Thank You and A Concern

[lesterchua]

Dear Accordance staff,

 

I see your work as a ministry. The application's speed and utility is amazing. There are always room from improvement, but I can see the love all of you put into the application.

 

It is rare that a day that goes by when I do not bring up your wonderful app for studies. Through your sales of excellent resources, I have built up quite a library. It is precious to me, that I can often do research right on my own computer.

 

Thank you for the wonderful work that you have devoted your lives to. I believe many others, like myself have benefitted greatly.

 

I have a concern to express though, and I think I have seen posts that hinted this.

 

Your competitor have been very aggressive in marketing and adding all things theological to their offering. I have check out parallel resources from their side, and from what I see the formatting in quality can vary greatly, I much prefer yours. But their great strength is that they have a LOT more theological offering. For instance, many books that I use for reference in pursuit of my degree are available there, but do not find a home at your product.

 

I understand that Accordance is best used for language studies. But I also believe there is a segment like me who would like to build up a theological library as well. Thing like Barth's Church Dogmatics, or even many of the newer theological works that are available in your competitor are unavailable here. Of course I can try to export and import into Accordance, but I would lose the capability to cite (which is crucial in our area of studies).

 

My concern is that you'll fall behind in the library building offering, give up on that area because the task seems too big to catch up. And then fall into obsolesce. I find myself praying for Accordance.

 

My generation like to use the story of BETAMAX vs VHS to illustrate that a superior product can lose out to a better marketed one, and when the momentum shifts and starts gaining traction in one direction, it becomes impossible to reverse.

 

I hope Accordance can continue to be successful and viable.

 

There are many module requests in the sub-forum, telling us that there are many indeed who prefer to have their library on your platform. But it is sad to see the progress so slow in that area. 

 

I will continue to pray for you all, and I hope to be able to use Accordance into the far future. Perhaps until the day I return home to the Lord, or when He comes again. 

 

God bless your wonderful work.

Edited June 27, 2020 by lesterchua

[Fabian]

I agree. 

 

As I wrote on another post. To create complex modules it needs skilled people and a lot of time. If Accordance would hire new content developers and they start with material which is easy to bring to Accordance, but are cash cows, then their salary is a non brainer. And they will get more skilled over  time to do the more complex modules. Which means a new content developer could be hired who beginn then with the easy tasks, but would be sell well. So you can build your store and more employes. 

May would then think: Oh no Accordance is selling now ....., but in the back you can build a strong team.

 

I have seen a few people had Accordance left in the last few years. And i have seen a few people are more on the competitor. Especially in foreign languages. They have 2 or 3 only for German. This or last month is now a now one coming for French. 

[accordance_fan]

Can I offer my own perspective? I love Accordance precisely because it is unlike its competitors, some of whom it seems are driven more by making profits than anything else. I am personally very happy with the offerings in Accordance. There is a Greek proverb which goes, οὐ πόλλ’ ἀλλὰ πολύ "It is not quantity that matters, but the quality." I think that pertains in this case. That said, I do also see some of the points you raise. Best for your studies. 

[Fabian]

Can I offer my own perspective? I love Accordance precisely because it is unlike its competitors, some of whom it seems are driven more by making profits than anything else. I am personally very happy with the offerings in Accordance. There is a Greek proverb which goes, οὐ πόλλ’ ἀλλὰ πολύ "It is not quantity that matters, but the quality." I think that pertains in this case. That said, I do also see some of the points you raise. Best for your studies. 

For only English speakers: Maybe...

 

 Best for your studies. 

Maybe you haven't noticed it. Maybe the hint was too hidden. But Best for my study would be material in GERMAN. For the once in France it would be FRENCH etc. In my opinion your argument can, if, when, überhaupt, only for partial in English be relevant.

[markusvonkaenel]

I have to agree with Fabian. If I had to choose today, I would go for Logos, because of international issues. Accordance is fine for English speakers only.

 

Never the less, I stay with accordance....

[ukfraser]

Having worked for many years for a successful international  software company offering services in over 200 spoken languages only to be taken over by a competitor...

 

I love Accordance precisely because it is unlike its competitors... I am personally very happy with the offerings in Accordance.

You only need to look at the various strands of the software market to see successful companies loose their market share and then disappear. (Word perfect, corel draw, quatro pro, Dbase.)

But those that survive typically clearly deferent from their competitors. 

 

I took a year looking at bible software before buying into accordance and since then i have spent more on my library than i would ever have imagined. 
 

i too am very happy with accordance, where it is positioned and am very impressed with what is achieved with their resources.

Edited June 27, 2020 by ukfraser

[Fabian]

I have to agree with Fabian. If I had to choose today, I would go for Logos, because of international issues. 

Me too.

[markusvonkaenel]

Having worked for many years for a successful international  software company offering services in over 200 spoken languages only to be taken over by a competitor...

 

 

 you see, talking many language is the key to success...   

[HansK]

I like Accordance because it is fast and is dedicated to study in the ways that you want. Logos is a great library program (much more stuff is offered, but only books), but not so good for study. For me mainly because you can have only one workspace open in the program at one time.

Accordance has almost all good reference works.

And, with the new website implementation, I can open Logos within Accordance! Great!

 

I am from The Netherlands and have no difficulty working with English.

 

The German (and Dutch) usergroup at Logos is not that large too and not very much books are offered in German (even less in Dutch).

Sorry for English (and German) speaking folks that most do not read Dutch :-)

 

Hans

Edited June 27, 2020 by HansK

[Solly]

I joined Accordance in Late 2014. I started using Bible based software in the mid 1990's including the major company mentioned earlier. No two were clones, and all complemented one another. I enjoyed using them all. As my needs changed I would move on. Many no longer exist as a company. I have observed that Accordance is expanding its title base in several areas. It is a deliberate controlled approach that keeps a complex set of factors  under control. I would rather see a calm and persistent growth that will not burn out the company by overextension trying to supply all wish list items to all people in a short time. I have seen too many companies fail when they forget their core value and try to become something else. 

 

I look forward to new products from Accordance, but I will trust their understanding of the factors involved in operating the company in a secure and safe manner to provide long term viability. The two major Bible software companies have specific philosophies that complement one another. I actually own both and would not want to see either just morph into the other. In fact, I have no software category (programming, office, photography, maths, computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and data base) that depends on a single product. I use the best product for the specific task. I also operate with multiple operating systems as needed and find document transfer from one tool and or operating system to another becoming less and less of a problem (certainly much easier than ftp or kermit in the past). 

 

Accordance has been amazingly responsive to suggestions related to software features and products. I trust that they will continue to do so in the future. Suggestions for both products and software features are always appreciated. If we are patient, we will not be disappointed, even if we do not get all that is on our wish list immediately.

 

—Joseph

Edited June 27, 2020 by Solly

[dandennison]

Personally that other software needs to stop trying to do all of the things. Featureitis is real. I don't want a social network. I don't want a giving platform. I don't need a way to broadcast my service online. I don't want a dogged slow program. I don't want a window manager (why?!?) I really don't want a start screen with ads (I know those can be disabled).

 

So for me, I use the Amplify Web feature in Accordance to pull up those modules I have in the other software. What would be even better is if it had Link Tabs for this, and then that other software would have practically zero appeal to me, except for its expanded selection, which would scroll alongside my Accordance modules. That would be a real win-win, since I'd have the speed of Accordance without the performance hit.

 

To each their own,

 

Dan