Back in the late 80s, early 90s, there was an integrated package called "Smart" by SmartWare Inc, which was a competitor to Lotus Symphony (pile of junk) and other 'integrated packages' (i.e. all in one word processing, spreadsheets and database).
Smart was the first system I saw that had the concept of different levels, i.e. you could set the system to be Basic, Standard or Advanced, which would change the menus and complexity of the package accordingly. It was also the first database system I saw that had the option of variable sized data records (remember, this was in the days of dBase III/IV).
But the killer feature of Smart for me was the absolutely powerful macro/scripting language, which let you customise the system to be almost anything you wanted it to be. I wrote a lot of custom 'apps' with it, with the crowning glory being a Constituent Management System for our local government which let member of parliament record data against their constituents and communicate with them (a bit like a CRM) plus plan walk lists when they went out doorknocking and campaigning.
I was sad that Smart never made the marketshare that other lesser featured competitors did, and eventually faded away. Would love to see such an integrated system online these days.
Smart was the first system I saw that had the concept of different levels, i.e. you could set the system to be Basic, Standard or Advanced, which would change the menus and complexity of the package accordingly. It was also the first database system I saw that had the option of variable sized data records (remember, this was in the days of dBase III/IV).
But the killer feature of Smart for me was the absolutely powerful macro/scripting language, which let you customise the system to be almost anything you wanted it to be. I wrote a lot of custom 'apps' with it, with the crowning glory being a Constituent Management System for our local government which let member of parliament record data against their constituents and communicate with them (a bit like a CRM) plus plan walk lists when they went out doorknocking and campaigning.
I was sad that Smart never made the marketshare that other lesser featured competitors did, and eventually faded away. Would love to see such an integrated system online these days.