WillWindows Let Fresh Air into your Environment?

Casual business discussions, whether at the office or at an informal gathering, eventually turn to system upgrades. People will be bragging about their new installs.

The question is, will your day-to-day business benefit from upgrading? What baggage does the latest from Mr. Gates carry with it?

Bean, Whitaker, Lutz & Barnes Inc., a consulting and engineering firm, recently upgraded to Windows '95. They weren't pressed to jump in when Microsoft's marketing department deemed the world couldn't live without their newest creation. Scott Whitaker, vice president, said they had resisted until they felt the bugs were out of the '95 programming.

Working with version 12 of a program called Autocad, which worked on a DOS platform, they had to upgrade to Windows to install version 13. With supporting software being written for the Windows environment, the world was leaving their DOS-based programming, although still effectively functional, in the dust of the constantly changing techno-environment. Although, Whitaker says, "It had a few more features." It wasn't a major leap into new technology. The real benefit came from the ability to add supporting software-hence adding even more features and speed-which was being written for version 13 and the Windows environment.

They were also looking toward the future and being prepared to take advantage of the software that will be written to operate on Windows, not plain DOS. "We would lose the ability to keep up with the changing environment and technology." Not an acceptable situation. "We need to stay on the cutting edge for our clients," he adds.

It isn't just a matter of buying the software and following the easy installation instructions. Once you make the commitment, you'll likely require hardware upgrades as well. New programming is laden with features (a nice thing) but requires more memory to store and faster chips to operate properly (often a costly thing).

You will likely need to either upgrade the CPU unit itself to one with a faster microprocessor to take full advantage of the new software or, if you can, add the necessary components to your existing machine. Of course, there is the one thing you can never have enough of and that is RAM, which allows you to have more applications open at one time while maintaining operating speeds.

Upgrades though aren't free. Whitaker said they went from 8 megabytes of RAM to 32 megs of RAM on their machines. He notes that even though their accounting functions are still on a DOS base, the hardware upgrades alone for their automated drafting and design cost them $12,000 to $15,000. New software rang up an additional $5,000. This upgrade has greatly improved their networking. In the busy, seven-station office, a seamless, glitchless (if that's possible with any system) network is essential.

Whitaker's upgrade kept pace with his software provider's progress, but Stevenson and Associates, a physical therapy clinic specializing in rehabilitation, faces an opposite situation. They are being limited by Precedent Systems, their software provider, who has yet to upgrade their Marathon Accounting program to Windows.

Eric Stevenson says, "I'm not happy they don't have it. I don't think they want to rewrite their software." It only affects his accounting function; but with a $6,000 investment in profession-specific software and a contract with Precedent, he expects service. Short sighted on the vendor's part? Of course, and frustrating for their clients.

With the assistance of two computer-savvy associates, Stevenson created his own progress and developed medical documentation software that fits his professional needs. Operating in Windows it maintains the patient's care plan and progress in formats specific to an insurer's requirements. Their Health Care Financing Administration Writer, HCFAWriter for short, not only streamlined Stevenson's documentation process but they are marketing it on the Internet to other rehabilitation providers. Although he is able to manipulate the data between stations via a Lantastic network operating system, he says he is anxious to upgrade his other two stations to Windows '95.

Hardware Worth a Peek

Need quality color output? Can't justify a laser? Check out Epson's Stylus Color Printer. The output-photographic quality, four-color pictures-is breathtaking and for a list price (also the street price) of $299 for the 600 model, it's astounding.

Of course, ink jet color at that price has been around for awhile but not with a resolution of 1440x720 dpi, four-color (CMYK). The black output, at the same dpi, is not faux laser quality. If all you need is black print, it may not be worth the upgrade from a hi-resolution ink jet. If you need color and halftones, then this deserves a look.

Epson touts the 800 model ($449) as the high-performance business office version of the 600. It outputs up to eight ppm in black or seven in color, faster than the 600 by two pages per minute in black and three in color. The 800 also supports as options Adobe Postscript, Ethernet and LocalTalk networks and is calibrated for Pantone colors. Both come with Adobe Photodeluxe for either Mac or Windows, Iron-on Art, Fonts and a media starter kit.

Even without the software package, it's a dandy of a unit. Black and color cartidges for the 600 combine for a total of $50 while the two for the 800 are right around $60.

As a test of the "demo" sheet usually sent along by marketing types from the home office, Al Camentz, owner of Microage in Fort Myers, graciously output a color photo I had scannned. Taken in the Rocky Mountains, the photograph showed the detail in the rocks; the contrasting earth tones were impressively reproduced.

Camentz notes that, at approximately 30-cents per page, printing cost can be twice that of a laser color print. However, with "better than laser" color quality and its relatively low cost, it makes sense for medium-volume, color printing requirements. And it's just plain fun to have affordable color at your fingertips.