State of The Art Contractor: Software Support Lost

As a matter of good business, software companies generally treat end users fairly. However, sometimes they don’t. One such case is the decision by Computer Associates of San Jose, Calif., to discontinue support of its BPI Entry Level accounting system. This decision essentially means hundreds of contractors must now spend thousands of dollars on new accounting software. BPI was one of two accounting programs made by small companies that were sold by IBM in the early 1980s. Both BPI and the software made by Peachtree Software Inc. included job costing capabilities, which became very popular. Because IBM is so respected (and because the programs were pretty darn good), both of them sold like hot cakes. By the mid-1980s, BPI had earned a