I used to think along the lines as most of you. I actually got so pissed, I wrote the President of D-Tools to get help.
Let me be clear on something before I give my two cents - D-Tools SI5 still has bugs, but that's what this forum is all about. I have suggested many things and reported many bugs that are going to come out in SI5.2. I think a lot of issues will be resolved.
That said,
1) DO NOT try and run SI4 and SI5 on the same PC - been there, tried it (sorry Randy, not to smush you). It's supposed to work, but I found that it flat out doesn't work all the time. I ran into the same things! SI4 gets pissed and I actually lost all Business Manager and Administration functions; it reverted back to text and by trying to re-install SI4, I only pissed of SI5. My advice - get another PC - even using a cheap PC, with the bare minimum hardware requirements. Run SI5 separate on its own PC until you are comfortable to migrate over!!!!! I did for several months - I worked on 5 and helped get the kinks worked out while my staff stayed on 4. When I felt they were ready and platform was somewhat stable, we moved.
I still have issues here and there; you will see me post all over this forum. But SI5.1 is still far more superior to 4 and I think you will find the same once you give it a chance.
2) Editing in Word has its place - but at least for us, we never would trust it. We send too many files to clients and to send a Word doc that can be edited, not so good. I've learned the code and have written 14 custom reports for our company. We don't deviate from the plan... if it's not listed, it can’t be printed.
There are several things with this -
1) I created custom service and support agreements that update based on project total (it's from Word).
2) I created custom milestones and even factor financing off the project total.
3) I can filter, group, or arrange a report any way I want.
The bottom line with custom reports - you make quick changes to your project in the data matrix and re-run the report; all this automation and customization is where you make up for not having Word. I don't miss it at all!
3) Speed is the key! SI 5 is like the Internet; if you have a POS PC with a 486 processor a 128MEG of RAM, of course the Internet is going to be slow though you have a 12MEG service pipe from your provider. We are fortunate to have a gigabit backbone and updated servers and PCs. It takes 15-20 seconds to physically log in and get to the point I can start working. And MMPD takes about 5 seconds to open. But I have an Intel Quad Core with 3GB of RAM talking to a Dell PowerEdge server via gigabit network. SI5 is doing a LOT of talking; it’s all XML based. This is a true network platform solution and requires a good network to make it operate to its full potential. Slower PCs, servers, and networks will work, just don’t bitch about how slow things are!
Last edited by jpol; 04-14-2008 at 10:16 PM.
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