and had available expertise in VB and were considering getting this done in VB, and considered that it might be a win to have the app run on more than just Windows, I'd at least spend a little time evaluating RealBasic.
[link|http://www.realbasic.com|http://www.realbasic.com]
Because good management AFAK is about preserving options. VB is MS only for sure. RB is cross platform and if you're determined to work with troglodytes (lets face it, people who specialize in basic these days* are hardly your industry elites), you might at least try to get the most bang for your buck.
*BTW, the first proof of concept Smalltalk VM was actually written in Basic (Basic was popular in the late 70's after all).