I spoke to a contractor today that uses American Contractor software from Maxwell Systems and is looking for a new solution. If you’re not familiar with American Contractor, it’s a construction software suite designed for contractors with $1M or more in annual revenue. One of the major drawbacks of this system is that it runs on the FoxPro database, which is not longer supported by Microsoft.
For the contractor I spoke to, it seems that, over the years, his data files have expanded to the point where it takes a gigabyte of storage to save the company’s information. He would love to archive the data offline or even delete some of it, but FoxPro won’t let him do this due to the file sizes.
Maxwell Systems has stated that they can help him with his storage issue, but that helps comes at a steep price. They’ll have to charge the contractor a substantial fee, despite the fact that he is paying $7K a year for annual software maintenance.
To add insult to injury, even if this company buys a newer, more up-to-date system from Maxwell Systems, the construction software vendors wants to charge him for migrating his data from American Contractor to the new solution.
If you ask me, this seems very unfair and the contractor should look at other contractor software options that are offered by other vendors.
Key Take-Away: This situation demonstrates the importance of investigating the underlying technology of a system you are about to buy. Is the software built on leading technology? Or is the framework so out-of-date that the vendor is likely to abandon the system and either stop supporting it or stop enhancing it?
If you’re concerned about the technology platform of your construction software system, CTS Guides can give you the expert advice you need to ensure that your company’s technology needs are met today, tomorrow and far into the future. Download the Construction Software Selection Kit and you’ll automatically be qualified to talk to the expert!