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Vendors at Spectrum 2005
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1mage
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AccuSoft Enterprises
The new AccuTerm 5.2b has a number of welcome enhancements and fixes.
This release also includes the new Visual Styles and a new Smart User
Interface to give green screen apps a nice Windows-looking look and feel.
I also got a chance to spend some time with Gary Huffer and his Symbion
Application development environment built over the AccuTerm GUI. I predict
this is going to be one of the hot new entries into this space when it
goes production sometime this year. Pete Schellenbach was giving away
CD’s with a free copy of AccuTerm with a free single user version
of the production version of the QM database.
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AdValorem
The EasyTax software package is an intelligent bit of middleware that
can be integrated with a business application to enable use of any one
of the many well known and auditor-friendly sales tax engines which were
not available to MultiValue users before EasyTax. Those engines dynamically
update their sales tax tables with state and local rates and obscure rules.
Rather than trying to calculate sales taxes yourself, make a call to EasyTax
which in turn performs the translations and calls to the professional
sales tax engine.
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AdvancedWare
Paul Batten (the man with the spider) showed the AWWebStore, a turnkey
shopping cart application which uses ASP.NET to connect to U2 through
RedBack - AdvancedWare is a recognized specialist with RedBack and .NET.
AdvancedWare also provides education, and custom .NET development services
for applications including the DataFlo, Avante', and ManFact among others.
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Ashwood Computer Company
Ashwood is a one-stop-shop for MV systems users considering addition,
upgrade, replacement, or conversion of their server hardware, OS, DBMS,
anything related to their MV systems. Ashwood's expertise spans the many
MV platforms and they provide professional consulting and project management
services for many varied applications and vertical markets.
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DesignBAIS
The new DesignBais v2.0 supports Apache web server in addition to IIS,
and with W3C compliance now allows non-IE browsers and devices to render
professional web-based user interfaces. Since its 1.0 introduction last
year, DesignBais has sold several thousand end-user seats and is now available
over all major MV DBMS platforms. I've been a fan of this software since
I first saw it because it lets the average Pick guy make a great GUI without
knowing anything about GUI coding.
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DMcons
Once you get to know the mvToolbox you’ll miss it when you don’t
have it. This is a character editor to beat all editors, with mousing
and windowing in emulators that support it. The search and replace functions
are outstanding. With all of the GUI tools in our market, Bro Cope who
authored the software remembers that we all still have to maintain BASIC
code behind all that. The only downside of the software is that it has
too many features to understand in one demo (that’s a sort of compliment).
Because it's a character-based editor, most commands must be remembered
and entered by hand, but the online Help is extensive, Support is personal
and thorough. Upcoming enhancements include right-click context menus
to make the most valuable commands easy to access. Bro is considering
adding a graphic interface as well, available at no cost to users under
maintenance. My advice to readers is to give it a chance, and this toolbox
will pay for itself in no time. My advice to Bro (and other developers)
is to be careful about making your product so feature rich that it’s
difficult to explain or demo in the precious few minutes that prospects
allow. It may be better to market a Lite version, and allow users to activate
the free Super-Features as they go.
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Eagle Rock Information Systems
No info yet
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EasyCo
In addition to MirroredSolutions, EasyCo is now offering QPBX, hosted
PBX solutions. This allows small-to-mid sized businesses to easily manage
a phone system to make users around the country look like they’re
all in the same office. Reasonable pricing provides services only available
in large and expensive products. Martin Philips from Ladybridge Systems
was also making the rounds to let people know about QM, a low-cost MV
DBMS alternative, and OpenQM, the Open Source MV platform for developers.
(EasyCo is a local partner and major supporter of the QM/OpenQM initiative.)
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Entrinsik
The Informer software allows end-users with different levels of experience
and security clearance to intuitively create and run attractive ad-hoc
and/or stored reports from a browser UI. Informer has a number of high-end
features at a cost that is appealing to smaller sites - regardless of
site size. If you're shopping for new reporting tools, check this one
out. The most recent update includes a boost in performance.
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FusionWare
Antoon Houben demonstrated the FusionWare Integration Server XSLT wizard
which converts data from one format to another. This is a powerful, but
easy to use product that deserves serious inquiry by those who need to
extract and transform data among different data sources including MV and
relational databases, unstructured data and XML documents. FusionWare
also announced a new relationship with BlueFinity to market and sell mv.NET.
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GA Services
Sherwood King provided info about hardware support and services. GA Services
can set you up with a variety of local and/or remote backup and disaster
recovery plans, and of course they can provide onsite hardware servicing
across the USA.
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IBM
No info yet
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InterSystems
Senior Management and other personnel were present in-force and clear
about their intentions for the MV market, offering tools, welcoming community,
and attractive prices for migrations to Cache’. That thriving market
is reminiscent of our own and their successful marketing should serve
as an example for MV vendors.
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jBASE International
In association with BlueFinity, jBASE presentations included MV.NET,
a competent library for .NET developers which offers features to distinguish
itself from similar offerings, including support for a number of MV platforms
and a helpful Pick BASIC editor within the Visual Studio .NET IDE.
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Kore Technologies
Two primary offerings were profiled: WebTeam is a new collaboration and
project management groupware environment, part of the KommerceServer family
of storefront software and web solutions. Kore is very big on .NET plug-n-play
web environments for intra/extra/internet applications.
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Management Information Tools,
Inc.
MITS is the tool by which most vendors and users measure all other reporting
and BI tools in this market. Everyone respects MITS, but I’ve heard
a lot of arguments against it from competitors. While I think most competing
products are actually good and reasonably priced, I think MITI has a valid
response to refute all claims. One of the claims from competitors is that
MITS is too expensive. Another claim is that their hypercube technology
is slow or cumbersome to maintain. I don’t think thousands of active,
maintenance paying sites worldwide can all be deluded; most of them must
be satisfied with the value for their ongoing investment. My advice to
all is to get the best facts you can from all sources and make informed
purchase decisions. When the playing field is level with all facts on
the table, buy the product that suits your business and fiscal requirements.
After a four year partnership, MITI is now independent of IBM.
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Natec Systems
Keep an eye on Nathan Rector and you’ll see the future of the MV
market. Nathan’s forte is connecting anything MV to everything non-MV,
including mobile devices and external software applications. In addition
to explaining .NET, once again he’s leading the pack by being one
of the few (only?) people talking about RFID. Doing something high tech?
Check with Nathan first.
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Northgate Information Solutions
Reality 11.0 is now available for RedHat Linux 9 and AS/ES-3, with features
like Automatic File Sizing in real-time, GUI spooler manager, improved
SQL compatibility, BASIC in DICT definitions, and more. I think most people
still think of Reality in the historical sense, but we must remember that
there are many sites running on this modern platform, and with new and
improved migration tools, Northgate is as much a major player in this
industry as any other MV DBMS provider.
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OHM Systems
Catherine Anbil, Chuck Powder, and others in the OHM crew showed off
two primary offerings: the OHM application software and the Wade application
development environment, which offers a unique and intelligent distribution
of components between server, middle-tier, and client.
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ONgroup
Denise Buttrey finally set me straight about ONware. This is an MV engine
much like any other, with ED, BASIC, SORT, etc.. With ONware you can write
your app in D3 or U2 and deploy in Oracle or SQL Server, or you can do
your normal MV development right in ONware without any other MV DBMS.
You can even exchange data between MV and relational databases through
simple q-pointer/synonyms. Many people want affordable, seamless integration
with relational data - this is it.
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Raining Data
No info yet
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Rasmussen Software
Bob Rasmussen’s Anzio terminal emulator has impressive support for
Unicode for international character support. His Print Wizard seems to
be the answer to a number of questions I hear about printing across a
network, from browsers, and to PDF or FAX. Bob is too soft-spoken to sing
the praises that his software deserves – if you have unique printing
needs, I recommend you take a look at his offerings.
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Revelation
OpenInsight for Linux now enables the creation of a Linux desktop app
with the same ease and features as its mature and cost-competitive Windows-based
sibling. There’s no room to expand on this here, but this is a Very
good thing. To my knowledge and their credit, Revelation is the only representation
of MV at Linux World anymore. They’re marketing to a mainstream audience,
and making it easy for educators to become familiar with the DBMS we all
know and love. Big congratulations to Mike Ruane and his team for doing
what everyone else agrees should be done but somehow never gets around
to doing.
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Sierra Bravo
Info available need to organize
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Stamina Software
Info available need to organize
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Synergetic Data Systems
The UnForm software supplements document generation with high quality
forms, barcodes, MICR, and other features only available with extensive
manual coding. Documents from Windows or Linux can also be faxed or e-mailed.
Unform has a polished look and a number of people seemed to take interest
in this offering. Their sdOffice software allows MS Office applications
to be automated from anywhere.
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Synergetic Data Systems
The UnForm software supplements document generation with high quality
laser forms, PDF documents, barcodes, MICR, and other features only available
with extensive manual coding. Documents from Windows, Unix or Linux can
also be faxed or e-mailed. Unform has a polished look and a number of
people seemed to take interest in this offering. Their sdOffice software
allows MS Office applications to be automated from anywhere.
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Total Computing Solutions
TotaLink
No info yet
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Via Systems
MyViewpoint is a new BI dashboard tool which presents very attractive
views of data in a professional looking, java-based container. This is
a nice alternative to do-it-yourself rendering of business data with tools
like Excel, Cognos, or Crystal Reports. The software is priced well with
similar products in this category. An upcoming release provides for reporting
from a "cubed" data warehouse. Congratulations to Laura Hatfield,
long time Via Systems employee, recently promoted to U.S. Operations Mgr.
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Zumasys
No info yet
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© 2007 Nebula Research and Development
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