Hi again Leland,

Nothing to apologize for, and I didn't feel insulted a bit, c'mon, in one degree or another all of us ignore vast amount of things, in that regard I have my ego firmly under control, just remember Socrates, "I only know that I do know nothing", if I'm translating well...and it was Socrates...<bg>.

Yup, there is a lot of work ahead but that's good, I love this profession and hard work don't make me fearful.

Now we are in business, your questions are good, and thank you, I have missed some good points, let me answer some of them, and I'll send you more info as soon as I gather/discover it:

>For example, is your datastore centralized or does the data reside only in the 400 remote locations.

So far the information is not centralized, just a few clients accessing centralized data via MetaFrame, but mostly we are talking about data in the remote locations as they don't relate with each other.

>Since your system was based partly on the unix operating system, must the solution be cross platform capable.
No, it will be a fat Windows only solution and also we need to provide Web access to the data, initially just querying it, later allowing updates/deletions/etc, sensible data will use https but still a good authentication scheme will be needed.
Surely that will create additional issues on having a web server on each location, etc. Maybe a centralized data store with summarized data could be used for the initial stages. Any good idea/strategy here will be appreciated.

>Is security enforce at only the operating system level or is security also needed to access the datastore.

Well, security is always an issue, let me gather more information about this.

>What is your timetable and how big is your support staff. Are you looking for a long term solution, or do you need to apply some bandaids immediately?

The answer is both, this is a very alive and ever changing product, bandaids are needed, but we need to laid out a long term solution or at least modernize the product to a pre .Net state.
The staff is now the original developer and me (just one week, still diving in), there are testers/customer support people too.

>Visual FoxPro is a wonderful product, but SQL Server is a better solution for company's working with large datasets, or where sensitive security issue are involved. Also, SQL Server may make more sense where it is necessary to work with data remotely.

You are right. But then we have the flagship product which is VB-SQL Server, the idea is to keep both products, one (VFP) for little-mid size clients, and the other for bigger/more sophisticated/more willing to spend big $$$ operations.

> Web service may be an answer because it allows cross-platform interaction through XML which facilitates the transfer of data between remote locations, but it is new a still evolving. Microsoft .Net is here, but it big and slow and brand new. It could take a year just to lay a framework and climb the learning curve before you write your first "hello world" program. Also, its likely to be expensive and hard to maintain with a never ending stream of updates service pack, and service contract renewals. For me it would be kind of like using an 800 lb grilla to pick up a paper clip. Also, there is no guarantee that .Net will go. It seem to
>be a solution targeted for a large scale operation like yours, but it may not fit into your timeframe. Good luck.

You are right again, I strongly agree, but we'll see, I'm just scratching the surface of the product and the company at this point, I'll keep you posted to keep having your valuable opinion, I appreciate it very much.

Max