 294-9328
FAX: (612) 605-8545
Internet: support@amswin.com