************************WELCOME TO SPREADBASE®************************
Dear Potential SpreadBase User,
Thanks for looking at the SpreadBase materials we have provided. This introductory "Read Me First" note is divided into four parts:
1. What is SpreadBase?
2. What is on this disk for me to try?
3. How can I learn more about SpreadBase?
4. What are Beta Customers saying about SpreadBase?
PART 1 - What's SpreadBase?
SpreadBase is a new kind of tool that offers an order-of-magnitude productivity gain for people doing business analysis and modeling. SpreadBase is a category-based modeling tool that delivers the user interface familiarity and analytical flexibility of a spreadsheet, with the data management power of an underlying relational database.
PART 2 - What' s on this disk?
Accompanying this letter you should find two folders, labeled "SpreadBase Demo" and "SpreadBase Training". You should start in the SpreadBase Demo folder and click on the icon called "Click Here for SpreadBase Demo!". The demo will give you a complete overview. If you like what you see in the demo, then go to the SpreadBase Training folder and click on the icon called "Click here to Learn SpreadBase".
As you go through the training, you will see SpreadBase working. It's like "looking over the shoulder" of someone else who is actually using the mouse and entering the data. But you control the action using the navigation buttons. If you like what you see after completing the training, then come back here and finish reading this note.
PART 3 - How can I learn more about SpreadBase?
SpreadBase has been developed by Objective Software Inc., located at 248 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA. Objective Software's corporate number is 415-324-3333. To get additional product information, please call our Sales Department at 415-617-2040.
The company has four sales offices around the U.S. to provide corporate customers with on-site sales support, training and model building consulting. If you would like to be contacted by one of our field offices, please call the Sales Department number above and they can schedule an appointment for you.
SpreadBase went into broadscale beta testing with corporate customers during the summer of 1992 and is scheduled to ship before Christmas of 1992. The list price is $695.
PART 4 - What are Beta Customers saying about SpreadBase?
* Jeff Van Skyhawk, Manager of Information Technology Assessment, BOSE Corp
"We are excited about SpreadBase because finally someone has given end users at BOSE what they really need: a combination that brings together the features of a spreadsheet and the power of a database. SpreadBase goes where no other analysis tools have before, giving us the power to do serious business analysis."
"SpreadBase enables us to access, import and manipulate data more easily, more quickly and in a more analytical fashion than with spreadsheets. We are using it for financial analysis, and can now remotely access our databases and import spreadsheets without having to go through the time consuming and painstaking process of linking spreadsheets."
* Mark Goldenberg, System Support Engineer, Hughes Aircraft
"SpreadBase is a new tool that will allow us to do things in a new way we have never been able to before with spreadsheets. SpreadBase is not a spreadsheet and it is not a database. It falls into a unique new category of tools. I see a great deal of potential for financial analysis with the mainframe databases, using Clear Access and SpreadBase. The combination of those two tools has a lot more analytical capability than we have ever had with spreadsheets."
* Karl Dahlin, Senior Systems Analyst, Raynet Corporation
"SpreadBase is a revolutionary new product -- not just another incremental step in the evolution of the spreadsheet. It is a leap into a new era of desktop capability. By combining the power of a database with the simplicity of the spreadsheet interface, SpreadBase far surpasses other current tools and technologies."
We hope you will take the time to explore this new and exciting product. And then call us for more information.