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From:Filemaker Inc. , FileMaker ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#254 |
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 For $49, great database...for $99 it could be AWESOME, 2008-08-04
I sell raw materials to industry for a living, and my (otherwise great) company doesn't provide any kind of contact management/sales tools for the sales force. One the hand hand, it's very frustrating not to have a "go-to" tool for my everyday tasks. On the other hand, they don't give me much opposition to devising my own tools that work the way I want them to.
I have done the "use Excel as a database" thing for a year now, as many professionals do, and it's awkward at best. Excel was never meant to be a database, we all know that. And FileMaker, as powerful as it is, requires that you already be pretty savvy at devising databases to actually get it to do the things that you want, the way you want. I don't have time to learn not only how to use a completely new piece of software, but actually how to set it up and program it, too. I might as well just change jobs and find work as a database engineer!
SO, my research turned up Bento. Based on my reading, I was doubtful that Bento would be able to do everything I needed, but I thought for $49, if it did half of what I needed, it would be still be a good buy. In use, Bento is a joy - the design templates are very easy to set up (if somewhat limited in choice, but again, it's supposed to be a quick and easy setup, so offering too many starting points would be counterintuitive), and setting up your fields and libraries is so intuitive that it's doubtful you will need to read the manual for much more than an occasional reference.
Usage templates are included for home inventories, project management, pretty much anything you would use a simple database for. Since I'm trying to get some more sophistication out of it, none of the templates really offered me anything except some learning reference, so I had to start from scratch.
Having spent a week with it now, I will say that, for $49, and given how it is advertised, Bento is a no-brainer. It is a fantastically well-executed simple database and a joy to use. For importing your iCal events and address book contacts and pretty powerful contact management capabilities, it would be worth the $49 alone.
But since I had hoped to use it for a few other tasks, I came across its three key weaknesses. Again, it is unfair to blame something for not being what the producers don't claim that it is in the first place, but the price/performance point is a heartbreaker. I would have paid $79 or $99 (actually, I would have paid $199 given how valuable it could be to me) if the three main weaknesses could be addressed. For anyone interested or considering using it professionally, here they are:
1. The "calculation" field option is limited to simple math. Field entries using calculations can be interactive, of course, but they cannot accept an additive command entry (e.g. take the entry and make the change permanent in the database until I enter something new in the field, but also not lose the previous entry's value in the database).
I'll explain: the raw materials that I sell are subject to market volatility (e.g the price changes almost every day). I had hoped to be able to create a library of raw materials that I sell with important info about each one - which I can - but I wanted to create a "net price change since yesterday" field that would take my simple price change entry, then distribute that change throughout the database for each customer to whom I am quoting/selling that material. I could then start my morning with my change notification emails, make the changes in the database in 5-10 minutes, then create a contacts list of customers affected by the changes and send mass emails to notify them quickly. What normally takes hours in my day could be reduced to about 10-15 minutes.
Since the calculation possibilities for such a field do not allow additive entry, that means that any change that I make will be absolute in the database, not additive. If I add 5 cents/pound to a price today, fine, but if I try to add an additional 3 cents/pound tomorrow, it will just take the 3 cents, erase the 5 cents from yesterday, and distribute 3 cents throughout the database. So it's useless as a pricing monitor. Not that it matters, anyway, because...
2. Data interactivity between libraries is limited to simple importing/exporting of data in table form (called "related fields" in Bento nomenclature). Within any given library, you can specify a data import field from any other library, and the data will remain interactive of course, but you're stuck with the same import parameters for each record in the new library. I quote different customers different prices for the same materials based on volumes, freight differences, etc. Even if my materials library could accept an additive price change command, there would be no way to program the database to know how to distribute that mathematical information differently to different customer records. Bento's import fields option is clearly designed to import contact info for project management so that you can, for example, see contact info for everyone working on a project on the same screen without having to switch to your Address Book or Address Book library in Bento and search blindly. Cool feature for what it is, just not very sophisticated.
3. While setting up your database, you can duplicate fields and forms, but you cannot duplicate libraries. Since I track information in similar ways for customers, materials, and projects, it would have been great to set up one, use it as a template, and duplicate & tweak as necessary. Instead, I had to go through a labor-intensive process to get each of my libraries set up.
Bento will undoubtedly prove useful and time-saving to me. Although it was not able to do the one REALLY time saving thing that I had hoped, it can do pretty much everything else for my contact management, including:
1. Track sales by customer, volume, total $, net $, and any combination thereof.
2. Manage short and long term projects
3. Track problem matters and ensure up-to-date info on resolution.
You can, of course, do these tasks any any other number of ways, but Bento provides a way to do it all in one piece of software, on one screen. I pray that next year they will offer a $49 upgrade to "Bento Pro" or something that will allow the other tasks I really need. I actually could get my work week under 40 hours with that and still get everything done!
 Super easy, 2008-07-30
Bento
I wanted a database that was easy to use and Bento fit the bill. I have used Access (UGH) and Filemaker in the past and at times found them daunting. Bento was so simple to set up a club database it made me want to do more. It is surprisingly comprehensive for such an inexpensive database. Now it won't do it all but it does enough for most users.
 At least it is a start, 2008-07-28
I really like the concept of Bento, a simpler personal database. However, the execution is lacking. Most frustrating is that it does not integrate completely with Address Book. For example, the Spouse field in AB does not get populated in Bento. Forget integrating custom fields. Another annoyance is the Themes are ugly and not customizable.
This product is ok (not great) if you want to store recipes or a To Do list. Otherwise, find another solution. Maybe Bento 2.0 will be better.
2 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
 Limited, 2008-07-18
DO NOT plan on entering a database of substance. Bento has its limits and when you hit it, in my situation is was 1280 entries you are dead in the water. Bento is for light and very basic use. It is not for those that need more than entering a few household items. I am very disappointed with the software and their support.
 Far from perfect, but it's pretty darn good, 2008-07-14
Let's start with what Bento is not. Bento is not the end all be all database program. I deal with and have dealt with some of the biggest and baddest at the enterprise level such as: Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata, and Informix to name a few. So, I really understand what a database should be.
Face it, Bento was made to make databases easy for most users. And on that front, I think it succeeds, and that is why I wanted to get a copy. I wanted a very basic and user friendly database program. And, I thought, if it was easy enough, I would get around to doing some projects that I had put off because I didn't want to devote a huge amount of time completing.
Project 1: I track my work time on a daily basis. For years, I have been doing this in Excel. I knew that moving to a database program would be better but just didn't have the time. After Bento arrived, I jumped in and was able to convert my time tracking to Bento. Now for the downside, there is no reporting capabilities which is a problem when you are wanting to analyze your time. So, I did have to create an export from Bento to load into Excel so that I could do pivot tables. Once I got this set-up, the ongoing updates are easy, breezy. I just export from Bento, go to Excel, refresh the data and then refresh the pivot table. Really, it is just a matter of a few seconds to see the latest and greatest.
Project 2: I had done a bad job of maintaining a home inventory. Bento has a standard template for a home inventory that I just made some minor tweaks to and off I went. I am doing a much better job of keeping track of things and knowing what we have.
Project 3: Expense tracking was also in Excel. I converted it over to Bento and it is in a much more user friendly format now.
Project 4: I wanted to create a project tracking database. So, if I got a call from someone wanting to know the latest and greatest, I could open the page for the project and give a quick run down.
On the downside, I wish there was a better library of templates available. I had to build some things from scratch because there was simply nothing that was even close to what I was seeking. But, since Bento is new, it will take some time for those to appear.
Bottomline - I use Bento just about every day. I have integrated it into my tracking really pretty easily. I use several software packages, and I didn't think that Bento was very hard to pick-up. It seemed pretty intuitive. If you have been through the Office 2007 switch on PCs, I can promise that event was more painful that picking up a copy of Bento. If you don't think in terms of how to organize using a database structure, the built-in templates should be a big help. Once you look at those, it is pretty easy to make some changes if you want just another field to drop one that you will not use.
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