I'm new to a lawfirm where we have AREV 2.0 to track estates, wills, and trusts. I have no clue who developed our application, there's no local documentation, and I can't even log on with any admin type access to look at the database structure via editor! Our goal is to migrate this data over to a MSSQL backended application which is serving the same function. Nobody's wanted to tackle this in the past and so since I'm the new guy…

Anybody have any ideas on how I might: 1)discover the mystery developer (ARev shows no invoice from us, so they're sure we bought it from a third party; our accounting office doesn't keep records that far back so they have no record either); 2)get access to the data tables to see what kind of a job we're in for as we try to migrate to SQL?

What a weird dilemma!

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer,

Bill Snyder

[email protected]

Surely there should be some paperwork in the law firm as to who the system was purchased from. Failing that some sort of support had have been needed in the past: to whom were the checks written to?

Where is the law firm you work for located? The ARev community might be able to make an educated guess as to who developed the system.

When you start ARev up it should display the serial number (goes by fast on a standalone machine so keep your finger ready on the pause key). If the developer vendor every registered the product with RTI it should be in their records. I don't beleive RTI tracked which serial numbers were sent to which distributors so if it was never registered it may not be traceable that way.

Probably your best bet would be to secure the services of an ARev consultant. There are several listed in the Developer's Network section of the website or you can post a "Help Wanted" there, Larry Wilson has listings on www.advancedrevelation.com, and I'm sure you'll get several offers from here.

Thanks for your suggestions. Your logical solutions were some of the same ones we followed - to no avail. There's no IS documentation, the accounting department doesn't keep copies back from 1990. Revelation has the serial number registered, but from us, not the third party we bought it from. We don't show any purchases of upgrades or receipts of typically traceable info. Our program is called Advanced Revelation and has the old Seattle and NY phone numbers on the splash screen, so there's not even a hint a who might have developed it. The only way I can even get into the program is to log in as an attorney with the attorney's name!

We're in Chicago, so maybe through the grapevine, someone will have an idea on how to hack into our little mystery. I think it's probably going to take someone who can provide some R/BASIC expertise to get into the data so we can see what we've got.

Again, thanks for your response,

Bill Snyder

Okay, since it is registered to your firm then RTI can help you getting into the Sysprog account.

From Sysprog you can see what accounts and user names are set up as well as changing passwords.

The problem that might not be so easy to overcome is if the application is using its own login security.

Is there a chance the system was developed in house? Perhaps a computer-wiz attorney or relative back in the late 80's early 90's?

Also are you running on a network? Has the same firm (if not inhouse) been supporting the network since the late 80's? Often ARev developers sold networks along with the software package or at least were closely tied to Novell network resellers and integrators. That may be another possible lead.

Thanks for all the leads. I'll call AREV back and see if I can gain access.

The same IT/IS group has not existed from '90 to the present year, but we do have a Novell network, and Ceridian. I'll check with both of those as ideas for who may have sold it to us and been involved in the initial development. Based on what I've learned today, I do think that probably we had an "inhouse" developer or close connection to one.

Thanks for your time and input,

Bill

If you need data exported, check out:

http://www.ts.co.nz/~finsol/scan.htm

Alternatively, I can export the data for you in .csv format suitable for Excel, Access etc. at a reasonable cost. This can be done by emailing the data to me and then I can export and email back the results.

Regards

Jocelyn Amon

Financial Solutions Limited

[email protected]

I have a fairly god de-compiler for arev code

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