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askSam Power-User: Ray Moran

Ray Moran, President, ISC, INC

Edited and Republished with Permission,  January 2002

I have been using PIMs (Personal Information Managers) since the late 80's to track my contacts, things-to-do and meeting schedules. It was about 1992 that I began to use a product called ACT, a contact manager to maintain all my business and personal information to organize my life.

It was around this same time period that I picked up a copy of askSam DOS for the purpose of using textual type database for maintaining those types of data that just didn't fit the mold or capability of PIMs that were out at the time. I also had purchased a copy of InfoSelect a free-form PIM database. Both products received great reviews for being free-form in nature and allowing quick access to lots of data. My intent was to capture lots of email, notes, project plans and other types of loose information that didn't sit well with PIMs.

Once my ACT database became glutted with about 5K worth of business and personal contact information and was sluggish in terms of loading up quickly on my work-station, I turned my energies toward askSam version 3.0 and began to play with the multiple templates bundled with the Pro package. When I discovered how easy it was to change fields, add pop-up pick list to fields, generate reports with various selections, I found I was on to something that made life a lot easier.

I immediately began moving my contact info from ACT into their Contact template, I began using the Notes templates with additional fields to track projects I had been working and began developing new databases in askSam, that allowed me to track all my work. The amazing thing was I could stay in one program, open multiple databases and search for a key word or phase and find its location and purpose.  I felt more organized and productive.

As I became more skilled  with version 3.0 and asked more questions about the product, I noticed that askSam was doing a major re-write of their software to provide all the features that users had requested and to provide new releases in a faster time period.  I became a beta-tester for the upcoming re-write and release of askSam 4.0 and began to see new power, capabilities and speed in this upcoming release as I tested each release candidate.

I run a small computer consulting firm and need access to past and current information to effectively run and respond in my business. Today, I utilize askSam Pro 4.1 to maintain and harness 100% of my formed and free-form textual information by using it for my:

Ÿ     Contact Manager - housing all business and personal contacts info with notes

Ÿ     Notes Manager - I keep several types, one for general information, others for specific consulting contracts, that contain everything I do on a contract with a pick-list of items from meetings, documentation, development, administration, etc and lots of reports for tracking.

Ÿ     Prospect Manager - essentially a specific contact manager for prospects on various products I sell and can be easily imported into my regular contact manager.

Ÿ     Research Databases - I use SurfSaver an add-in browser product also from askSam to capture all my various items I am interested in or researching for my work into multiple folders such as: hardware, software, job-marketing, communications, etc. This data can be retrieved in browser mode from SurfSaver or by going into askSam itself and opening the database to review or add additional notes to the Web saved items.

Ÿ     Email Manager - I import my email for retention and searching for archived info.

All of the above databases use multiple forms in each database to capture various items, and I use the OLE 2.0 feature which allows me link or post into an askSam database. Data can remain in either Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Access, PDF docs or can be included by using hyperlinks to the information and running it as an external program all from within askSam.

I take my software very seriously when it comes to delivering what I want and when I need it.  I have found the people and support at askSam to be very accommodating. I have personally suggested more items that can be put in one release, but I know they will put some in now and others will follow.

This year I plan to begin distributing newsletters, a User Guide, and product information by using the following askSam programs:

Ÿ     Electronic Publisher - which allows the unlimited distribution of information in Read, Search and Print only version.  This opens a whole new world of electronic distribution to my contacts and customers.  I also can create and distribute User Guides for products developed on site or by my company.

Ÿ     Web Publisher -  which interprets the askSam database and easily converts the data into HTML format for viewing and distributing information online. This allows me to produce and distribute lots of information in 10-15% of the time it would take to write code in HTML and JavaScript as before.

Ray Moran

President, ISC, INC

rsm@iscigrp.com