ACI vs WinTotal

[Hugh Griffith]

Paul,
You are asking this question in an ACI forum. Kind of like you said about asking is Coke or Pepsi better at the Coke factory or Warren Buffett's office. I'll vote for ACI!

 

[Ruben Ramon]

I have used both. I was forced to switch to WinTotal a few years ago because of a client. Aurora was very unstable at first, but you have to make sure that you are running your software on a clean computer.

I would answer the question like this. Are you going to run a network or be on a stand alone machine? Do you plan on having others work for you? If you answer yes, then, in my mind, you HAVE to use Wintotal. ACI just doesn't work on a network efficiently. Aurora may be expensive, but if you have to add a client, then you just add the network directory, and your good to go. with WinTotal, you buy a network license, not a machine license, so, actually, WinTotal may be the cheaper option for you in the long run.

Hope it helps.

 

[Anthony MacKenzie]

Because of their "rock solid" sales team & great toys, I did the trial switch to Aurora. The package was an "elite enterprise" package with web site, vault system, mobile skecth, 24 hr. tech support (which you need), etc. I really wanted to move toward a web site with an ordering system that intergrats into the software and they were it. Mainly due to the $. The renewal is about $1100-$1300 per year for everything..."supposedly". I have not made it there yet!

I used ACI for three years before the temp - wintotal, so I am prone to say ACI is the way. I need help with this as well.

For the basics, speed, tech free life it seems ACI. For the toys it seems wintotal. If their renewal fee is accurate as I stated it cost aprox $400 more to start with wintotal and $600 to renew wintotal.

The way I see it is you are getting more for your money (as long as it works good) with wintotal. I think my biggest problem with wintotal is the addendum does not intergrate with the report as well as it does with ACI and they have issues they fix in the updates they provide.

All in all I am confused to. Bottom line i guess is keep it simple = ACI, growing pains = wintotal, what can you deal with?

 

[Mike Shapiro]

I have used both. I was forced to switch to WinTotal a few years ago because of a client. Aurora was very unstable at first, but you have to make sure that you are running your software on a clean computer.

I would answer the question like this. Are you going to run a network or be on a stand alone machine? Do you plan on having others work for you? If you answer yes, then, in my mind, you HAVE to use Wintotal. ACI just doesn't work on a network efficiently. Aurora may be expensive, but if you have to add a client, then you just add the network directory, and your good to go. with WinTotal, you buy a network license, not a machine license, so, actually, WinTotal may be the cheaper option for you in the long run.

Hope it helps.

Would be nice if ACI had a network license!

 

[Dave Smith]

ACI networks

Reuben said

ACI just doesn't work on a network efficiently.

It works just fine on my two computer network.

 

[Warren Stelter]

I Am Thinking Of Switching To ACI Because I Am Fed Up With Sales Calls With Alemode.

 

[Kien Nguyen]

Can't get demo/trial disk

Couple clients preferred ACI, but it is not easy to get the trial/demo to get a feel of the product.

Try to call them: office's closed, send email ... got a call back .. I couldn't talk ... It seems they (ACI) really needed to talk with customer first to qualify for Demo Disk ???

I have used Wintotal, ClickForm in the last few years... In my opinion, for the form feeder's purpose, both of them are fine... I don't use any fancy features of Alamode Xsites ... so no comment(s).

Can any one tell me how difficult or easy to learn/use the ACI ?
I have a "so so" background in programming ... hope it won't be difficult ?

Can I have both Wintotal and ACI in the same PC ? I have an "average" computer: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz, 2 gig RAM.

Thinking about using Lighthouse to convert Wintotal report to ACI, but read other post: it seems not a good idea.

Any other idea ?

 

[Aubrey Williams II]

Good stuff here. I'm looking to move from Alamode to either ACI or ClickForms. Thanks to all for the insightful information.

 

[TC]

I think the ACI guys check in here from time to time. Shouldn't be that hard to get a demo version.

TC

 

[jay trotta]

been using ACI for some time now, everything works fine and like any other system - it does what you want after U set it all up. Alamode, tried it-way to much onfo, don't need it and ifn I wanted to be a computer tech. that would have been the field of my choice.

Used; Klick Forms / Alamode / Dial A Puter and a few others, to me it all comes down to the "shipping" - ACI got that part down pat and you don;t need to buy extra hoopla. I keep the "maintenence contract" in place to help defray "their" research & new application funding costs down and their tech support is one of the best I've come across in years, although we don't use them enough, they are extremely curteous.

Good Luck in deciding