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Considering My Clients & Profits!

We are considering adding My Clients & Profits! I am interested to know how people feel about it in general. I know it has certain limitations, but is it basically useful? What are the main pros and cons? Are there any real problems with the software that haven't been addressed by C&P? The main thing we would use it for is so the AE's to be able to see the current status/costs of their jobs so they can work on monthly billing from home. They would need to see the Job Ticket main page and WIP page and would need to be able to print the WIP report "Unbilled Costs by Job" and the "Job Billings" reports to the screen. Finally, is the software difficult to maintain? Do you have a lot of system errors or problems that need to be dealt with by the System Administrator (me, who is only working 2 days per week!)? Does it require a separate backup? Do people who use it have a dedicated server to host it? Please feel free to add any other comments.

Catherine Colangelo
Business Manager
The Phillips Agency

We've been using My C&P since we brought up C&P early last year. We've had no major issues with it. We use it primarily to allow time input by everyone without having to buy a bunch of licenses, not for the inquiry purposes that you note. We run it on a separate server -- but the server is an old iMac that we recycled into this duty. In an organization our size (20 people) there's no need for a powerful server to run it. We could probably have run it on our regular server, but when we set it up we didn't know what the load would be, plus we didn't want our regular server to be open to access from the web. (We're not wildly sophisticated either, and even though we take all steps we can for security I'm sure the bad guys are ahead of us.) Backup needs are very minimal. My C&P connects directly to the main db and inserts transactions there, so there's no actual additional data backup needed. You do have to do some setup (users and access rights) on the server, so you might want to back it up periodically, but this probably isn't going to change daily. The only real issue we've had with it deals with backup, though. The My C&P link to the C&P database is seen as an open link by our backup software, which as a result will not back up the C&P db if My C&P is still open. But ... My C&P doesn't have the automatic shut down capability that can be set up for users in C&P. As a result we've had to rig up some sort of a program (IT did it -- I'm a PC person) on the server that will shut down My C&P automatically every evening before the backup begins, and restart it the next morning. Unfortunately we've never gotten the latter to work with the password to get My C&P fully running -- someone still has to manually go through that screen. I don't know how generic this issue is to all backup software or if it's just what we use. Remember if you want outside web access you'll have to drill a hole in your firewall at a specific address to allow people to get in. While finding one address out of 2E32 possibilities isn't a great risk, it's more than zero. Overall I'd definitely recommend it. Hopefully some of the remaining issues are addressed in version 2.

Brent A. Byrd
Chief Financial Officer
Point Zero, Inc.

I am interested to know how people feel about it in general. I know it has certain limitations, but is it basically useful?

Yes, based upon your use of the term, 'basically'. Is it as full featured as the standard client, no. Is it a great inexpensive way to get to basic information remote, yes.

Are there any real problems with the software that haven't been addressed by C&P?

No major bugs that we have experienced, last version was supposed to run as a service on an NT server, but there is a bug in that. Having it running as an app on my server's desktop most annoying.

The main thing we would use it for is so the AE's to be able to see the current status/costs of their jobs so they can work on monthly billing from home........

What I did was demo it to several AE's that were both good AE's and computer literate. They were satisfied with the reporting capabilities, but said there were some minor limitations. I would recommend you do the same.

Finally, is the software difficult to maintain?

No, no maintenance required, except as noted below, regarding backups.

Does it require a separate backup?

No, it is basically just another 'client' that accesses your current database. So if My C&P blew up all you would loose is the user accounts and passwords associated with it (they are separate from the standard user/passwords).

If you are using the standard version of C&P you will have one annoying issue. Like any other C&P user My C&P must be logged out so that you can backup the database. It will automatically log out, but it will not automatically log back in. So, when it logs out it is down until someone walks up to the machine and logs it back in. Or you have to get an automated task scheduler like 'Automate' to do it for you (50 bucks or so). In my case we have the SQL version of C&P, so I was able to work around that by having SQL do the database backup to a file, then back up that file to tape. SQL does not care if users are logged in.

Do people who use it have a dedicated server to host it?

No way. 50ish users here. It runs on the same server that runs our Exchange server, email virus scanning, desktop virus scanning, all of our other web applications and a few other things I can't remember right now. The server never slows down and is only a PIII 650 with 512 Megs of ram, even 10 minutes before timesheets are due and there are 25 slackers hitting it at once.

Please feel free to add any other comments.

FWIW, we got it because the MS SQL version can not support Macs (MS's fault, not C&P's), so it is used primarily to give them access while in house. I see very little use in the logs from remote users. I am finding this to be the case most every remote feature I add to the network, they are not using it. But considering the low cost of My C&P you don't have to have a lot of outside use to get the ROI.

Jim Kennedy
Manager Information Systems
Brokaw Inc.

We feel it is a useful, albeit limited, program. The main pros in my view is that our remote office users can access data easily via the web interface. The main con would be the limitations of the software. The updates to the software are few and far between and do not add a whole lot of functionality. C&P would do well to improve this if at all possible. The software is problem free in my opinion and requires little maintenance if any. We do a daily backup of the database where we take the database offline. This causes My C&P to hiccup most times and I need to open the Task Manager and kill My C&P and then relaunch. If you do not take the database offline you will not experience this problem. I do have a dedicated machine running My C&P. It is a Windows 2000 machine set up for web serving. It is not Windows 2000 Server but 2000 Professional. 2000 Server is not necessary. It does not require a special backup as there is no C&P data associated with it. I guess I should not say it does not need backing up but what I mean is that it is not a crucial machine in my mind. I can rebuild it easily enough if necessary. We also have the standard C&P package running on a machine that runs Timbuktu. Our remote users can log onto this machine and get full functionality of C&P. The problems with this is that only one person could use it at a time, Timbuktu can be klunky, and I had to set up a LPR print queue to print to their printer at the remote site. Hope this all helps you with your decision making. Feel free to ask any further questions you might have.

Bill Raab
Systems Administrator
Larsen Design Office, Inc.

We have been using My Clients & Profits for a little more than a year now and have been satisfied. We knew it's functionality was limited before purchasing it but felt it was a reasonable solution for our needs. Some of our employees only need to add time so it saved us from buying more user licenses. We also have a few remote AE's who can add their time, open jobs, monitor traffic, check billing, etc. From a maintenance standpoint, it's been a breeze (knock wood). We have it running on a dedicated iMac with some scripting to shut down and power up around the backup schedule. There is no need for a special backup of the My Clients & Profits server. Installing the application and configure the users is very easy. Aside from My C&P, we also have a computer set up for remote access. This is for remote users who need full functionality of C&P. In our case it is someone who places all of the media buys. Unfortunately, this was one of the features that My Clients & Profits did not offer. We use Timbuktu for this purpose and only one user can use it at a time. It works great once we figured out the printing conundrum.

Tina Kibodeaux
The Weston Group

We are strongly looking into implementing C&P for our use. A few people posted C&P having limited functionality. Can you be more specific as to what these limitations are. Thank you.

Marty Wilcher CFO The Wilcher Group