Uniface Post Compuware - Feels like a Start-up.

Its been a while since I last posted and shame on me.... but there is a reason. Being calved out of a big American Corporation isn't easy. Suddenly we have to have our own internal systems like HR, Finance, CRM, Licensing software etc the list goes on! Simple you may say...well let me tell you it would be simple if we were all in the same country and all had the same conditions and we all had large offices with finance and HR present. Its not like that, its like we are a sophisticated Start-Up for each country!

Difference is, we have income coming in immediately and we are now a private Company owned by a very large investment Company that has extensive knowledge of doing these carve outs.

Injecting money and growing a Company is high on the agenda with additional sales staff and most importantly, new Lab developers. All this is happening whilst we are trying to get a brand new Version Uniface 10 out the door. Talk about making it hard for ourselves.

Well I believe we are still on track with that first release which will showcase the new IDE. Uniface is a very powerful development environment, it just looks old fashioned. With the new version released it will bring us right up to speed with look and feel so that younger developers will pursue it.

So Uniface B.V is now headquartered in Amsterdam back to its original home. New Building, New Logo, same management with additions ( someone has to look after the HR and Finance) with total control resting with the management, there is a noticeable change in everyone's attitude.

I have to work from home...its not bad. I have my own coffee machine ! I spend a lot of time on the road anyway.

With our new branding and our "Can Do " attitude, we can pursue the reseller/ Distributor market which is the best solution for us especially here in ANZ. Not everyone is suited to reselling Uniface. It needs to be a close partnership

More postings soon!
 

Uniface - but why did I pick it....

I know I have been a bit lax in posting on my blog but I truely have been busy with the rollout of the Uniface business across Asia, Australia and New Zealand. It's so busy we have had to recruit full time services people to complete work with customers.

Uniface by nature is a very quick development tool. Far greater than the likes of Java and .Net
One can say that the productivity is enormous and the return on investment is sometimes forgotten to regular users of the product.
Recently I was asked to attend a customers site to work with the new management team on an older Uniface site - to rewrite their contract for Uniface. They did not see the value in what they were doing and wanted to see if they could change their contract to reflct their success with their product. Some would say that this is a good move on their part. I saw this as an opportunity to show them the value they were getting.

So they could understand what they had and where they had come from, (as these were all new to the Company) I started out with a bit of history of Uniface and included their Company in the history chart. Working through the changes/evolution in technology and how Uniface has coped with that. Anyone writing an application in Uniface would not have to rewrite the code again as it morphed up with technology changes in itself is an amazing feat. Working with other development codes, this would have been a rewrite or a major enhancemnet at best. So what does this statement mean? Well consider the effort in rewriting code because your language cannot cope with the technology improvements. You are looking at a large team of developers to not only rewrite but to redevelop that application as well as look after the current application.

Uniface copes will all this and as a result, migrating to the next level (technology change and inclusions) is as easy as a recompile. This then gives the resources more time to concentrate on utilising the new features of the Uniface Product - this is sometimes missed on Uniface developers as they use this time to enhance their product or add new modules. they forget how much time has just been saved. I have to work diligently to ensure the developers are aware of the new inclusions when they do move to the next versions.

I have had a look at a number of Companies in a vertical market - one using Uniface to develop their product and four using other development languages to develop very similar products.

It is quite obvious that the productivity level is very different. The Uniface team had 5 developers and the others ranged from 45 to 120 for the same or similar applications. Just in wages alone, this is a significant difference. But what of productivity? Surely 45 or 120 developers would be harder to coordinate and keep in check on methodology of the written product. Why is it taking these guys longer to respond to market changes? They have more developers, surely they are faster? No, not necesarily as Uniface does a lot of work automatically under the covers that other languages need to do manually or redo constantly.

I think Uniface development is ahead of the game although I hear that younger developers say it looks old and is a bit clunky. This is probably true! It does look old. I also know that this is being re-developed as I write and that the world will soon see a more modern and easier Uniface IDE. This would be more attractive to the younger developers with the new look and feel plus the ease of use over the top of the normal Uniface development features. Once again no technology breaks!

Back to the Company I was talking to. Once we showed the cost benefit to the Company compared to some of their competitors, it was truely a revelation to them. It is always good to reflect on how you are performing compared to the rest of the world.

 

Uniface - how easy is it?

Well I was astounded!!
Having travelled from India after seeing clients to Sri Lanka, a country I have not visited before, I met my only customer. A small team of developers in a Government agency that were developing an ERP system to suit their Utility.

We had not met in person before and had only corresponded by email on issues that they had either in Deployment or in some minor issues in coding. Meeting this customer was a great experience. We discussed the application with their management and developers, and we presented aspects of where Uniface was headed in the upcoming releases, we discussed RIA, we discussed the various training methods and modules..... and then came the statement from them.....

We have never had any training in Uniface!

Well, as in my opening remark.... I was astounded!!!
These developers had written ( although they had source code given to them by the VAR) modules and aspects of the application without any formal training.

I could not let this go and probed a bit more. The customer had a VAR  application that the VAR no longer wanted to keep. The Customer asked for the source code and trained themselves in developing Uniface code even developing Uniface services. Wow!! now that is testimont to ease of use of Uniface. Sure there was some things that could be done more effectively or perhaps more efficiently, but they did indeed develop modules to this application which have now been deployed live.
I wonder what other development languages are out there that could be as good as this?

Java Is A Dead-End For Enterprise App Development

Mike Gualtieri's blog on "Java is a dead-end for enterprise application development" is true as far as it goes. I notice that he refrains from going that extra step in describing the pain some companies are in with their development strategies which still include Java and C#. Companies are spending large sums of money to slowly develop applications for mission critical use. Apart form the cost, the time to market seems to always be under estimanted with projects continually coming in over time.

I have noticed a large company that has two systems that do the same thing ( as they bought an opposition Company).  One is a  uniface application, and one is a Java application. They are still some time away from migrating one system into another and they therefore have to do changes on both systems. As these systems are major Banking systems and are subject to legislative changes it is essential that the changes are done.
I was not surprised to see that the Uniface application changes were completed and tested in three weeks and that the Java changes were still (at the time of writing) into the fourth month.

Surly this demonstates the power of a 4GL like Uniface in the enterprise marketplace. Maybe Mike needs to interview some of the companies that have tried both. Here is Mike's Blog if you wish to view it.

: http://blogs.forrester.com/mike_gualtieri/10-11-23-java_is_a_dead_end_for_enterprise_app_development

Uniface - Getting Committement

I have many customers in Asia Pacific using Uniface and they have saved thousands of dollars over the years as they have migrated their applications up to the latest version without rewriting or spending large amounts of cash to migrate. There are not too many products out there that you can do this. Technology breaks are always a show stopper to keep an application on a supported platform  unless you have developed your application in Uniface or something similar.
Luckily my customers are able to migrate their applications easily but have they invested this saved time and money to look at the new features that Uniface have added in each of the versions? I think not! The Uniface Lab looks at all the wish lists that are published and technology improvements to add to our Development and Deployment software. A lot of time and effort is made in the development and testing of these additional features and functionality yet the Developers seem to ignore a majority of the new stuff that is released. Why is this?
All too common today we are asked about things such as BPM / work flow and how to add such components to their applications. Uniface Flow was released many years ago and it is only now we see the uptake accelerating. Why is this so? I think there are a number of factors but you may know some others. Today we see a reliance on audit trails for making sure things are completed. Work flow tools are exceptional at this. Productivity is always a requirement that applications have to help pursue. Work flow tools are good at this.What are other reasons that developers are now looking at  BPM/Work flow. I would like to hear from you on this.

Starting up in Malaysia

Getting new customers in Malaysia is a very time consuming task. I have a very good relationship with my current clients and it is time to step up and get new business in Malaysia to keep this territory a viable proposition. I honestly think it has some great potential but I cannot get a reseller into this market that will do justice to the Uniface business plan.

Working with Uniface in a new and competative marketplace like Malaysia should be a "no brainer" but the takeup rate is very slow. The Uniface Team will be embarking on a very bold initiative in the coming months to break this slow uptake with the help of our current customers.