original BFP
The original BFP was introduced in January 1992 and contained
some 1,200 records of hard-to-find trade services and products
of interest to printers and printing brokers. It was an
immediate success, with virtually every user claiming it was
one of the best $99 investments they had ever made.
There were minor updates to the database engine and regular
updates to the datafiles. By January 1994 the original BFP had
over 3,500 records.
As wonderful as the software was, there were some features
users wanted to see. The new version contains almost all of
those requested features.
Through Helene's Hotline we started seeing more and more
requests for advertising specialty items and made the decision
to include these in BFP. As it turned out, because of the
nature of the advertising specialty business we needed a
separate software program. With this in mind, in early 1993 we
came out with a program we called "The Advertising Specialty
Advisor" (ADSA). It was a massive program that contained over
22,000 records. While an excellent source directory, it was
very difficult to update since it was a flat database instead
of a relational database. The difference in the two types of
databases can be best described as follows. In a flat database
all of the vendor information had to be entered for each
product record. If a vendor had a phone number or address
change and he had 20 products, the user had to change that
phone number or address 20 different times. In the relational
database the vendor information is entered only one time in
the vendor database and that information is linked to a second
database that contained only the product information.
After the completion of Version 2 of BFP and the conversion of
that to a relational database, we started working on a totally
new database for the ad specialty database and named it ADBFP
(Ad Specialty Brokering for Profit). This version has all of
the features of BFP, including the ease of use.
As of November 1994 both programs have some 2,800 direct
manufacturers. BFP has over 5,000 trade services and products
and ADBFP has some 10,000 advertising specialty product
listings.
some 1,200 records of hard-to-find trade services and products
of interest to printers and printing brokers. It was an
immediate success, with virtually every user claiming it was
one of the best $99 investments they had ever made.
There were minor updates to the database engine and regular
updates to the datafiles. By January 1994 the original BFP had
over 3,500 records.
As wonderful as the software was, there were some features
users wanted to see. The new version contains almost all of
those requested features.
Through Helene's Hotline we started seeing more and more
requests for advertising specialty items and made the decision
to include these in BFP. As it turned out, because of the
nature of the advertising specialty business we needed a
separate software program. With this in mind, in early 1993 we
came out with a program we called "The Advertising Specialty
Advisor" (ADSA). It was a massive program that contained over
22,000 records. While an excellent source directory, it was
very difficult to update since it was a flat database instead
of a relational database. The difference in the two types of
databases can be best described as follows. In a flat database
all of the vendor information had to be entered for each
product record. If a vendor had a phone number or address
change and he had 20 products, the user had to change that
phone number or address 20 different times. In the relational
database the vendor information is entered only one time in
the vendor database and that information is linked to a second
database that contained only the product information.
After the completion of Version 2 of BFP and the conversion of
that to a relational database, we started working on a totally
new database for the ad specialty database and named it ADBFP
(Ad Specialty Brokering for Profit). This version has all of
the features of BFP, including the ease of use.
As of November 1994 both programs have some 2,800 direct
manufacturers. BFP has over 5,000 trade services and products
and ADBFP has some 10,000 advertising specialty product
listings.
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