Reno Debrief - Record numbers attend annual looksoftware conference!

Despite plummeting attendance at the major industry events so far this year (COMMON & Collaborate both down over 50%), looksoftware is proud to announce a record turnout at our annual US conference. Against a backdrop of tightening budgets and global financial uncertainty, our suite of application modernization solutions is becoming increasingly recognised as an alternative that offers outstanding value and ease of use. This was the message being fed back by attendees at the three-day event in Reno, and is the reason why we are confident of another record turnout at our EMEA conference later this year.

looksoftware took the opportunity to make several announcements - such as the Version 9 GA date, the introduction of ilook and snap for BPCS. There were also a number of demonstrations from the Development team, as well as CEO Marcus Dee's sessions on future directions and the value of modernization. Trevor Perry gave his top tips and tricks, and also delivered an impromptu session for early arrivals on the opening day.

The customer and partner presentations received rave reviews, with delegates enjoying the opportunity to hear implementation case studies from a range of industries. The technical breakouts proved to be very popular, and provided an opportunity for delegates to get "hands-on" with Version 9. Business breakouts meanwhile gave a valuable insight into key features, and delivering value.

The conference also offered the opportunity for customers and partners to share their experiences of working with looksoftware's products, as well as to give feedback to our Development, Sales and Marketing teams. This feedback has already been employed to refine marketing efforts, as well as to influence future product development and direction.

So there you have it - Reno '09 was our best-attended conference to-date, and was a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience for attendees and looksoftware staff alike. But don't just take our word for it.....

"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

Annual looksoftware Customer & Partner Surveys

Over the coming weeks, we will email our annual surveys to all partners and customers. These surveys form an essential element of looksoftware's marketing activity, providing the basis for co-marketing decisions with partners, and giving an insight into what changes in marketing and customer service practice may benefit looksoftware's customers.

The surveys are not short, however once completed, they will allow the marketing team to initiate the changes and programmes that will make a real difference to you. We are passionate about supporting our customers and partners, but we can only improve when we are aware of our weak points. Please help us by completing your survey when you receive it. It can only benefit you in the long term!

looksoftware announces it's snap solution for Infor’s BPCS application.

Following the successful launch of snap for Microsoft technologies and snap for Oracle’s JDE World, the new connectors for BPCS provide plug-and-play integration support for the thousands of BPCS users around the globe who can plug their customized BPCS applications into products and platforms including Outlook, SharePoint, the iPhone, Web front-ends and any application or device that supports Web services.

snap is designed to improve reuse of BPCS LX and earlier versions of BPCS, enabling easy plug-and-play integration with almost any other application. snap connectors include MS Outlook, SharePoint, mobile front-ends such as iPhone and BlackBerry, and the recently announced snap for The Cloud. snap connectors are based on a complete repository prebuilt for more than 20 BPCS modules, enabling easier integration, streamlined business processes and reduced operational costs. A core benefit of snap for BPCS is its full support for the customizations found in the majority of BPCS implementations in production today.

“Despite alternative solutions being available in the marketplace for several years, snap for BPCS is the only solution that addresses today’s multi-channel and service-enablement requirements,” enthuses Eamon Musallam, looksoftware’s Product Marketing Manager.

Pharmaceuticals specialists, Abbott Laboratories are a global BPCS user and an early adopter of snap for BPCS. Jeffrey Tan from Abbott Laboratories said, “We selected looksoftware to modernize our BPCS investments because we can easily snap our customized BPCS code into multiple front-ends using looksoftware’s multi-channel support for rich, thin and mobile clients.”

looksoftware’s initial release of snap for BPCS is scheduled for general availability in later this year. Please contact marketing@looksoftware.com with enquiries.

Read more about snap for BPCS.

Read more about our snap solution series.

looksoftware announces ilook – a no-cost, no-risk modernization offering for the IBM i community

looksoftware announces ilook, a free offering for the IBM i community aimed at helping i customers better understand modernization, and enabling them to take the first step with a fully functioning hands-on solution.

Marcus Dee from looksoftware explains, "ilook has been created in response to input from IBM i community leaders who believe many i customers need help getting started with application modernization.” Modernization expert Trevor Perry adds, “Many organizations continue to struggle with their modernization efforts. ilook provides a practical, easy and no-risk step that will enable many more i customers to modernize sooner.”

Based on looksoftware’s smartclient technology, ilook offers a cloud-deployed plugin that provides a rich user experience (UX) for IBM i OS and integrates tightly with the desktop and IBM’s online reference library. Customers with IBM i are entitled to a free copy of ilook. ISVs and other IBM business partners should contact us regarding the looksoftware partner program.

ilook will be available for free download in June, 2009.

Why Service-Enable?

This webinar is not just another PowerPoint presentation. Join Trevor Perry as he guides you through publishing and consuming web services with your existing applications. You will see live, practical examples and demonstrations of real customer experiences.

By attending this webinar you will learn how to:

	Identify and start your first web services project
	Easily integrate with other applications & systems
	Automate & streamline business processes
	Quickly create components for SOA compliance

You will also learn how other IBM i customers have implemented service enablement.

Register for the Free Webinar NOW! All registrants receive a free White Paper entitled: Why Service-Enable?

USA: June 2, 12:00 -1:00 pm (EDT)
EMEA: June 3, 11:00 -12:00 pm (GMT)

"looksoftware has allowed us to save hundreds of hours of development time and more importantly, thousands of dollars of expensive consulting effort to port existing, time-tested iSeries functionality over to the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. With soarchitect, we can leave this already-working business logic intact on our System i and simply use web services to exchange data as needed with our new Dynamics AX system…” - George Hamin, Director of eBusiness & Information Systems, Subaru.

Subaru service-enabled their i back-end to integrate with Microsoft’s Dynamix and SharePoint.

Welcome Migrating LANSA Customers & Partners!

Many organizations first learned about looksoftware's newlook through LANSA. Today looksoftware's product range supports many new technologies and platforms including web services, DB access, workflow, mainframe access , .NET, Java, and all Microsoft technologies.

On Wednesday 27th May, at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern, looksoftware will host a live webcast, providing an overview of our product range. This will include soarchitect, the snap solution series, iPhone support and our new Cloud offerings.

During this webinar, Eamon Musallam will discuss:

- looksoftware's current product range
- looksoftware's future product directions
- Support procedures and contacts
- Version 9 features and enhancements
- looksoftware's customer and partner programs
- Access to privileged customer and partner portals
- Questions and Answers

This will be an informative and interactive session, and Eamon will provide the answers to all of your modernization questions.

Click here to register for this webinar

Annual EMEA Conference 2009

Following the success of our 2009 US Conference in Reno, we are pleased to announce that our annual EMEA conference will be held in September 2009. Although the venue is yet to be confirmed, Basic Product Training will run on Monday 21st - Tuesday 22nd September, with the Customer & Partner conference running from Wednesday 23rd - Friday 25th. Check www.looksoftware.com for further details as they become available.

Why Attend ?
	Learn how to deliver rapid cost savings from practical integration examples
	Hear about the latest trends in the marketplace and looksoftware’s business and product plans
	Get a sneak preview of plans for Version 10 including a demonstration
	New hands-on workshops: New navigation models with Smartnav Connect your IBM back-end application to The Cloud SOA fundamentals Multichannel UX connectors including iPhone
	Hear first-hand from successful Partner and Customer experiences through their presentations and demonstrations
	As always there will be breakout sessions aimed at improving partner success as well as basic and advanced technical sessions and the opportunity to arrange one-on-one meetings with looksoftware staff

MARK YOUR DIARIES - REGISTRATION OPENS SOON!

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	Sales assistance	sales@looksoftware.com
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	Technical questions	support@looksoftware.com
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