It needs to get easier....



Why are SMEOs struggling?


Economists recognize that intuitive management knowledge should give smaller, nimbler businesses an advantage over large enterprises. Managers have daily direct contact with customers and suppliers and can react immediately to market changes without complex multi-million dollar corporate analysis over things like "should we introduce a new breakfast sandwich?"

The large corporations' advantage is that the business software market is basically a cartel with a near-monopoly on over-priced software. SMEOs can't afford to keep up.

Big Tech could have delivered a program like Sumer 20 years ago, but then they would never be able to enjoy those private islands and 300 million dollar yachts.

So despite all the exciting ads about the amazing software enabling 'new startups', realize that the actual percentage of people employed by small business is shrinking. This means that—after buying all that expensive software—many of those startups don't make it.

Sumer would like to help preserve some of the SMEOs we already have.




Sumer as a start-up


Investors could reasonably ask "if we hope to reduce IT costs by 90%, why not just reduce them by 10% and enjoy the rest as profit?"

That is what Big Tech is doing right now. Lots of multi-billionaires—but we are hoping for a fairer world.

Helping small and medium businesses survive and grow by loosening the big tech strangle-hold on basic business software has its own satisfaction.

So although Sumer does not yet have all the features the big players have, it will. And with Sumer's open-source templates, much of it will come through crowd-sourcing.

Here is what you can do:

  • Watch the video. It has a lot of information, and it is not boring.
    Really.
  • Download Sumer and try the samples. It's free. No sales people.
  • Follow 'Take a Tour' on this website.

If you like what you see, tell us so, and tell others. We would like to find foundation support.




This video presents everything you need to know.




Would you like to take a tour?


If you would like to continue on this website to see more of Sumer in detail, continue here:

Continue with Sumer tour




Or download a sample . . .


This beta version is unsigned so if your browser is working properly it should set off virus blockers. You can temporarily turn off the blockers.

        or in general

  • Click the three little dots in the upper right corner of the brower window,
  • Go to Settings => Privacy and Security,
  • Scroll down to Security and
    • For Edge set Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to Off,
    • For Chrome set the Safe Browsing Security to No Protection,
  • Close the browser and reopen it for the new setting to take effect,

  • Download Sumer.

 Download Sumer

Last update: June 4 2025

  • Now go back to the browser and turn security back on!

  • Sumer should be in your Downloads folder as Sumer.zip. Drag the zip folder to wherever you want to place it, probably in your base C:\ directory or in your Documents folder.
  • Extract the files (right click on the zip folder, then 'Extract all...').
  • Double-click the Sumer.exe file to open it. You shold get a warning like 'Windows protected your PC'. Click 'Run Anyway'.

All files will be created in the Sumer directory, wherever you put it. Sumer can be entirely deleted from your computer by deleting the directory.

Because Sumer beta version still undergoes frequent updates, older versions may not always run with current data formats. If Sumer is not working, try deleting the Sumer.exe file and downloading the latest version with new sample data.


Create a guest account

To create a guest account:

  • Use Username 'Guest' and Password 'Sumer'.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions.

Welcome and Sample Data

Two menu buttons show up immediately on the Guest account screen:

  • Welcome contains detailed help instructions for Sumer features and a walk through the sample data,
  • Sample Data contains several options to download sample data, delete sample data, or delete scratch data.

Note: the sample data is in the cloud, you don't need to look for it on your computer.

Feel free to enter, change, delete all Menus, Stations, and data. Your account belongs entirely to you and has no connection to any other users or libraries.

If you make mistakes and want to start over, you can simply abandon your old account and create a new guest account.