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2009 has been a huge year for looksoftware
- lets look at the highlights:
FY 2008/09 - Record Revenue
Against the backdrop of the Global Financial Crisis, looksoftware recorded a 20% increase in turnover for FY2008/09. Our focus on "Reuse in Tough Times" struck a chord with ISVs and end users alike. Multi-channel UX and web service enablement have changed the face of modernization, and looksoftware worked with numerous organisations in 2009 to transform their legacy applications at a fraction of the cost of replacing, in as little as four months!
Reno & Antwerp - Record Attendances
In a year where major trade events like COMMON and Collaborate saw drastically reduced attendances, looksoftware has run two conferences – Reno, Nevada, USA in April and Antwerp, Belgium in September - with record registration numbers. Customers and partners have invested in our modernization message, and feedback suggests that the value of attending our events makes the time and financial investment well worthwhile. Don't just take our word for it though:
"You guys do a great job of providing a well-rounded
set of sessions that relate to the diverse group of attendees
you have." - Steve Siewierski, StoneRiver
"Had a great time and got the information I was
looking for and many questions answered. Thanks!" - Brian
Mayfield, GAMMA Software Inc.
"This is the best conference I have ever attended."
- Oscar Gutierrez, ERP & Web Solutions
Our next US conference will be in Orlando in April 2010.
Keep an eye on the looksoftware website for
further details.
Version 9
In June, we released Version 9 of the looksoftware suite of products, with new features including a brand new developer interface, smartnav control and Master Forms. Early uptake has been strong, and feedback suggests that the enhancements - in particular smartnav - have been universally popular!
Version 10 is scheduled for release in 2010, and boasts even more enhanced functionality - watch this space for further details. Like Version 9, Version 10 is built using the latest UX technologies from Microsoft including WPF, XAML and Silverlight. Version 10 implements these technologies “out-of-the box” enabling your IBM back-end applications to deliver the very latest web based UX without you needing to worry about rewriting the UI.
Growth of Service enablement and SOA
2009 proved service enablement is the logical first step towards delivering the benefits of SOA for existing applications. It takes a few minutes to expose a services interface to an application using soarchitects’ transaction recorder – enabling your IBM core applications to easily integrate with other applications and platforms, simplifying supply chain automation. The most recent example is Abbott Labs who have extended their front-end modernization efforts to the back end.
Jeffrey Tan of Abbott’s said “soarchitect’s ability to rapidly expose reusable services from our BPCS back-end ERP means we can define workflows that integrate our disparate applications”.
Change to LANSA partnership
LANSA, looksoftware's first reseller, has been a partner for over 10 years. In June this year our reseller agreement was replaced with an ISV relationship, meaning LANSA can continue to bundle parts of the looksoftware suite in its own products like RAMP. This change reflects looksoftware's growth in both EMEA and the Americas, and our ability to service these markets both directly and with our network of local resellers. We wish LANSA well in the future, and look forward to a continued partnership with them as an ISV.
i Community Initiatives
2009 has been an interesting year for the IBM i, with well published initiatives like iManifest raising awareness in Japan and beyond. looksoftware has coordinated a number of initiatives focused on bolstering the long-term health of the i community. With the support of IBM, we organised two seminars for Australian i users, with Alison Butterill (IBM) and Trevor Perry (Angus Thinks) providing updates on the future of the i, and modernization essentials. At the request of a leading group of IBM i influencers, we developed ilook, our FREE IBM i OS modernization software. We are also in the planning phase of a free modernization seminar series, which will educate IBM i users on the benefits of modernization without a bias towards any vendor or software suite. We plan to continue our efforts within the community in 2010, and are working closely with key IBM i influencers to ensure that these efforts provide maximum value at user level for years to come.
ilook Now GA
ilook is one of looksoftware's largest investments of this year. We missed our delivery targets and apologise for any inconvenience caused. During beta testing we discovered the ilook install experience was unnecessarily complex. Given looksoftware's core tenet of making our software simple and easy to use, we bit the bullet and made the changes, forcing a delayed GA. Hundreds of new looksoftware customers now have access to ilook with the GA rollout scheduled to complete next week. We remain very confident that ilook will help the i community appreciate that modernization is a sensible long term strategy, that protects the platform’s future.Apply for ilook here!.
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