Sesame Database Manager for Windows

User Reviews

• great product, GREAT customer service

  ruknareeOctober 9, 2011

  Pros

  Im new using this product, know about sesame in a BDJ promo. Support its EXCELLENT and im proud to be a customer of lantica (sesame database). The software is stable, well documented and does the job. The more you "play" with it, the more you will love it.

  Cons

  still learning the product but no issues found.

  Summary

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• Burnt by Sesame Developer

  prstonOctober 7, 2011

  Pros

  NO Pros. Developer Lantica took my payment and failed to deliver the fully functional software.

  Cons

  Developer Lantica takes your money and does not provide any software in return

  Summary

  I ordered Sesame Database Manager. My credit card was charged. But I received no software from the vendor. No receipt. No invoice. No customer number (as required by Lantica's unusual method of delivering their software). No email confirming the order. No serial or license number. Nothing! After completion of my order, I was given an Order Confirmation with the Order Number. But that Order Confirmation provides no means to acquire the software. I have bought many software through Bits. No order ever turned out badly except for this one. I feel burnt by this vendor!<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Oct 10, 2011<p/>***** REVIEW REVISION -- 5 STAR UPGRADE DESERVED The extraordinary issues associated with my Sesame order were real. But Lantica, the Sesame developer, did not deserve the blame placed on their doorstep. Apparently, my Sesame order was unintentionally sabotaged by server errors attributable to the company that processed orders for Lantica. Thus, I was misled to believe that Lantica was at fault. And thus I inadvertently criticized the wrong entity. Today, Lantica went to extraordinary pains to discover what went wrong and to set everything right. If Lantica's Sesame software is even half as exceptional as Lantica's customer service, then Sesame should be outstanding software. The company that botched my Sesame order is no longer processing orders for Lantica. So, future buyers should not worry about hassles with their own orders. In light of new facts, I apologize for my criticism of Lantica. Also, I thank Lantica for their honesty and exceptional customer support.

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• it is very good

  karinjappallilMarch 10, 2011

  Pros

  easy to store and retrieve

  Cons

  i don't see much

  Summary

  I was a Q&#38;A user and this Sesame is a replacement of it for the Windows with lot of features added.

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• How Sesame has helped our business

  cwp3February 19, 2010

  Pros

  In a nutshell, the time required to enter customer data, print out a shipping invoice and complete an order has decreased by a factor of 5 (based on the fact that we can now complete five orders in the time it used to take us to complete one order).

  Cons

  No spell check on data entry.

  Summary

  As any business owner knows, time is the essence in running a business and something I do not have a lot of to spare, so my primary concern when purchasing Sesame was the time that would be required to transfer our Q&#38;A database to Sesame and making any required changes or additions to the existing database. This was where my first pleasant surprise with dealing with Lantica Software took place. The customer support Lantica provides and have provided me over the years is second to none, and, believe me, I've had my share of unpleasant experiences with "customer support" from various entities! With assistance from Ben, Jay or Raymond at Lantica, I imported my Q&#38;A database into Sesame ver. 1, modified my now working Sesame database by adding some fields, enlarging and moving others and didn't lose any valuable customer data in the process. I have installed all the updates to Sesame and have upgraded to Sesame 2 and added Inside Sesame to the program. All of the above is done from within Sesame as it merges the shipping invoices to our word processor software. This also includes our purchase orders for materials required to manufacture our product and payroll for our employees. The business has expanded to the point that we've had to add several new employees to our staff and we currently have a license for four uses for our Sesame database. Just keep up the good work and excellent customer support and we are a very satisfied Sesame user. Charles W. Parrott, III President, Concealed Protection 3, Inc.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Feb 27, 2010<p/>In the field of "CONS - what you don't like about Sesame" I put "no spell checker". I was e-mailed the same day I submitted my review by Ray of Sesame Tech Support advising me that there was indeed a spell checker in Version 2.1 and above of Sesame, I just didn't have it turned on! Ray advised me to add "INTERACTIVE SPELL CHECKING: ON" to the Sesame.ini file in the Sesame directory and presto, I now have spell checking! Thanks, Ray, now that's real customer service!

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• Great DB solution for DIYers.

  acebannerFebruary 17, 2010

  Pros

  - Supports relational databases - Beginners can get started right away. - Menu-driven system. - Client/Server setup is simple. - Great user community. - Excellent support from developers. - Programming allows for advanced db designs.

  Cons

  - There is a bit of a learning curve if you want to create an advanced db design, but worth the effort in the long run. - Report creation needs some improvement, my only real gripe.

  Summary

  If you've got some basic programming skill then Sesame is going to be a great choice. If you've got an existing Q&#38;A database, their translation program will eliminate a lot of work and save a lot of that older information. The software is very straightforward, supports relational and flat-file databases and can do just about anything you can dream up. Lantica also provides a lot of great support, as does the Sesame community. There are also quite a few database developers who can help design your application for you. For basic database creation Sesame is easy to use. If you want to make a database that is really advanced you may need to learn how to program a bit, so there's a little bit of a learning curve, but if you're a hands-on kind of person (like me) it will be worth the effort. If you feel like other db programs are too intimidating, or that you have to shoehorn your organization into a software solution that's either too big or too small, and are considering making your own database solution from scratch (or with help) then you should really give Sesame a look.

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• Simple and good phone support

  geomurraySeptember 8, 2009

  Pros

  Easy to use, and easy to call tech support. I had a couple of questions before buying and they answere my questions without hesitation. Very friendly service and US based.

  Cons

  The user manual is huge, over 500 pages.

  Summary

  At first I was hesitate but the more I played with it the more I liked it and I'd been searching for a good data base for a long time. I found it in Sesame. It took me only about an hour to figure out how the system worked and then I had questions for tech support, called and got right through...that's a plus right there.

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• sesame 2 load times super fast now

  rennie13September 27, 2008

  Pros

  I have been using the Sesame database for three years and have recently changed to Sesame 2. The Load time is now much quicker, a real improvement.

  Cons

  None as far as I am concerned

  Summary

  Flexible, powerful database with excellent tech support when needed

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• Robust and reliable database

  crb142September 4, 2008

  Pros

  Easy to use. Flexible. Customisable. Excellent tech support when needed.Useful manuals.

  Cons

  Nothing so far.

  Summary

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• Best software decision I have ever made, even better than Q&A.

  mite1840October 8, 2007

  Pros

  Sesame does a lot of the short cuts in data input that Q&A was unable to do without a lot of programming. We have saved so much time with data input that it is almost unbelievable. The data is more reliable and more portable. We interface with Microsoft Office to provide the our customers the reports they need. This process is all done with ease.<p> We work with a third party provider that was one of the developers of Sesame. They(Hammer Data) provide us with excellent support in a very timely manner.

  Cons

  Summary

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• Powerful program, but not for beginners

  drseedOctober 2, 2007

  Pros

  I am a former user of Q&A 5.0, a MS-DOS relational database program developed by Symantec, but was never fully developed for Windows.. Q&A 5.0 was easy to use and to program. I absolutely loved the program. It was easy to set up, use, and customize. I have used it for years, but when I finally ran out of printers supported by printer drivers in the Q&A program, I had to consider Sesame. Sesame was developed with many of the same programming features of Q&A, plus many more features, and much more flexibility..

  Cons

  After purchasing Sesame I spent quite a few hours trying to successfully translate my Q&A databases, but was very disappointed with the performance of the translation process. I contacted technical support which was helpful, but afterwards I still found the program interface to be frustrating to work with. I was also not up for learning yet another programming language - required to enable some of the advanced features. When I was offered the option by technical supports to translate my databases for a fee, I was quoted an outrageous price of several thousand dollars to use their translation service for translating 4 databases, 3 of which were not that complex. As a small business owner I couldn't afford that, so I decided to try recreating the Q&A databases in Sesame from scratch. Again, I found the user interface very clunky and not intuitive. The menu commands, navigation, and program tools were not were I expected them to be. After having worked with a large number of Windows programs for years, the learning curve is fairly quick for learning new programs, but not not so with this program. I finally gave up on Sesame after about 2 to 3 days of work. Instead I am now considering another program called AnyOrder which will accomplish many of the database needs of my e-commerce and mail-order business. I would have considered MS Access, but did not want to use a Microsoft product. I truly would like to see Sesame succeed, but (with version 1), it has a long ways to go. What Sesame users really need are a lot of sample databases that can be easily modified by the user which would be helpful in shortening the learning curve. <p>I will have to agree with another reviewer, that you should draw your own conclusions about the similarity in tone of the 5-star reviews of this product submitted to date.

  Summary

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