I would call this an unfair assessment. Do you have functioning knowledge/experience with his products to make an informed assessment that it's "junk"? Chris has been a very helpful contributor on this listserv and has always offered full disclosure with respect to topics that ride the line between helpful information and promotion. Those of us at small institutions where pretty much every ERA solution is cost prohibitive are most likely interested in cost effective solutions.

Just my two cents, but there's really no need for the vitriolic tone regardless of the topic.

Scott

Sent from my Apple IIe

> On Aug 18, 2014, at 6:31 PM, "Josh Jessen" <xxxxxx@UNOMAHA.EDU> wrote:
>
> Hey Chris,
>
> On behalf of everyone else who is tired of your emails, please find another way to sell your junk. This is a place for people to share best practices and it isn't a venue for your business.
>
> Best regards,
> Josh
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Chris Thompson
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2014 9:11 AM
> To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
> Subject: [RESADM-L] Thank You! (and Commercial Offering)
>
> I want to thank all the people from the listserv who've helped us over the last year to come up with an affordable research administration software solution for smaller institutions.  We discussed what the most important needs for you were and pricing that you felt was reasonable and we plugged away at it until we came up with a plan.  This was no small feet and we went through a number of iterations to put something together that we're calling FastTrak.  We feel it lives up to the goals we set as a group.
>
> So what's included?  We started with the Kuali Coeus eRA system
> (www.kuali.org/kc)  because it's open source and provided over 95% of the needs you shared (pre-award, post award, sub awards, negotiations, conflict of interest, IRB and IACUC) and most importantly it was FREE.
> Free is great but it has to be good too. The Kuali Coeus interface is a little overwhelming so we cleaned it up and added "dashboard"
> functionality to make it more user friendly. Then we added integration with human resource and general ledger systems to keep your systems in synch. REPORTING was next, everyone had this high on their list so we added InSight light so you have access to "canned" reports quickly and easily.  It HAD to be hosted, a software as a service solution, because getting IT support was something that most everyone at smaller institutions said they struggled with.  Then we threw in a module we recently developed called "TurboGrants" (an interview based proposal development tool for principal investigators) because Kuali Coeus is geared more towards the back office and you need a tool researchers can use with little to no training.
>
> So great, there's a cool solution that does everything I need, it integrates with my other systems and provides reporting, it's easy to use, but how do I get it up and running?  That was the next challenge.
> We created excel files that can be populated manually or through data feeds to populate your initial data (people, sponsors, organizations, etc.).  Then we established a series of webinars and one on one meetings to configure the system and provide training affordably.  Finally we developed user documentation that's easy to follow after the training providing everything we think you'll need.
>
> We've already signed up a few folks from small schools who are very excited (http://moderas.org/News).  We'd love to share the pricing but want to keep this as much of an informational email possible. If you'd like to learn more please visit our website at http://moderas.org/Kuali-Coeus-SaaS?resadmin and apologies to those who don't. If nothing else this will serve notice to other vendors that the age of overcharging for research software is over.
>
> We're really excited about FastTrak, it's what we got into this business to do, to play a small part in helping researchers and research administrators, so they can keep doing the important work they do everyday.  We look forward to your thoughts on how to make this even better and Thanks again to all who helped, we couldn't have done this without you!
>
> Best regards,
> Chris
>
>
> ======================================================================
> Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including  subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available  via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the  "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
>
> A link directly to helpful tips:  http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
>
>
> ======================================================================
> Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
> subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
> via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the
> "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
>
> A link directly to helpful tips:  http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help
> ======================================================================

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the
 "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)

 A link directly to helpful tips:  http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help
======================================================================