Can your business survive AI?

Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) that want to move on from collections of spreadsheets, disconnected apps, and manual processes often find Big Tech's endless line-up of subscription modules and user fees impossibly expensive.

AI will not make it easier...at the moment it is free, but when the promotions end AI will have to pay for itself. The data centers, electricity, cooling water, and other inputs will likely dictate costs beyond the reach of any but large corporations.

Not really a problem. For many SMEs, high-concept and high-price management systems are absurd over-kill. AI will not be transformative. Ultimately most managers just want an easy and efficient way to run their business.

It should be simple: Business managers are experts in their field. They already model their businesses with forms and reports, and they can represent their entire business in spreadsheets. Why not use this knowledge to allow managers to build their own custom management systems?

This does not require AI or knowledge of IT.

Sumer assists managers apply their existing knowledge to build their own integrated management systems.

The Big Tech promise... 'never do simple again'

Over-complication is a business tactic.

When Microsoft realized in the 1990s that they had made a terrible mistake with Excel and Word by improving them to the point that customers no longer needed yearly upgrades, they converted Office 365 into a subscription service. The modern Big Tech strategy was born, and no one would ever do simple again.

From social media to business management programs, high-tech solutions are designed to

1. push subscription and advertising revenue,
2. split off features into up-sale modules, extensions, and pay walls,
3. ensure customers stay dependent on the software provider,
4. keep customers' hands off the controls.

Despite the ads, Big Tech is not "your business partner" out to solve your management problems. Big Tech's mission is to solve only enough of your problem that they can repeatedly tempt you back to buy their next module.

Ideally, a complete solution should be always just out of reach.

High Tech enjoys astonishing profits by adding maximal subscription, module, and user fees.

Getting past the disappointment of 'no AI'

The Sumerians figured out business about 6000 years ago by creating forms and reports. No modules.

Modules are a marketing, not a technical, invention. The data underneath doesn't change, but the modules are intended to split and repackage access to your data and sell back to you separately.

Sumer allows managers to create their own forms and reports. Spreadsheet-style setups are intuitive, and Sumer's library of existing templates can be easily customized.

How it works

Here is an example. The template behind this Price List is almost self-explanatory.

• Column names across the top, parameters down the left side. You probably recognize most of them.
• Add new columns—anything you want—with the 'AddColumn' button.
• Set DataType, Width, Alignment and so on. You can even add Filters and Formulas.

This price list can be recalled and used automatically in sales entry forms and reports.

Other forms for purchasing, production, sales, scheduling, and more have additional parameters, but all work the same way.