|
|
|
|
Jason Gregg is the former Editor of Computing Australia, PC Week and
the past Publisher of PC World. He was the producer and on-camera host
of "Computer Solutions", a weekly TV show that aired in the US to an audience
of over 20 million viewers. "In nearly 20 years of reviewing hardware and software products I must admit I have developed a rather unhealthy attitude concerning the way the computer industry routinely deals with the end user. OK, call me a cynic but I firmly believe that while 'planned obsolescence' may have been a term spawned by Detroit, it was in Silicon Valley where it found true meaning. To this day, I believe that, by and large, consumers rarely get what they expect or pay for and that most software and much of the hardware is released long before it is debugged or properly documented and tested. In fact, to pursue the auto industry analogy even further, if Ford were to release a new model with the bugs that Microsoft and others routinely foist upon the paying customer, it would spark a national inquiry, to say nothing about the effect it would have on the company's shares. In this 'git it and git' approach to marketing, buyers are on their own and 'after sales service' routinely means a long, long wait on a phone, listening to canned marketing spiels or inane elevator music (I've even grown to despise Enya after encountering her so often while holding on software support lines). Support calls are mostly charged for nowadays and nearly always limited either by time or number of calls - all this to learn how to solve problems with somebody else's product! And have you ever tried to get your money back from a computer store because the software was 'not of merchantable quality'? Break the shrink -wrap and it's yours, pal! With that in mind, I must say I opened the shrink-wrap on my review copy of Breed Trax with little if any in the way of positive expectations. After all, it is a local product and, as everyone knows, if it is not from the US, it can't be worth a damn. Then there's the price - not $999, not $499 but a mere $275 - hell, I've paid more than that in phone costs just waiting to get to talk to the Microsoft support line. But the surprises began as soon as I installed Breed Trax. No tricky installation routines, no special unlock codes that required me to call some number somewhere before I could use my software, no tricks, no hassles; just install it on my hard drive and away we go. Breed Trax uses a run-time version of the MS Access database engine and, as such, is fully Windows compliant. It is very undemanding on processor or memory, and after nearly three months of using the product, I've yet to freeze a cursor or see the 'blue screen of death' that is so often a recurring feature of Windows applications. And it is in the day-to-day operation of this product that I began to truly appreciate the elegant simplicity of Breed Trax - little in the way frills, no bells or whistles, rather a fairly uncomplicated approach to documentation and management of a small animal operation. Particularly suited for the stud operation, be it in birds or herds, Breed Trax is ideally suited for the beginner or computer neophyte, although the very literate could also appreciate this very basic approach to data management. Screens are logical and the progression throughout the application is, by and large, intuitive. The manual is a little light in places, although I did not encounter any problems in discovering the various functions of Breed Trax without needing to refer to the written documentation. While I can appreciate the more comprehensive functions of say, Cattle Plus or other more expansive (and expensive) packages, I believe that in most cases, Breed Trax would meet the needs of all but the largest stud operations. To run the program, you'll need at least a PC of IBM compatible type with at least a 486 processor (are there any of these still about?). You'll need at least 16 meg of RAM (I would recommend twice that at least for any Windows operations), Windows 95 on board and a monitor with 800x600 resolution (that includes all but the most archaic screens). Oh, and you will need a CD ROM drive to load the software. The first view you see after the 'splash screen' is the main 'navigation' screen complete with tabs to "Main Forms", "Maintenance" and "Reports." In the first instance, you'll want to enter your Stud/Breeder name to head all reports. And now the toughest part of using this, or for that matter, any computer-based herd management system - getting all those paper records that have accumulated for however long you've been in business into the Breed Trax database. If you're new at this, then you're lucky - few records means little work. But if you run a larger operation with many animals and a long history, you'll need to put aside time for this. But believe me, it will be worth it in the end. Once you have your history of current and past animals keyed in, along with operational data such as joinings, sires and dams, medical history, progeny etc, you'll really begin to appreciate the sheer convenience and efficiency of Breed Trax in managing and reporting your stud operation. No more guess work in joinings, no more missed vaccinations, no confusion over who's who and what's where - Breed Trax will keep you informed and up to date and is far better than relying on your aging memory or that spiral notebook in your shirt pocket. And when it comes time to sell stock, Breed Trax will print out a complete lineage of every animal, showing progeny, sires, dams and bloodlines for 5 generations back. You can monitor costs of feed, milk production, slaughter details and record herd movements through paddocks. Breed Trax will accommodate agistment paddocks as well. You can graphically present weight gains, height comparisons to average, number of milking days and weight comparisons. You can analyse and segregate out animals for joining, using 'more than' and 'less than' data extraction arguments - e.g. give me all the females older than 12 months but younger than two years who are not related to this bull and that dam etc. But how about the cons? Lest you get the impression that I've finally found the perfect software, there are a few additions that would, in my mind, elevate Breed Trax to best of breed. I'd like to see resizable screens to accommodate larger monitors. The addition of a 'to-do' function, accessible by hot button from screen to screen and providing a way to build a list of tasks would be helpful (the folks at GTS tell me that this is already on the list). The ability to include digital pictures on animal data screens would be useful for stud operators, especially if it were included on animal profile printouts. There are other suggestions or additions to my 'wish list' but in reality, it would be impractical or unrealistic to expect that this or any software product could include everything we could wish for, especially at the price point of Breed Trax. Instead, I feel that if this is the starting point for this product, the folks at GTS will inevitably continue to develop and enrich the function and form of what I regard as an already excellent product." Rating (out of five)
|
