Okay, you can read that two ways. We sure don't mean that Elements SBM will never change... but we do mean that you won't have to buy an upgrade! When something changes, it will change instantly, and you'll have the benefit immediately. We fix a bug, you get the fix, right away. No downloads, no patches, no waiting around to have someone send you a CD.

Elements SBM is designed to give us the ability to deliver you new features and let you play around for a while. Does it help you run your business? Leave it on, and we'll take care of the rest. It doesn't help? Just turn it off, and it's gone!

When it comes to new features and modules, we're always thinking of ways to improve the system, but if you have some ideas of Elements SBM that you think we're missing, just drop us a line via the Feedback link on every page. Believe it or not, your suggestion will be funneled right into the Developer section of our Elements SBM implementation, and an engineer will have a look at it straight away.

On the subject of Eating Your Own Dog Food, you can rest assured that we are running our business on Elements SBM and nothing else (you should have seen our Developer Element to do list back in 2005!) That's a bit of reassurance that you might not find with the so-called competition.

Assistance with Elements SBM begins the minute that you download Elements SBM. Right next to the application is a "Quick Start Guide" that introduces the basic Elements SBM concepts. A quick read of that should be enough to get most people started on the system. In depth help and a complete tutorial can be found in the Help Menu of the browser.

Once you're logged into Elements SBM itself, we provide extensive help on every page, as well as a technical manual (delivered on PDF -- make all the copies you want) and access to our world class Support Center, based right here in the good old USA.

Elements SBM is currently under final development and on track to be released in 3rd quarter 2008.

We've decided to break the Elements SBM roll out into two phases, and Phase I will indeed be Mac only, in order to take advantage of the benefits of Cocoa and Webkit. Phase II will be the introduction of a Windows version, which includes the same functionality as the Mac OS X version built on Webkit as well (Thanks, Apple, for releasing a windows version!).

Although we think that anyone can benefit from Elements SBM, our focus is primarily on companies from one to fifty employees. The current version is focused on Customer Relationship Management, along with a complete Personal Information Manager.

Web 2.0 is the next generation of application development. Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

We think that we're ahead of the curve on this whole Web 2.0 business, and, with Elements SBM, you'll be, too. Now, when you're at the next IT gathering, you can nod smugly when someone brings up the subject.

A traditional desktop application is limited by what it can do on your computer. Sure, you can network your company, run over VPN for remote access, and pay someone a fair bit of money to try and get some of your disparate systems working together. Or you can go with a web application, which solves those issues, but introduces new ones, regarding ease of use, security and limited functionality.

Well, we thought that maybe there was a better way to approach the issue, and that's just what we did. Elements SBM is part desktop application, with all of the ease of use and functionality that involves, and part rich 2.0 web application, that puts your whole business at your fingertips, any time, anywhere. Our hybrid application brings these two pieces together for a stunning solution.

Kind of like chocolate and peanut butter, to coin an old phrase.

Well, yes and no. Yes, we expect you to pay for it. Frankly, you'll expect to pay for it. After all, we don't spam, we don't have pop up or banner ads and, aside from letting you know when new features are available, we're not going to pester you about any add-ons, "value added services" or things like that.

But, the revenue from such a feature rich application has to come from somewhere, right? You should see our bandwidth bills, or the little grin on our Apple server reseller's face when we come a-calling. So, yes, we charge a low monthly fee that is based on the number of people you have in the system, what features you're going to use, and, potentially, the amount of server space you take up (we're pretty generous on the "free space" level, though, you most likely won't exceed it.)

Well, it's similar in the same way that a Ferrari is similar to a school bus. They both have wheels, an engine, and will get you where you need to go. They might even both be yellow! But how it gets you there, how fast you can go, how elegant the experience is, those are some dissimilarities.

Of course, if you have ten kids, a spouse and three dogs, the Ferrari may not be the best option. We don't pretend that our product is intended for all companies. Hey, there's a disclaimer around here someplace that specifically says "If you have over one hundred employees, this isn't the solution for you."

So, check out our features, compare them to the other guys, and bear in mind what we've set out to do -- provide a small business management system that is clean, elegant and easy to use. Only you can make the determination of whether you're ready to take your company to the next level of innovation.