[comp.sys.ibm.pc] SOLOMON?

mrt@oregon.uoregon.edu (Michelle Thibault) (05/10/89)

Hi!
   I've got a question which I was wondering if someone could help me with.
Has anybody out there ever heard of a software package called SOLOMON?  It
is either a database package or some type of accounting software.  I'm 
trying to find out if anyone out there has used it as I have a friend whose
company is currently using and having a lot of problems getting features
they need!

   My understanding is that SOLOMON runs on PCs set up under some type of 
networking software.  If anybody has any knowledge of this system, could you 
please send me e-mail, so we can discuss some specific issues?

   Thanks a lot!

 -- Michelle

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Michelle Thibault                         INTERNET:  mrt@uoregon.cc.oregon.edu
Networks Programmer (& grad. student)     BITNET:    mrt@oregon       
University of Oregon 			  ** "I don't claim anything, so why
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madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) (05/14/89)

In article <1758@oregon.uoregon.edu> mrt@oregon.uoregon.edu (Michelle Thibault) writes:
|Has anybody out there ever heard of a software package called SOLOMON?

Solomon is an accounting and inventory control package.  It is quite
good and quite expensive.  While it *can* be run on a single PC, it's
not very cost-effective to do so.  I believe it is intended to be
networked with Novell but it has been awhile so I could be mixing it
up with R:Base.

Solomon has consistently been rated "excellent" by reviewers, both for
its features and its documentation.  The product is one of the best
PC-based products on the market.

You pay for this excellence; I believe the base system was around
$3000 and additional modules cost around $1000.  These prices are
purely from memory and should not be considered accurate; I'm just
giving you an idea of what you'll be getting into.  If you need what
Solomon provides, it is definitely worth the money.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu

UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (05/18/89)

In article <1758@oregon.uoregon.edu>, mrt@oregon.uoregon.edu (Michelle Thibault) says:
>Has anybody out there ever heard of a software package called SOLOMON?  It
>is either a database package or some type of accounting software.  I'm

I vaguely recollect that Solomon is a full featured Accounting System
built in one of the datbase languages available from mdbs, Inc., of
Lafayette, Indiana.  They make the Guru Expert System, Knowledgeman,
and what they call a "post relational" system called (I think) mdbs.

"Post relational" seems to mean they have a relational language overlay
on a network model implementation, so the administrator can get high
performance by setting up certain commonly used access paths, yet the
users can still write the occasional bass ackwards query.

fr@icdi10.UUCP (Fred Rump from home) (05/22/89)

In article <31093@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes:
>|In article <1758@oregon.uoregon.eduJF> mrt@oregon.uoregon.edu (Michelle Thibault) writes:
>|Has anybody out there ever heard of a software package called SOLOMON?
JF>
JF>Solomon is an accounting and inventory control package.  It is quite
JF>good and quite expensive.  While it *can* be run on a single PC, it's

	While most of the big 8 have regularly recommended Solomon this may be 
due in part to it's extreme complexity. It does bring in consulting fees, you 
know.
	The software used MDBS III as its database handler and in that context 
is very sophisticated with it's many data paths and connected data sets. 
Sorting is really never necessary. The problem is that any external problem 
can easily leave a database corrupt. Therefore the system has extensive backup 
thru transaction logging built in to its everyday operation. This creates 
overhead and slowness. 

JF>Solomon has consistently been rated "excellent" by reviewers, both for
JF>its features and its documentation.  The product is one of the best
JF>PC-based products on the market.

	This is not true. Recent reviews of multi-user accounting systems have 
left Solomon in last place behind such products as Real World and others. The 
reviewers lament the fact that the software by now is badly aged and has not 
kept up with the market. Database security is cited as a big problem.

JF>You pay for this excellence; I believe the base system was around
JF>$3000 and additional modules cost around $1000.  These prices are
JF>purely from memory and should not be considered accurate; I'm just
JF>giving you an idea of what you'll be getting into.  If you need what
JF>Solomon provides, it is definitely worth the money.

	TLB, the author of Solomon, has been valiantly struggling to get a 
Unix/Xenix version into the market. Various announcements have been made in 
the past. I still know of no release in this environment for real business 
accounting. The Novell setup is a cludge at best. And as Doug Michels has 
often said: "There still is no accounting application that can run in real 
life on a dos network." 

	The above comment by JF should be held in context of what big 8 
accounting sells and recommends as safe: IBM and anything that costs a lot.
 (If it costs that much, it must be good!)

Fred Rump
icdi10!fr@cdin-1.uu.net
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