1st Major Switch - Software Required

[cynapz]

Greetings,

I have begun the process of migrating my company's network infrastructure from PC to Macintosh. We are an Athletic Training Facility, and we currently utilise Aphelion Health Club Management PC Software in our establishment.

Could anyone recommend a source that would point to an equivalent Mac software solution for this kind of business? It has to handle POS (Point of Sale), Member tracking, database filtering and mail merge; debit and credit card transactions; Front Counter / Card swipe facility access, Inventory etc. The Membership database will need to handle from between 600 to 2000 members.

I have thought of utilising the Terminal Services option on a PC (connecting a Mac to a PC workstation or server) in order to run the Aphelion software, but I would prefer a total native Mac OSX solution.

Finally, and at the risk of showing my ignorance, can you run Windows software on an Xserve and access it from another windows machine (eg. Application Server)? Some of the software that we use is custom and proprietary. Our only other option seems to be designing a custom OS X software package for what we need.

Thank-you in advance for any help or advice.

Cynapz

 

[Amen-Moses]

Greetings,

I have begun the process of migrating my company's network infrastructure from PC to Macintosh. We are an Athletic Training Facility, and we currently utilise Aphelion Health Club Management PC Software in our establishment.

Could anyone recommend a source that would point to an equivalent Mac software solution for this kind of business? It has to handle POS (Point of Sale), Member tracking, database filtering and mail merge; debit and credit card transactions; Front Counter / Card swipe facility access, Inventory etc. The Membership database will need to handle from between 600 to 2000 members.

I have thought of utilising the Terminal Services option on a PC (connecting a Mac to a PC workstation or server) in order to run the Aphelion software, but I would prefer a total native Mac OSX solution.

Finally, and at the risk of showing my ignorance, can you run Windows software on an Xserve and access it from another windows machine (eg. Application Server)? Some of the software that we use is custom and proprietary. Our only other option seems to be designing a custom OS X software package for what we need.

Thank-you in advance for any help or advice.

Cynapz

Typing "POS Mac" into Google brought up a few interesting looking links.

You can also run Unix apps on OSX which may widen your choices but it takes a bit of fiddling around and quite a bit of knowledge to do so.

Not sure about running Windross stuff on an Xserve, but it is doubtful, which software did you have in mind?

Amen-Moses

 

[cynapz]

I was actually wondering if I could run the current Aphelion Club Management software in a virtual space (eg Virtual PC by Connectix which was taken over by Microsoft). In am not sure whether this would be a feasible solution if I could not locate an equivalent Mac Club Management software package. I will also check out those Mac POS links. Thanks again.

Regards,
Cynapz

Typing "POS Mac" into Google brought up a few interesting looking links.

You can also run Unix apps on OSX which may widen your choices but it takes a bit of fiddling around and quite a bit of knowledge to do so.

Not sure about running Windross stuff on an Xserve, but it is doubtful, which software did you have in mind?

Amen-Moses

 

[Amen-Moses]

I was actually wondering if I could run the current Aphelion Club Management software in a virtual space (eg Virtual PC by Connectix which was taken over by Microsoft). In am not sure whether this would be a feasible solution if I could not locate an equivalent Mac Club Management software package. I will also check out those Mac POS links. Thanks again.

Regards,
Cynapz

Virtual PC will not run on G5 based systems and Microshite aren't planning on releasing a new version for at least a year or so, there are alternatives in the Linux world which will probably run under OSX but they will require a lot of messing about, i.e installing the developer tools, fink, X11 etc and then probably compiling it your self.

My long list of todos includes just that so I'll let you know how I get on.

Amen-Moses

 

[dziner]

I remembered reading a few articles on the Apple website about business using Macs. Here's a few that stood out for me.

Vespa SOHO

Medical Practice

Bakery

Hope you find a solution!