"Cercopithecus et binocularis Or on our dislike of ""presentations"""

We keep on regularly receiving (and feeling dismay thereof) the inquiries sent by those interested folks who sound like "why don’t you come and present your stuff to us?"
We are, like, interested in your product.

Ultima insists on NOT wasting your time on such “presentations".
We address those who are “interested" and possess reading and common arithmetic skills with the following persuasive theses:

1. There is a 99% probability that the "presentation" inquiry means the inquirer has absolutely no idea about either our product or the contents of this website.
   Ultima partners find it rather annoying to waste quite a substantial amount of time answering a ton of naive questions. On top of that, the materials posted on this website provide the answers to those questions in full, and even more.
   Ultima definitely shares its partners’ annoyance.
   Moreover.
   If the "interested" person did not take the trouble to read the not-so-gigantic amount of information (that directly relates to the potentially multi-million project – and the project, if successful, ensures the future of this person’s business), then this is a huge hint on how seriously the issue is treated and what the perspectives of the potential projects are.
   If the issue is important and there is a real need, then even presidents, and chairmen, and multi-millionaire shareholders, and newspaper-factory-ship owners DO find time: they read and study everything attentively – this is a proven fact. We find such people pleasant to work with.
   Not even mentioning the results of such cooperation.

2. Let us move on. What can we (or whoever else) present to you if we have absolutely no idea as to what exactly you need? Just imagine: you call a doctor to come to your place, and, instead of telling him  the way you feel, you demand the "presentation" of a laryngoscope, a syringe and some medicine (to look at them closely, appraise their style and the way they match in terms of design and the general level of poshness), as well as ask the doctor to voice the costs and how long the therapy of a typical illness will take. There you are.

   The same holds true for any ERP-system. You will see nothing, apart from some screen forms (one needs more than one week to "show everything" and what is the point, anyway?), and all the “constructive" discussion will boil down to the talk about the "interface" quality, i.e. the color scheme and the placement of buttons. The color/buttons issue is, surely, of critical importance for an automated enterprise resource planning system, which costs hundreds of thousands of euro  and more. In practice, however, it takes minutes to nonchalantly deal with this issue (while the "discussion" led at such "presentations" takes up at least two hours and up to infinity, and ends up in nothing, of course) during the interface fine-tuning done for every user category.

   — Oh! Maybe you would like to "take a look at the functionality?" Like, to understand, whether it really suits you; what is, like, present, and what is, like, not here? “Does your transportation section here include multimodal, you know, "transporation"? — this quote is something we really heard. As for "functionality" – we have said everything already.

   Nevertheless — here are some more thoughts.
   Our dearest people!
   What we "have" and what we "do not have" is absolutely of zero importance.
   The correctly formulated question provides 90% of the answer, while "what we do and don’t have" is the faulty formulation of the question. Let us get back to the doctor visit analogy: imagine that during the visit you attack the doctor with questions as to what medicine he can prescribe (instead of focusing on your own symptoms and the diagnosis). He can prescribe whatever, as long as it is legal, and he does not care — the person who will pay is you.
   The correct formulation of the question is what kind of medicine you need.

   Same here.
   We, just like most vendor implementers, can implement any non-conflicting business logic. That said, we can do it fast and cost-effectively, unlike the majority of other implementers.
   Whether we already have this business logic (which is most probable) – or even if we don’t – is, at this stage, of absolutely no importance: it will exert a very small influence on the total project costs and the time of its implementation.
   What is indeed important, is that we all come to mutual understanding as to what kind of business logic you really need (the above-mentioned understanding is noted in the Technical requirements, see the "Implementing the project in a kosher way" section). Mind, that in order to reach an agreement we first have to understand what… well, you know.

3. The audience watching these so-called “presentations”, usually, consists of casual idlers. In the first place, there are IT specialists. In the second place – accountants (or "finance people", if we generalize).
   People! ERP-system as an analogy to the automated production line of the close value range, is a business tool.
   A business tool for achieving business aims.
   Which are, in their turn, formulated by share holders (or their representatives: board of directors or a general director).
   
   When opening a restaurant you’ll let the dishwasher, waiter (anyway it is them who will work with this stuff) and accountant (who also takes part in making a big financial decision) decide upon the contents on the menu, what will you have as an output?
   It would be more sensible to solve the question about investments in a business tool in accordance with the expected business results and project risks.
   
   And not on the basis of opinions - of incredible scale and incredible stupidity at the same time - about introduction and exploitation of the most sophisticated hardware and software complexes expressed by so-called system administrators and CIOs. Their competence is in inverse proportion to the amount of pompous abbreviations and fashionable science-like terms (the true meaning of which is quite vague for them) and supposedly tricky questions taken from articles like "how not to be considered as a lamer at sysop job interview" from a low-quality IT magazine.
   In this case, we must say, the position of a common accountant sounds much more constructive. She is NOT, as a rule, ashamed to confess that she "understands nothing about it"

4. All in all, let’s fancy analogical situation. This time let’s take building.
   Imagine you need to build a factory.
   The success of the project can influence your business’ profitability in the long run, and most likely on its survival.
   You hold a competition for design organizations.
   You phone several candidates, who you’ve found on the Internet, and ask them to give a “presentation". Just, you know, come and somehow “deliver" it. Besides these people who were supposed to work out the projects know nothing about what you want.
   So what are they going to deliver?

   An Autocad with screenshots? “About us" section with useless information?
   A project of a stadium or residential complex they have recently finished?
   Or a cottage settlement project? And, at the same time, will dwell on the "functions" of the mentioned stadium (cottage settlement) and you, in your turn, will compare these with your requirements for the future factory.
   What form the listed above can give you any rational grounds for reasonable choice of a project maker for your special (as every is) factory?
   Additional detail: fancy, that the commission considering the “presentations" consists of a mason, an accountant and a caretaker.

   
   
   

   So. What can you do if you want to “have a look at the system"? Guys, we understand your desire and more than that: the wish is a bit more than a right one. If you ask the correct question.

   The answer:

   • look at user forms and discuss the buttons, toys with them —without informing us →
   • to be exact watch the system — in action — welcome.

   For potentially serious customers we conduct tours of the operating factories making use of Ultimate IEM solutions.
   There by example of a living and functioning business you see our system actually works and helps to earn real money.
   The tour is NOT a presentation-like chat with slides and coffee breaks in a conference room: you see real people doing their job from within (and you can even talk to them): storages, logistics, shops, sales, production area, call-centres, etc. are at your disposal.
   ​
   For the tour we do our best to choose the companies with the business processes which are the closest to your focus of interests.

Following the same pattern, we DON’T provide any "demos".
Due to their uselessness as demonstrated above and (though the first point is enough) inadequate costs.
We suggest unfolding Oracle Database Enterprise Edition those craving for "demos".
For demonstration and training.