Welcome to the ProteanPAPER© system. ProteanPAPER© is the name given, collectively to a suite of web programs, a programming paradigm, and an SQL database structure. There are two facets to ProteanPAPER©. The first facect, called the BACK OFFICE, is the collection of programs used by employees or associates of your business. This area is private and only accessible by authorized individuals on an individually limited basis. The second facet, called the front office, is the collection of programs used by customers, clients, or members of your business. This area is available to the public generally, though parts of the front office are able to access data unique to the customer or client. These areas have controlled access so that only the customer or client can view their own data.

The front office and back office share data, so orders or other types of data are updated immediately for true real-time reporting. The front office, is highly configurable and can be a combination of custom web pages and dynamically generated ProteanPAPER© pages. For example, you can create your own web page, but the catalog of products can be produces automatically from information in your inventory. This ability to create pages based upon data is called dynamic page generation. 

ProteanPAPER© the Browser Based Solution

ProteanPAPER© really is a new implementation of an old paradigm in data systems. Using PCs with browsing software, the internet, and powerful web servers ProteanPAPER© is implementing the old idea of a mainframe and a data terminal. The motivation for this paradigm is more than nostalgia, though. The following bullets summarize the benefits of a remote "main-frame" running business software over a network of desktop PCs running similarly functioning software.

• Only one program needs to be purchased, installed, and maintained for the server as opposed to many copies of a program for each PC.
• Web server machines are more reliable than PCs. Even the MS based web servers are very solid performers. They have redundant hardware, more robust operating systems, and much, much less esoteric software installed on them.
• Web servers are typically maintained much better than their PC counterparts. They have frequent back ups, they have routine software optimizations, they have better activity logs and are monitored much more closely.
• Data for a company is available from virtually any PC provided that PC can meet the security requirements of the server. This means that workers are more mobile and little inconvenience occurs from a single PC being taken out of service.
• Software can be updated easily by the server's host as opposed to every PC needing hardware and software upgrades.
• Easy integration between the Sales Presence of a company and the back end business functions of a Company.
• It is easy to evaluate new software or software enhancements.
• Despite what a person might first think, Remote web servers are typically more secure than local network servers. This reality is not inherent, it is simply a result of an enforced requirement. So remote web servers typically have more physical access requirements, more data transfer requirements (passwords and encryption), and are insulated from disgruntled employees or customers.
• Last but not least, the overall cost of leasing a program and resources for a web server is usually much less than the cost of running a local network much because of the MS reliability reality.

The big advancement of this type of remote data serving over that of the 1950s and 1960s is that the PC is still available for all those feature rich abilities. You can still create the worlds largest spread sheet or the greatest audio visual presentation on the same PC that you use as a simple terminal for the day to day business data needs.

ProteanPAPER© and its novel approaches

Up to this point, we have talked about ProteanPAPER© in a very general way. However, the specifics of ProteanPAPER© are every bit as novel as its web paradigm. As you explore the various modules available for ProteanPAPER© you will probably find yourself commenting about how reasonable and intuitive the new data methods are. For example, the simple shopping cart module is an example of a new twist.

The simple shopping cart is designed for your customers to order things from your web site. The beauty of the ProteanPAPER© approach is that it can be implemented in a very, very easy way. Most other shopping cart systems that have dynamically generated pages and web bots and Java Scripts and who know what else, that restrict what your page can look like and require special abilities in your customer's web browser or your web site host. Paperwork uses the simplest of connections to your web site. Just create hyperlinks with either the showitem.cgi, addcart.cgi, or editcart.cgi as the target file with your company code and product code as arguments.

This allows you to use the simplest of web development tools, from MSWord, MSFrontPage, DreamWeaver, Netscape Communicator, etc. to make the web page you like best. The simple shopping cart will take care of the rest. The cart has built in it the ability to store customer profiles, store orders, capture shipping and billing information etc. On the management side, you have the ability to set up data for your company, your inventory, and to view information about your customers. All this from a simple form based web interface.

The ProteanPAPER© Modules

This type of careful re-think of all the business modules is the hall mark of the ProteanPAPER© system. All modules have a 30 day evaluation period. When you register with the ProteanPAPER© Server, you will be presented with the current prices for the modules

1. Check Book and General Ledger
2. Shopping Cart and Sales Orders
3. Invoicing System with Accounts Receivable
4. Purchase Order System with Accounts Payable and Requisitions
5. Production Order System with Operations and Materials Bills
6. Payroll System with Annual Reviews and Commissions
7. Contact Management System with Internal Communication

Another benefit of the ProteanPAPER© system is that it is always being updated and expanded. So check for other modules in the future.

Protean's ProteanPAPER© Disclaimer

Okay, after assuring you of the relative safety of remote computing, you must be aware that all computer systems whether local or remote involve some level of data risk. In order to keep the costs of the ProteanPAPER© services low, Protean Logic Inc., disclaims all liability for loss of data, inaccuracies or malfunctions in software, or compromises of data security.

In other words, we will do our best to keep the system working properly and keep it secure, but ultimately it is your responsibility to verify both the accuracy of the data you put into the system as well as the data that system produces. Likewise, it is your responsibility to keep up to date backups in the event of an equipment failure or other loss of data retention. Likewise, Protean Logic Inc. takes industry standard measures to protect your data, but we will not be held responsible for malicious acts on the behalf of third parties. So, if a malicious party figures out a way around our security measures and steals or corrupts your data, we will cooperate in every way to help investigate and prosecute the perpetrator, but we will not accept responsibility for that parties acts..