Re: to Anne Putnam, primarily

["Steve Crutchfield" SCRUTCH@xxxxxxxx]

Thanks, Anne, for getting back to us.

I personally thought Peter's inquiry was (to use his own words,)
'snotty'. But I think this stems from the fact that for years us
XyWrite holdouts have suffered from Mr. Kenny Un-Frank's oft-repeated
promises of new versions of XyWrite or SmartWords only to be totally
let down. I was astonished when you actually responded to my Email
with a polite, informative answer!

I admit to being a bit frustrated waiting for my retail release of
Nota Bene - I'm one of those impatient types who wants something NOW
when I decide to purchase it. However, I've given the demo enough of
a tryout to convince me to switch from XyWrite to NotaBene for most of
my heavy-duty wordworking chores. The bibliographic capabilities
alone are going to prove very useful to me.

I have one suggestion for you and yours at Nota Bene associates.
Other vendors of other software have set up systems where you can
download a demo version of the product off the web, and then buy a
"Key" that unlocks the demo and gives you full functionality. Take a
look at NovaStore and how they handle their software
(www.novastor.com). When you're a little less overburdened, you might
want to check this approach out. It would allow your impatient,
curmudgeony XyWrite customers to download the product, register, and
get full functionality without waiting for a physical shimpment. And
maybe a few less "snotty" Emails (tongue planted FIRMLY in cheek!)

Steve Crutchfield

≪<  11/ 6 1:24p ≫>
Dear Peter:

Thanks for the opportunity to respond to your questions.

My very first posting to this list addressed (among other things) the
issue
of a delay in shipping to XyWrite users. On 10/27, I said: "Those of
you who
ordered Nota Bene recently may have experienced a short delay as we
were
holding orders in anticipation of being able to provide you with the
latest
update." Since then, some of you have reported delays in getting your
order
filled (with some frustration) and some have reported that it did
indeed
arrive within an acceptable time frame.

So, yes -- there has been a delay in filling some of the recently
placed
orders, and NO -- I do not think that we are generally disorganized,
inefficient or unreliable. Far from it.

Not a Bene is a small company of dedicated owners and employees that
are
committed to developing and marketing what we believe is the best word

processor (and related tools) for academics and other serious writers.

Needless to say, we don t have the resources of Microsoft -- and some
would
say that to try to compete in this field is not realistic. Our
resources
have been certainly been stretched. But for a small company, we have
accomplished a lot -- and we are now at the point of turning some very

significant corners. We have developed a product that we think is
better
than the competition, we are experiencing some initial success in
marketing
it, we have a talented (currently over-stretched -- we re about to
hire)
technical support group, and we are ALIVE -- still here after 18 years
of ups
and downs -- little guys making it in a big-business world!

The fact that we have accomplished so much testifies to our efficiency
in
using limited resources. Every dollar invested in this company and
the time
and efforts of every employee have been efficiently and effectively
utilized
to accomplish the mission of producing, marketing, supporting and
distributing Nota Bene.

But you asked specifically about our billing/shipping capacities.

I hope that I don t bore you with details, but let me tell you about
our
shipping and billing group. We have three outstanding employees
handling
shipping and billing: Kathy Insaf takes orders and enters data into
our
system, Nancy Holmes, our financial officer, generates invoices and
Kim
Carvalho is responsible for shipping. I don t know how to convey to
you how
delighted I am with the efficiency and productiveness of each of these
three
women, and their long-term, enthusiastic commitment to the company. I
m
tempted to go on with long stories about each one of them, but I m
being too
long-winded already. I ll also brag a bit about the software we use
to
maintain our customer data base. We use our own Ibid. Plus (currently
part
of Scholar s Workstation) and we love it. Separate financial
management
software is used for generating invoices, among other things. Of
course,
billing and shipping is more than just good employees and good
software.
About 6 months ago, we reviewed our policies and procedures in this
area in
some detail. We made some changes in procedures which led to a more
efficient and reliable system. Kathy, in particular, is feeling a lot
more
organized and in control with the new changes. I d rate our
efficiency in
this area as pretty good -- which is not to say that we don t
sometimes make
mistakes in handling a large volume of orders.

So if everything is so great, you might ask why we can t get orders
filled on
time (all of them -- always on time)?

The most recent delays that frustrated some of you were due to a
combination
of programming/design planning problems and some overload on
shipping/billing. The overload on shipping and billing was due to a
terrific
response to the XyWrite mailing (thanks to all of you who ordered!),
strong
demand for the demo version that we have just started shipping and
some
changes to our shipping procedures related to new packaging of our
product.
All of these factors resulted in an unusually heavy load of work.
Nevertheless, the main problem was related to unexpected delays in
completing
version 5.003. Version 5.003 is the first version to include the
XyWrite
keyboard, so we held XyWrite orders, thinking that XyWriters would
want to
get started immediately with the XyWrite keyboard. We thought that we
could
still fill orders within 2 weeks, but version 5.003 kept getting
delayed a
day at a time and in some cases customers had to wait for more than 2
weeks.
I apologize to those whose orders were delayed.

The Nota Bene users list has speculated about whether Nota Bene is a
cult
or a lifestyle -- something more special than just software for
writing and
research. I think that some of us who work for NB sometimes think the
same
thing (it s something more than just a job ). We have had several
people
buy Nota Bene because they want to support us, they want to see us
succeed --
they see something more than just software. While it is nice to think
of
Nota Bene as something special, most customers buy Nota Bene just
because
they want it -- a product to be purchased because (if) you believe
that it
will provide benefits that are worth the money you spend. And that's
the way
it should be. But, Peter, the idea that you shouldn t buy something
that you
do think is a good product because maybe we ll take your money and
never send
you the product is a new one to me. I m not saying that we don t make

mistakes (we do, and will again), but really -- we don t take people s
money
and not deliver a product. We just don t.

So call Kathy and give her your order (1-800-462-6733 or
212-334-0445). I
think you ll like the product.

And thanks for asking your question and giving me the chance to
respond.

Anne
aputnam@xxxxxxxx
or anneputnam@xxxxxxxx