Proto CEO Byron Binkley reached out to dicuss his mashup platform. We had an interesting email conversation during which Byron said:
I had a thought though for a type of app that we haven’t fully explored yet. Perhaps it will spark something for you in the accounting world.
The idea came from our Expense system (using Excel) which is always a pain, requires manual integration, and never results in full clarity when entered into Quickbooks. Proto would solve this by:
1. Standardizing the input by pushing the structure of input to the person entering data
2. Automating the collection and aggregation of data using Outlook Email as the data exchange and identity layer
3. Being able to work with the many sets of data to filter, aggregate, report, track, and even output a consolidated file to import to an accounting system (or even do that step via VBA!)
This is the kind of thinking I’d like to see SMB practitioners pursue. Cynics in the audience might well say: ‘Accountants? Vision? Come on!’ My answer: ‘Why are reading this?’ Sorry – but I’m tired of having my profession painted as bunch of buffoons with zippo imagination and a hard on for compliance only. Each day I’m meeting people of passion who want to do good things for clients. Back to the plot.
Proto is Windows only and requires a bit of VBA knowledge. Byron knows my views about that. Aside: How do you define a power user? I have to defer to his position:
Proto is Windows only for now… Comes from our initial launch into financial services where Excel was the #1 data source and of course everything is Windows based.
No:1 in the professional office as well. Even so, I believe the future of mashups lays in the Internet services cloud. That should mean any platform, anywhere, anytime. That’s the route Jeff Nolan‘s taking. Both Byron and Jeff are looking for a sweet spot from which to attract customers. So while the demo movie might look exciting, where the heck is the commercial use? I think it could fit into a talent recruitment situation but beyond that? Both Byron and Jeff talk about disposable applications. I kind of agree there’s value in those ad hoc ideas.
But I’d also like to see a library facility so that the stuff which delivers value is captured for future use. That is, after all, in the spirit of web services. Mix that with a soupcon of social computing where ad hoc apps are subject to user vote and who knows what might happen?
My suggestion: talk to professionals with vision. They’re the ones with the greatest influence on end users. They’re my 1% crowd. All 1K page per day viewers.
Since I don’t run Windows, I’ve asked David Terrar to give Proto a workout and come back with observations. He’s agreed. Thanks David.
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