Hi all,

some of you have already expressed interest in a project that has taken me months to complete. The creation of a Photographers Database, or perhaps you would describe it as Studio Management software.

I was somewhat pushed to write this software as a result of getting frustrated at the lack of a suitable solution for photographers. Although this looks like a wedding package, it is adaptable to any type of photography, with many changeable menus.

What it does is store all details relevant to a client in one single record. When I say everything, I mean down to the color they intend to wear on their big day!

It will store sales, payments, emails, credit card numbers, brides details, grooms details, perform custom pricing, and even show you maps to your events - without ever leaving the application - so no more jumping around from word, to excel, to entourage.

I will be marketing this as a one off purchase. There will be no monthly fees, no internet access is required to work (even in Starbucks! ) and all of your data, some very sensitive, is stored on your own computer. YOU are in total control of everything.

I went this route because the issue that I see with online solutions is that after paying a lot of money, say over 5 years, when you leave what do you get? I believe that with one provider it is a text file with your data. Now, what exactly will you do with that file??? Buy a database app and try to shoehorn the data in? Something to consider.

So my view was that if data was stored on your own machine, in your own application, it was yours forever, no matter what.

If you would like to have a look, there is a demo available at:

Database Download Link

I hope that you find it interesting.

Regards,

Hugh

Cant wait for the windows version

I will have the demo and the full version completed my this coming Monday.

Regards,

Hugh

Excellent Application!

Thank you, I appreciate your comment.

Hugh, thanx a million for creating this. I am playing with it and I really like it, and no, I have not been able to break it, so good job on creating something that so far seems robust.

A couple of questions for you: 1) how long do your foresee supporting this? and 2) Can you provide at least a ballpark figure of what you'll price this at? I have some weddings coming up but I have budgeted almost everything for an equipment refresh; I'd like to budget for this if possible in the next 2-3 months.

Hi,

firstly, let me say a big thank you for your positive words. It's nice to hear. And I am glad you were unable to "break" it!

To answer your questions, I will not be putting a limit on support. If someone emails me two years after purchase, I will deal with it. Fortunately, I see it as a product that should not require too much support, it's somewhat intuitive. But I won't turn anyone away, and I will continue to enhance the product with some free updates.

The price? well, that is always a difficult conclusion to come to with any new product, so let me tell you my thought process on this matter.

I had a few people tell me about ShootQ, so I looked into it. I actually sent them an email a few days ago asking one question. It was:

If I leave you in, say, 5 years, what do I get as far as my data is concerned?

The response was a surprise to me! I thought they were going to tell me that I would get a text file of some sort. What follows is the EXACT answer. (including the typo)

There is no current standard for this type of data export/import functionality. As soon as there is one, we will quicly adopt the standard for ShootQ.

In the mean time, we are looking a multiple options for data export including .csv files, pdfs, excel files, and a few others. Look for this feature in an upcoming version of ShootQ but well before 5 years.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

ShootQ Sales Team

Am I missing something here? Does this mean that if you input details of 100 weddings, paid $650 for the first year, ($200 set up and $45 per month) then decided to cancel your subscription, you would have absolutely nothing??? Not even a .csv file? In that situation, wouldn't you feel somewhat trapped, unable to leave because your data will be lost forever?

Even if they get around to exporting text files with data, if you have looked at one of these, it's pretty much a continuous string of text, just raw data without all the boxes, menus, etc in a front end interface, and your problem would then be what to do with it. Like having the engine, but no car to put it into.

Sorry if this seems like a rant. I am SURE that ShootQ is offering a great service, I am equally sure that they are lovely people - I just feel that customers should ALWAYS be aware of the whole picture. I could not find this info anywhere on their site, so I wonder how many people have considered this scenario.

If I have this wrong, then I apologize most sincerely. Please tell me if I have the wrong end of the stick here. I would like to be wrong on this, I really would.

Anyway, pricing! :-)

The cost will be the same as 1 year with our friends at ShootQ, (including their set up fee) that's $650

OSP members will have the price discounted to $495.

BUT, it is YOUR database, and it will not disappear into cyberspace if you stop using it for a couple of months. Someone else was telling me yesterday that they intend storing all of their personal contact, business contacts, etc., in the application. Good point, it is a database, you could even store your Christmas card list in there if you want, especially since you can edit the drop downs. There are really no limits.

Btw, the demo you are using will not be the same as the final product, there are some improvements. For example, I have added in Customer Storage to allow storage of files specific to each customer (contracts etc) and Global Storage, to allow access to your standard documents from ANY customer record. Some other stuff too.

Wow, this turned into a long reply!!! Enough from me.

Have a wonderful day.

Hugh

Hugh, you got it right...

That is what worries me about a lot of those online "services". There is no real reason to do it that way, unless of course, to milk us out of our money. They can easily sell the product to be place on our hosting. But their goal is to lock us in into their "service" so they can keep making money from us.

Just like their video about flash. When it first came out was over $200 and now you can get it for $59.00.

Anyway, I congratulate you on a job well done and a very useful, well thought out and put together software. And for doing it right.

I think this looks like it is going to be a neat program. Alittle pricey for me, but compared to others out there not out of line at all the way it sounds.

I second what David says about congrats on a job well done. I don't have a mac but it looks like it might be a nice program.

This is looking interesting and I like that it has a place for everything. One thing, I'd really love to see is sync-ability with ical and address book. I simply have to have this information with in these programs (i.e. when a client calls or when I'm out, I need to be able to look at my iphone and do my job from anywhere) and I struggle with the idea of having to enter information into any system twice. Is this at all possible?
Kristin

Thank you all for your kind words, I do appreciate it. Busy working on the website right now, since I gave myself a deadline of Sunday midnight.

Kristin, the integration part is very tricky - not an easy task, that's probably why there is so little available to do the job.

I am currently looking at a plug in that could tie the Filemaker engine to iCal. Basically, it would mean licensing the plug in separately and rolling it into DataSafe.

I will come up with an answer to the possibility in a couple of days.

Again, thanks for the positive response.

Hugh

ok folks,

moral issue tugging at me right now.

Here is the problem.

In researching some stuff regarding online services, I found what I consider to be a serious flaw in one such service.

So, do I post my thought? Is it none of my business? Of course, it could also be perceived as a sales tactic.

Another thing, this flaw is contained in emails between myself and another company. Is it wrong to post the contents of these emails on the site I am in the middle of building? Or should people know the facts.

In years of sales I always believed in one concept. Good or bad, customers should know ALL the facts, no matter who furnishes them with these facts. It then allows the customer to investigate and see if there is any merit in what they have been told.

Forewarned is forearmed, right?

But, being the person to brandish the info is quite another thing.

HELP??????

Hugh

WOW. I just received another email from the people I am talking about - in a nutshell, when I asked if they could get my data to me in the event of their business going bust they suggested that I go elsewhere. Very professional!

Hi all,

the windows demo can be downloaded from:

Download Mac & PC Demo Here

Just look down the center of the page and you will see the link.

Best wishes,

Hugh