Q: Wallace, you have developed a series of Alpha Five applications aimed squarely at the small non-profit organization or small church. Can you tell us how you came to focus on this area?

I worked in church administration for many years and then in servicing church computer needs in general. Not only did I see their strong need for computer assistance, but I also saw a niche that was not being met. Because of their scarce resources, small churches and non-profits (including private schools and preschools) cannot afford the expensive computer programs on the market. Developing Alpha Five applications seemed to me a logical fit.

Q: Do you think that most small churches are behind the curve when it comes to computer automation?

Yes. Although this quote is by now several years old, I think it is still widely applicable in small churches: "With respect to the management of the nonprofit organization we are in many ways pretty much where we were fifty or sixty years ago with respect to the management of the business enterprise: the work is only beginning." Peter F. Drucker, Sociologist I know that even here in Houston, the fourth largest city in the country, there are small churches that are still doing their record keeping manually on paper. That is even more true in pre-school offices.

Q: Can we put a number on this, Wallace. What are you referring to as a 'small church or church school'?

It's difficult to generalize since denominations have different ways of counting their members, from actual number of member registrations to estimated number of families. Probably a useful guideline would be that small churches have from 1-9 staff members, full and part-time; and medium sized churches have between 10 and 25. Its likely that offices of these sizes do not have a full-time IT person.

Q: Some might question the business logic behind focusing on small non-profit organizations. After all these groups usually have very small budgets. How would you respond to this?

There probably is not a strong business case to be made for focusing on small non-profits unless you look at the large numbers of church and private school institutions out there which are just now beginning to computerize their record-keeping systems.

Q: So you are saying that numbers might make up for small budgets?

I don't have any hard numbers, but that would be my guess. This would be most especially true looking at the number of pre-schools, which is exploding as the case for early childhood education is being made successfully.

Q: At the national level we are seeing a "faith based initiative" to provide social services through the auspices of local churches and other non-profits. Does this play into the potential for computerization for these groups?

It certainly does. The federal government is extending funding in new ways involving churches and non-profits. As one example, I have found interest in a regional database of clients of social services which member churches could access. Such a centralized database would permit churches to determine if specific clients are abusing the system. The availability of government funding could help bring such projects into existence and involve many, many local churches.

Q: Wallace, can you tell us about your computer background?

The fact that I grew up on punched card mainframes tells you something about my age. While teaching engineering, I learned some Fortran programming. I entered church administration just when PC's were coming on strong and learned how to use them while managing a building with about 50 workstations (I even installed the cable as the building was being built).

Q: I am curious Wallace, where did you teach engineering?

I taught Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston for nineteen years.

Q: 50 workstations, this does not sound like a 'small' church?

It wasn't. This was the central diocesan administration which serviced the needs of 160 individual churches.

Q: When did you first begin using Alpha Software database products?

In church administration I started out using dBase products. Then someone told me to try Alpha Four. I got started using it and never looked back.

Q: Your current applications are developed with Alpha Five. When did you switch from Alpha Four to Alpha Five, and how did you find the transition?

I think Alpha Five came out in 1994, and I started using it as soon as it became available. I didn't find the transition particularly difficult. I remember it being very exciting to have Windows-based systems. I still have some Alpha Four applications that I support, but I am hoping to convince the owners to switch over soon. With A5V5 it is so much easier and fun to design applications.

Q: There is a very large base of Alpha Four users. I am wondering what your thought for them might be?

So much more is possible with Version Five of Alpha Five than I could have imagined. As one example, form layout is much, much faster and with easy to use graphical design tools. With Action Scripting I can put a button on a form which will do things that only a person highly proficient in script writing could do in Alpha Four, and in a fraction of the time they would need to do it. I think its well worth the investment to upgrade, and there are a variety of tools available now to shorten the learning curve.

Q: Tell us your thoughts about the fit between Alpha Five and small non-profit organizations?

Alpha Five is ideal for a small-time developer like me who needs to develop customized applications quickly at a low price. Now, with all the available wizards and Action Scripting, I haven't found anything yet that I needed to do and can't. And 99% of it is done without writing scripts (I have done a little programming, but would not call myself expert). All the new layout tools allow me to design attractive forms and layouts quickly. In fact, I think they look good enough to market, which is what I am beginning to do.

Q: Tell us briefly about your applications for small churches/non-profits.

I have three products on the market now. 'School Office/Rectoria' is a private school management program for elementary and pre-schools (Rectoria is Spanish for principal's office; a Spanish version is available). It was developed for a principal who had no secretary and performs all the administrative functions imaginable including medical and disciplinary records, tuition management, grading (there is a nice little bar graph for pre-school student progress), and permission letters to parents.

'Faith Formation' is a related application that was developed for church ministry programs such as religious education and youth ministry. It performs the normal attendance and program fee record keeping along with a section for background and development of instructors. Both programs can be adapted for email interactions with students and parents.

The third program is 'Social Ministries', which is for managing a wide range of church social ministry programs, from personal counseling and referrals to employment to family food and housing assistance. Personal or telephone interviews are recorded in extensive client case notes and the complete interview history is viewable on a single screen. Multiple statistical reports are available in each of the ministries showing the total and detailed client interactions by category.

An important feature of all three applications is that they can be networked to a large number of workstations allowing administrators, instructors and ministers simultaneous access to the records.

Q: Wallace, my guess is that there is a large number of folks out there using Alpha's database products as volunteers for their own churches and or private schools. How do you envision local volunteers using and potentially extending, yours or some other developer's applications?

I know that a primary need of churches and schools is to customize whatever applications they use. I constantly hear complaints from end users that their packaged database product will not do things exactly the way they would like or allow any changes. I suspect there are many Alpha proficient volunteers who could meet this customization need, whether it be doing it themselves or working with developers like me.

Q: There are at least two approaches to allowing application modification. An end user can be allowed to extend the application, assuming of course that they have their own copy of Alpha Five, or they could be allowed to modify the existing application as well as extend it. What are your thoughts on this?

Having your own copy of Alpha Five seems to me to be the best way to go. Then there are two options, one for single user applications and the other for multi-user applications using networks. I am currently exploring a way to offer a low cost version of my applications on a standalone computer for the user who can use the program features that way. The multi-user applications are most economically built using Alpha Five runtime, which is normally not modifiable, but could be made so. In both cases, the end user should be given the flexibility both to modify the application and extend it. That would allow complete customization at the lowest possible cost. Current applications on the market don't offer that.

Q: Tell us about your efforts to market your applications.

Until recently I have mostly relied on word of mouth marketing among my local church and school contacts. I also received a few inquiries and sales from having the School Office application listed on the Alpha website. But now I have a website up, www.hacs.biz, which illustrates all the applications and provides downloadable demos and brochures. I am hopeful that this will expand the marketing activity.

Q: Do you think there might be merit to trying to form an "Alpha Five Small Church Developers Group"? I have got to think that there are many other Alpha users active in this area, especially on a local volunteer basis for their own churches.

I think it would be especially beneficial to local churches to see a list of developers in a "Small Church/School Alpha Five Developer's Special Interest Group." If they could find a developer in their area, discussing their needs face to face with him/her would be the ideal situation. The sympathetic developer could help them adapt or customize existing applications or develop something entirely new. The primary goal would be to provide an information center where both users and developers could see what and who is available in this special interest area. I think we should try to see what the interest is.

Q: Wallace, life is not all work, do you have any hobbies or interesting pursuits?

Besides being a loving grandparent to my four granddaughters, I love to go to the ballet and symphony. I guess you would say I am strong in music appreciation. My wife and I also participate a lot as volunteers in preparing engaged couples for marriage in our church and working with young married couples. Finally, I love competitive sports of all kinds and go to them (or watch them on TV) whenever I have time, which is not often enough!