2015 MultiValue Industry End-of-year Recap
Entrinsik
Q: What new features or services did Entrinsik introduce in 2015?
2015 was a busy year in development at Entrinsik as we introduced versions 4.5 and 4.6 of our Informer BI & reporting software. Enhancements included customized formatted output, embedded links, new maps for dashboards, simultaneous reverse link creation, and much more. MultiValue users can now get even more out of their Informer system with these new reporting, data analysis capabilities, and interactive dashboard features. Informer Roadshows also traveled around the country throughout 2015 offering advanced training for Informer users, ensuring that customers are leveraging all the benefits of the software.
Our predecessor software product, Semtek, went through a significant change/upgrade, becoming Enrole SaaS. The MultiValue database provides many solutions for our customers and corporate clients whose business needs are not simple or generic, and coupled with an intuitive and clickable dashboard user-interface it became an attractive and exceedingly easy to use total solution platform. Training reduced from five or more days in the past down to two, thus proving that the time taken to rewrite and redevelop the entire product and processes was well worth the substantial effort and investment.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product(s) in 2015?
The most exciting thing to happen to Entrinsik in 2015 was its inclusion in some important benchmark reports and award contests. Entrinsik won the SugarCON 2015's Best in Class award for Data, Information, and Analytics in April of this year. Entrinsik Informer was also included both in Gleanster's data visualization benchmark report with a Best ranking in all four categories, as well as in the BARC BI Survey 15 with Leader rankings in six categories. Additionally, Entrinsik was honored to be included in DBTA's 100 Companies that Matter Most in Data for the third consecutive year.
It was an exciting year for our Enrole SaaS product as well! The beginning of 2015 saw Enrole's first customers live and running on a fully cloud-based, web application, for the non-credit departments of both Professional and Continuing Education entities. We gained seven orders in eleven months with more in the pipeline for early 2016. Providing outstanding customer service and attention to detail for our customers has given Enrole substantial credibility in the education arena, but also challenged us with innovative new procedures, all of which have successfully been incorporated into our product and policies.
In addition, both Entrinsik products, Enrole and Informer, were rated highly by users of our software on sites like IT Central, TrustRadius, and Capterra, independent sites that provide user-generated reviews of business software.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
Entrinsik has some very big and exciting things coming in 2016. Readers should be watching for updates and changes in Informer's interface, architecture, features and capabilities as we are continuously evolving Informer to be better than ever before.
Current Informer development efforts are focusing on upgrades to the user interface and architecture, plugin usability, and overall ease of use for non-technical users. Enrole development is ongoing and focused on some features from the predecessor software, and applying new functionality and integrations, identified by existing customers and new prospects alike. Another busy year ahead is planned!
Kore Technologies
Q: What new features or services did Kore Technologies introduce in 2015?
We announced KommerceServer eCommerce Suite Release 5.4. It included many performance improvements and new features. The search and catalog browsing engine was significantly improved to deliver faster results and be more scalable and consistent. The Product Quick Search feature was enhanced to deliver faster and more relevant results to search inquires. A new Request for Quote (RFQ) capability enables sales teams to engage with clients without disclosing pricing and can integrate to the back-office ERP or to Client Relationship Management (CRM) applications. A Branch and Agency locater capability was added enabling the implementation of loyalty programs by generating Web traffic for key customers and/or affiliates. A Product Inventory Search by Branch helps customers find inventory availability at specific locations. A new Coupon and Promotion Code feature helps market your business to new and existing customers. Freight Carrier Zones and Rates Management improvements make it easier to manage internal truck fleets as well as other shipping carriers.
Kore's Kourier Integrator data warehousing and enterprise integration solution was used to integrate with many popular on-premise and cloud-based applications including: Bamboo HR, Blackboard, OnBase and ServiceMax. These new integrations show the power and breadth of capabilities available with Kore's flagship product.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product in 2015?
Our Kourier Integrator data warehousing and integration product continues to make significant inroads into the distribution and higher education markets. Kourier's rapid deployment, high return on investment and expansive feature set for extract, transform, load and enterprise application integration (such as the ability to aggregate data from multiple disparate data sources and real-time integration via RESTful Web Services) make for an industrial strength solution that has become well accepted in the marketplace.
All the product improvements made in KommerceServer this past year helped Kore make significant inroads into the distribution market with additional implementations of our eCommerce solution for B2B and B2C distributors. A number of clients are rolling out new websites with the enhanced capabilities of KommerceServer.
And of course, success leads to more success. It is very exciting for Kore Technologies to have one of its products selected as a Trend-Setting product by Database Trends and Applications magazine! This is the third year in a row for Kore, and the second year in a row that KommerceServer has earned this honor.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
Kore plans for the next release of Kourier Integrator to include rolling out more real-time integration capabilities with significant enhancements to our RESTful Web Services. Expanded support will be provided for non-MultiValue data sources next year with the addition of new data sources, a new Quick Start Workbench for non-MultiValue databases, and new data input/output options (such as JSON).
KommerceServer eCommerce Suite will be providing improved support for mobile sales teams, enabling them to more easily do business on the road. Our mobile strategy for next year will include an improved responsive web design and optimized architecture for mobile. Our eCommerce clients can also expect an improved search engine that will offer higher performance and advanced searching capabilities.
Ladybridge Systems
Q: What new features or services did you introduce in 2015?
This year has seen a large number of minor enhancements as requested by QM users and a few more significant additions.
The scope of the connection pooling feature referenced as a 2015 development in last year's recap article has been extended to allow its use with both QMClient sessions and phantom processes. Use of this feature can give significantly improved responsiveness for short life processes such as web servers.
The multi-tenanting features that allow multiple totally isolated instances of QM on a single server have been enhanced to offer improved security capabilities.
The data encryption features of QM have been extended to allow encryption of data in directory files and indices.
The final release of 2015 includes the first phase of support for simple web services.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product in 2015?
In January 2015, Ladybridge Systems announced the appointment of Zumasys as our worldwide sales and marketing partner for OpenQM. This relationship has, as expected, brought more visibility to the product, greatly increased the resources available to handle customer inquiries, and seen some important new sites come online. Previously established QM resellers continue to operate largely unchanged.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
QM continues to develop, not only by adding new interfaces but also by extension of the core programming environment. The live backup system that allows creation of a consistent backup whilst the server continues to process new work is scheduled to be released early in 2016. There are many smaller but important developments in the pipeline too.
OnSystex
Q: What new features or services did Onsystex introduce in 2015?
This year we introduced multiple new products and capabilities to enable a broader range of companies to leverage their MV investments while introducing critical improvements in user experience, service orientation, cloud integration and reporting.
OASYS|OMNI Integration Framework is an MV-based architecture which exposes MultiValue business logic, referential integrity, and data as web-based REST APIs. It provides a web framework to design and implement services, expose services to external applications, call the services from existing MV code and delivery power web/mobile interfaces to the MV application.
OASYS|BRIDGE Data Warehouse is a configurable near-real-time SQL replication engine. The platform leverages our OASYS|SERVER technology and provides data discovery, mapping, schema generation, triggered replication, high-performance ingestion services and robust error and service level management capabilities. The platform also contains options for event based replication, net change replication and the ability to configure updates from the SQL data in support of new application development.
OASYS|WEB brings together a number of products, including OASYS|OMNI to enrich green screen applications with web-based capabilities. OASYS|Web|Emulator delivers a traditional 80x24 experience in a web-browser and is designed to lower the cost and broaden the users that can gain access the MV application via the web. OASYS|Web|Forms is advanced screen-scrape technology which converts 80x24 emulations into .NET code which in turn produces a responsive web-design experience than can be modified without changing host screens.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product in 2015?
Our OASYS|OMNI launch was quickly adopted and put into production in over 20 sites in its first year and we expect that number to grow to 100 in 2016. One MV developer now using OASYS|OMNI decommissioned dozens of .NET and other scripted API's said, "OMNI is a game-changer for opening up our UniVerse system."
The introduction of our OASYS|WEB solutions allows MV applications to run seamlessly in a web browser including all mobile devices. The ability to split the MV user interface from MV application logic is a game-changer in our industry.
OASYS|BRIDGE a hybrid of OASYS|SERVER and has allowed our customers to build a bridge between MV and SQL databases, the surfacing of Multi-Valued data as normalized and openly accessible remains a core competency.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
Using OASYS|OMNI we will release a real-time ODATA integration layer in Q1 which dynamically delivers full Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations understood by many technologies. It will include mapping capabilities to provide specialized views of data across multiple files and business processes.
Additionally, we will be providing other data source implementations optimized for use in real-time business intelligence solutions such as PowerBI and Tableau.
With many of our clients asking about the cloud, we are planning a number of other product extensions designed to easily begin migrating shared application services to the cloud while maintaining tight integration with existing system.
Pick Cloud
Q: What new features or services did Pick Cloud, Inc. introduce in 2015?
This year the Zayo Group (NYSE: ZAYO) purchased our data center partner, Latisys. This enabled us to not only to leverage the rise in the number of data centers our customers now have access to across the US and Europe but also to increase our offerings from Windows and Linux to include other operating systems as well.
Our partnership with Zayo, as well as Rocket Software, Ladybridge (OpenQM DBaaS) and SDSI (CirrusPrint) has allowed us to be the front-runner in offering the most cost-effective cloud offering in the MultiValue market.
While we continue to offer our flagship products such as OpenQM DBaaS and short-term server leasing (both starting at $15!) and cloud printing products like CirrusPrint, we are always searching for new products and partnerships that can enable us to make cloud computing available to everyone - even the small to medium businesses (SMBs) who felt the cost was out of their reach.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product in 2015?
This year marked the 50th anniversary of PICK/MultiValue. Its longevity is a true testament to the technology my father helped to create. We participated in many MultiValue conferences and user groups, from the inaugural rejuvenation of the Florida Pick Users Group, CMUG, and OCMUG, Rocket's MVU, to the International Spectrum Conference. We spread the word about cloud computing as well as the history of PICK and its future.
In 2015 we were again included on DBTA's Top 100 Companies that Matter In Data list. This was the third consecutive year we were included on this list with such great MultiValue companies as Rocket Software and Entrinsik.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
Pick Cloud, Inc. believes in preserving and rejuvenating MultiValue. This has been our mission statement since our inception. We believe that after 50 years the PICK/MultiValue database has withstood the test of time and through our partnerships and MultiValue expertise, we continue to offer the best, most cost effective, cloud hosting solution for the MV community.
Continue to look for us as we bring more awareness to the MultiValue community of cloud computing and how it's the perfect fit for PICK and MultiValue applications! We will also continue our support of the MultiValue community in the form of PICK MultiValue User Groups and trade conferences.
Pick Cloud, Inc. will continue providing more products and services that are cost effective for MultiValue application owners and companies of any size.
Rocket Software
Q: What new features or services did Rocket Software introduce in 2015?
Rocket Mobile for MultiValue: Someone without previous mobile development experience can quickly build new mobile applications — no special coding skills required with Rocket Mobile for MultiValue. Drag-and-drop widgets and templates simplify development. Leverage MV RESTful services to accelerate integration with and reuse for your MultiValue application.
Rocket UniData 8.1 marks the largest release in terms of enhanced features for the application platform in over ten years. With a true 64-bit architecture, 64-bit file support, security enhancements, account based licensing, support for IPv6, install/upgrade improvements, replication performance monitor, and local subroutines/functions with variable scoping.
Rocket CorVu NG is now integrated D3 DBMS. CorVu NG enables development teams to rapidly build and deploy comprehensive data visualizations with real-time data access, interactive dashboards, and drill-down. CorVu NG provides the right information wherever it's needed — to the desktop, web or mobile device and is integrated with U2 and D3 families of MultiValue databases.
Self-Paced Training is available for U2 Fundamentals for Rocket UniData and UniVerse beginners. Because the class also has an eLab environment with it, allowing you to practice and do exercises while learning, there is a need to limit the time-frame in which you take the class. For more information visit: https://www.rocketsoftware.com/u2-self-paced-training-your-schedule.
Q: What was the greatest or most exciting thing that happened to your company or product in 2015?
Rocket MultiValue University 2015 in Las Vegas reinvigorated the passion for MV technology within our community. This international event attracted attendees from five continents and included not only the U2 but also the D3 family of products. Members of our MultiValue community came together to share and learn more about the latest developments and emerging technologies associated with Rocket MV.
Besides Mobile Enablement, MVU attendees also learned more about modern integration of other languages with MultiValue, such as Python, about security, and high availability. The benefits associated with our latest product releases and other Rocket technologies such as Business Intelligence, Secure File Sharing, Application Lifecycle Management, and much more were also discussed.
Q: What would you like Spectrum readers to watch for in 2016?
In 2016, Rocket will continue to lead business applications into the future of MultiValue by continuing to develop technologies integrated with MultiValue. Python integration with both UniVerse and UniData will be released to complement the native Basic language. Audit Logging will be offered for U2 (first UniVerse and then UniData) to meet the needs of recent auditing demands and help with compliance regulations. Rocket will also offer Self-Service BI with MultiValue data for business users who need to quickly connect to data, create rich visualizations that expose trends, outliers, and historical data, and derive insights for better business decisions. Rocket will also introduce a brand new product that monitors, detects, and cures the system and OS associated with the MV application platform.
SJ+ Systems Associates
Q: What new features or services did SJPlus introduce in 2015?
Every year brings new risks, new threats, new regulations to the world of software development and data processing. But each of these also bring new opportunities to make our software better. PRC gets smarter so that it can put the tools into your hands to create a sleeker, more automated, and more integrated development environment. This results in better software and feedback for your users.
This past year has been a big one for social interaction — PRC has been learning to be more sociable, too. Playing well with others means integrating desktop applications, such as editors and compare tools, automating email, managing movement between servers, and attaching documents and test scripts.
Agile is a buzzword that is simply not going to go away. Some companies have been tweaking their use of PRC to support their new agile practices, which has been fun and rewarding.
Located in Thorton CO.
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