"A extremely well designed information management system"

www.hurstridge.com

INTRODUCTION

The secret to success in the 21st century is going to be managing information, and this program is designed to maximize your ability to do just that. Radix is a fully customizable information management system. The program has the capacity and flexibility to fit most any database function. Whether you will use it to manage billing information, project management, sales contacts, helpdesk functionality or dozens of other potential uses, it will easily fill that role. The program is designed to be configured to work for the small cottage industry business that needs to manage many small details or for the larger company that needs efficiently managed specific databases. A very nice addon for this program is the associated database manager that installs with it.

INSTALLATION

The installation process is very simple, the finished installation uses 39 megabytes of disk space and includes the database manager program to allow editing of the database itself. All that is required during the initial installation is to determine where to install the program.

CONFIGURATION

The configuration will take some technical awareness, you will have to input the information to locate and log into the database that you wish to access. Once you have entered the information the first time, it will remember it except for the password. It will remember multiple databases connection information at a time, so if the program will be used to access multiple databases, you will only have to re-enter the database name.

INTERFACE

The interface for the program is very simple and easy to understand at a glance. The learning curve for using the program will be minimal. One feature available to users with administrative access is the ability to disable modules and make changes to what options are displayed. The program will not warn of changes made to the configuration and does not revert to the default when it is closed then re-opened. The primary way users will make use of the various features of the program is from the main screen or 'Start Center'. Here are displayed links to all of the installed modules available for immediate access without having to browse through the index on the left. As well, this main screen will show the number of entries in each module to allow you to keep track of what is being used at the current time. Along the bottom of this screen are links that if the user has internet access, can be used to contact software developers for troubleshooting, updating or for feedback purposes. Any changes made by a user will be remembered for the next time they log in and will only apply to them, where multiple users may need to access the information.

The choices along the left hand side are always available for utilization, and the list is easily modified to accomodate the information you need to organize. Moving among the choices on the left is simple and straightforward. Each icon on the left hand index when accessed will open a window in the center section so as you access different sections, different windows will be 'stacking' in the viewable area. As you access the different sections, you will notice that more and more options will list across the grey area just below the title bar, these are quick access buttons that will bring up the page that you have previously opened. You can only close these windows when they are being displayed in the viewing area using the standard X in the top right hand corner.

Every section is very easy to access and simple to edit and save. All of the sections have the same choices in the menu bar along the top of each one with "add, edit, save, etc.", some of the sub-menus are different in response to the features of the section that is currently being displayed but this is normally accomplished in the generic "other" category which uses a dropdown menu system to display the different choices and is at the right hand end of the tool bar.

FUNCTIONALITY

Radix cannot be fully described in anything less than a manual. This program is detailed enough to meet the most demanding requirements for information access, retrieval and organization. Whether you need to organize your billing data, who is due what when, where to send the products and where to send the invoices; or maybe you are having difficulty keeping organized on which invoices have been resolved, which have special circumstances on payment. Radix will let you design invoices that the customer can understand easily as well as allow you to manage all of your invoicing functions from contacts to special instructions, from inventory management to logo placement.

Radix does not limit itself to just invoicing and billing, it brings the same depth of opportunity and flexibility to appointment scheduling (varying weekly and monthly scheduling; multiperson appointment management; overlapping times, places, people), time management (project time estimates; billing estimates; report generation; delivery scheduling), help desk functions (track internal and external incidents; organize incidents by easily definable common parameters; add searchable specific entries for each incident), and one of the most important elements in the business world, contact management (the standard name/address/email/fax/etc; searchable by any defined field; track addendums and temporary changes to contact information; unlimited user defined fields to allow for all information that cannot be easily defined).

This is still barely scratching the surface for what Radix can do. It sets the benchmark that other information management applications will have to measure themselves against. But one thing is for sure, you will run out of information before Radix runs out of options.

CONCLUSION

Radix 3.1 does a very good job of providing easy and efficient access to any stored information. It is easy to install, has a simple connection procedure, has a very clean interface to utilize the program and comes with an additional database management program that is specifically designed to work with it. Radix will suffice for the demands of any home, or more commercial, business enterprise. Hurstridge Technologies Inc has provided Radix fully functional for multi-user environments for a 45 day trial period.

PROS: a. excellent interface b. easy installation and setup CONS: a. indiscriminate access to interface editing options