Hi all

I have a (to an extent technical) Vertical Market app. for Manufacturers and specially catering to the needs to govt. documentation for Central Excise and I am in the process of tying up with a dealer. This app also has standard modules for Accounting, Inventory and Order Processing.

As with regular apps (vertical to not) the specs are there (esp. accounting packages) and the features are there. The idea is to get the best features for the same routines, Accounting stays debit or credit but Zoom-in reports and ease of entry and such are what they are viving for. Regular versions are developed and marketed, boasting such and such new feature over the competition.

My problem starts here. This app does not really have scheduled versions like accounting apps. So once sold is sold until the Govt. changes the procedures or documents, then comes the big rush to deliver updates for the changes, no schedule whatsoever, no time given by the Govt. for implementation (most of the time) as they want it then and there from the day announced. I guess it is assumed things are being done manually or at best using word processors and can readily adapt on the spur of the moment. These updates to the app are for timely deliveries and on a needs-basis, as there are often times when the rule(s) as announced has a lot of nuances and is subject to interpretation by the authorities and consultants. So considering the urgency required we deliver as much tested app as we can (this situation is clearly understood by the clients and we also put in whats-new and mailers along with the updates clarifying the situation and time limitations), but it is not fully debugged nor fully implemented till the grey clouds disperse. As what is delivered is not necessarily the definate solution, further interpretations will raise new issues and procedures as days go by depending on the severity of changes in the announcements.

What I have arranged for such a scenario is that the application is licensed on an as-is basis with a 1 year updates included and understood by the client. After this one year is over the client, if he wants to, at a nominal amount, he can enroll for an updates plan for another year. This amount is covering the deployment expenses rather than developing expense thus it stay nominal. The initial updates (can be upto 2 or 3 major revisions) are sent as soon as required and when the basics are covered and the dust is settling the updates are then sent on a needs-basis.

This is all well as far as my own firm is directly supporting the clients, now enters into the picture the dealer. This dealer is supposed to generate sales and provide support to those clients. In a recent meeting a lot of grey areas were uncovered, like support from our firm to the dealer (how much and where onsite, offsite), like updates plan and the queries/problems it will generate (how to share and who is responsible for the timely despatches, development is of course mine).

- Has anybody any experience with dealers for such apps?

- Or are there any suggestion for such situations?

- Can this kind of an app become a version based app using a single code-base (I can't maintain multiple code-bases cause the changes can be really complex and requires multiple reviews and modification of the code thus maintaining repetition of code between versions can be impractical and this application is a FoxPro 2.5 for DOS application)?

Please advise, atleast it will be a good discussion point <g>.