Which Goldmine to upgrade to?

[polymath5]

We are currently on 4.00.99xx running on dBase
We are looking to upgrade to version 6.

We have 31 users and about 16,500 records (according to the ###records of #####) in the contacts area.

Speed has not been an issue, records scroll and find pretty quickly. BUT, there are usually only 10 people in constantly. We are looking to change that and have more people using the system. I doubt it would be the full 31, most would just pop in to look something up.

The people we are consulting with say we should go to the SQL version as Frontrange recommends that with more than 10 users or 15K records. I believe SQL would be faster, but there's like an $8,000 difference.

I'm looking for input from the experts here on their recommendations.

Thanks!

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Mens et Manus
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[richardy]

Mens,

SQL is not faster in all areas. FrontRange do not necessarily recommend more than 10 users and 15k of records, its not that straight forward. I have customers that have 100k of records, but its against my advise.

What you have to think about is security, scalability and stability.

With the dbase version, your users could just open it up in Excel and screw your database up - not with SQL.

With dBase there is a practical limit to the number of records as it needs reindexing and rebuilding frequently, this takes longer and longer, and unfortunately if its getting heavy use this needs to be done more often (and if not can result in data loss).

In dBase the GoldMine MAILBOX.DBT has been know to bloat to gigabytes (some sort of bug if you ask me) but this doesn't happen in SQL.

I personally will always try to sell customers SQL, why? Well the total cost of ownership works out less ie less issues, they dont have to worry when someone crashes out, if I need to do integration work, then its easier on SQL, etc. At the end of it it makes life easier all round but does cost more...

You can always check

http://www.harris-tech.com

for a comparable quotation.

Regards,

Richard.
PRIOR Analytics UK

http://www.prior-analytics.com

 

[polymath5]

Thank you for your recommendations. I'll recommend SQL to management. Trouble is that 8K difference!

I'll check your site for a comparison.

Thanks again!

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Mens et Manus
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