return to simplicity
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Return to Simplicity. Business Applications High Tech without High Cost. Agenda. Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion. Company Overview. 90 employees Privately held No banks, VCs, or external debt Global presence - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Return to Simplicity
Business ApplicationsHigh Tech without High Cost
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Agenda
Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion
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Company Overview
90 employees Privately held
• No banks, VCs, or external debt Global presence
• European HQ in Paris• North American HQ in Dallas
Management team• Jean George Schwartz, President & CEO• Bryn Jenkins, COO• Stephen Sykes, SVP & GM Americas• Herve Hellebronth, VP Marketing & Communication
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Sequential, Profitable Growth
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
$10m Revenue
5,000 Developers1,000 VARs
3,000,000 UsersFounded in 1995 with $1million seed money from founders
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Select Customers and Partners
VARs
Municipal Retail
CRM
Financial
FDS
Supply Chain
Peace Software
End Users
Retail Manufacturing
Media Finance
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Strategic Worldwide Reseller Relationship• Four J’s provides
• Upgrade for Informix 4GL• Rapid development and deployment of new business
applications against Informix and DB2 databases
• IBM provides• Sales, Marketing, Support, Training and Consulting
• We Cooperate• On joint marketing and selling• On development of training, documentation, and services
and
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Agenda
Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion
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Business Applications … Are Not About Technology
Businesses use applications for two primary reasons• To lower the cost of operations (and services)• To enable operations (and services)
Business Applications must be measured on ROI• Investment: What is the total lifecycle cost?• Return: How effectively does the software
• Improve operational efficiency?• Improve market share and revenue?
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Legacy Bound
Today’s business application using state-of-the-art technology is tomorrow’s legacy application• Version 1 – started with dumb terminals• Version 2 – rewrote for Windows• Version 2.5 – rewrote for HTML• Version 3+ – rewrite for Java, e-commerce, m-commerce…
ROI
0%
100%
Infrastructure Business Logic
Application
ROI comes from businessfunctionality, not infrastructure
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Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!
Constant investment in technology• People, software, development• Slows your time to market• Distracts you from doing things that add value• Is expensive!
Detracts from focus on business value – constantly dealing with• Application Portability• Application Performance• Application Complexity• Application Programmer Availability
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Business Applications …Are about Business Features
You’re Noble Systems, the provider of call center software to AOL, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, etc.
Your key corporate goal is to own the outsourced telemarketing firms that target retail companies.
You want to enable these centers to offer low cost, rapid integration with their customer’s retail inventory and ordering systems.
This will make you the clear market leader – but two of your strategic targets are making 5 year vendor commitments within the next six months.
How quickly can you develop this capability, and how much will it cost?
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Agenda
Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion
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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure
Abstract interface – single source code stream automatically supports multiple client platforms• Intelligent creation of interfaces on Windows, HTML, Java, X11,
PDA/mobile, ASCII• No investment, development, or lock-in to client-side technologies
Single source code stream supports multiple databases• Open Database Interface supports DB2, Informix, Oracle, SQL Server…• Multiple, simultaneous, native, high-performance access
Thin client, three-tier architecture• Automatic management and optimization of client/server communications• High performance server – without special client-server skills
Web Services support without special infrastructure skills
Keeping development effort focused on business logic, not infrastructure or deployment issues
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Insulating Business Logic from Technology Infrastructure
ASCII Windows X11 Java HTML HTML WML
WebServices
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Agenda
Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion
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Business Benefits
Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,
and evolution of Business Applications
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“Infocell is pushing the envelope in terms of wireless applications. Four J's dramatically improved our
time-to-market, giving us the competitive edge we enjoy today.”
“We could never have brought such a far-reaching solution to market this quickly using other
development environments.”
Michael O'ConnorTechnical Director, Infocell
Cost Reduction & Time to Market
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Business Benefits
Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,
and evolution of Business Applications High Tech without High Cost
• Enable full exploitation of state-of-the-art infrastructure, without investment in special skills or development
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“We’re able to offer a sophisticated Java application, utilizing highly visual third party applets to extend our functionality, without heavy investment in Java skills or development.”
“We compete based on our rich feature set, high tech look and feel, and absolute flexibility – we license our source code to customers and provide SLA support for their modifications. Four J’s has enabled us to deliver on all three of these goals
– without compromise.”
Eddie HillardPresident and CEO
Financial Database Services
High Tech without High Cost
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Business Benefits
Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,
and evolution of Business Applications High Tech without High Cost
• Enable full exploitation of state-of-the-art infrastructure, without investment in special skills or development
Future Proof – not Legacy Bound!• Insulate the investment in business
applications from waves of technology innovation
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“Four J’s allows us to seamlessly track and leverage evolving technologies, without investment in expensive
staff or development projects, or compromising our application’s reliability or complex and powerful
business logic.”
Jim NoblePresident and CEO
Future Proof – not Legacy Bound!
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Agenda
Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion
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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure -- Open to Change
Closed Four J’s Open
I4GLInformixWindows
I4GL + BDLInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, X11
I4GL + BDLInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, X11,Java, WMLWeb Services
I4GL + BDL + OOPInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, Java,X11, WML, XMLWeb Services,App Servers
20021998 2000 2003
*BDL – Four J’s Business Development Language
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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure Strategy for Market Adoption
Huge captive Informix 4GL target market• High direct value proposition• Establish beachhead in 4J’s and Informix 4GL
install base• Evangelize within to grow usage
Branch to new development everywhere Promote de facto industry standard
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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure
““Four J’s mission is to provide an intelligent Four J’s mission is to provide an intelligent infrastructure for business applications that excels in infrastructure for business applications that excels in its openness, flexibility and performance, taking full its openness, flexibility and performance, taking full
advantage of new technologies while preserving advantage of new technologies while preserving business functionality.”business functionality.”
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Contacts
Horizon Communications
Philippe Wagner408-969-4888 x108
Four J’s Americas
Tony Lacy-Thompson408-398-6284
Return to Simplicity
Business ApplicationsHigh Tech without High Cost
Appendix
Industry Perspective
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Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!
Application Portability
"Developers for Vignette have to rewrite its code to work with application servers made by BEA, IBM and Sun. They write to the core application server, then we go
back and write the specific code for each specific application server."
Santi Pierini
VP of Product Strategy, Vignette
(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)
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Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!
Application Complexity
"Finally, the complexity of Java itself continues to be a problem. Complaints have particularly surrounded a key piece of the Java standard, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)."
"The original intention behind EJBs was to save programmers time. But many say they’re finding
headaches instead. Compounding the problem is that EJBs, as part of the popular J2EE specification, are often
used as the basis for Java products."
(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)
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Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!
Application Programmer Availability
"You’ve got a whole mass of developers out there who are not hard-core technical guys, but are mainstream business application developers in medium to large
companies."
John MageeSenior Director, Oracle 9i Marketing
(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)