Well, Alan Bushell wants to eliminate this problem if you own ProCalc, his lease analysis program. So Alan and his brother Bruce Bushell list their home numbers directly on ProCalc's Help screen -- if you need to call after hours. And Alan assures me that his family is well trained to expect calls at any hour of the day. He claims to have fielded over 70,000 tech support calls during the last eleven years that he has been selling ProCalc and now ProLease.

Having listened to every conceivable lease arrangement over the years, Bushell and his partner Link Systems have recently launched a web-enabled version of ProLease, their lease administration database program for tracking critical dates, calculating future obligations, sending e-mail alerts, and maintaining lease contacts. Although they have a similar look and feel, ProCalc and ProLease are not integrated.

Bushell says that the most important lesson that he has learned supporting his software is that a question is often more important than an answer. That's because you have to organize your information and thoughts just to articulate the question. And this organization of information can provide value well beyond the answer to the question. So as I organize my life in the future, will I download "Critical Windows Updates"? NO. Just kidding.

Did You Notice? ... One of the dates on the save-the-date PikeNet Forum postcard was incorrect. Oops! The correct date is April 2-3, 2003.

--Peter Pike