By Matthew Gharegozlou, VP of Progress for Latin America and the Caribbean
The advance of the disruption has profoundly changed the IT landscape, radically affecting the forms of competitiveness and monetization in the area of production of software applications.
It is true that, over the last few decades, there have been many and quite significant changes in our scenario. The evolution of data systems and business transaction models has led corporate IT to high levels of excellence and levels of performance until recently unthinkable.
But, as a general guideline, the main focus of our industry has, until recently, been on organizing data, integrating it in the best way, articulating it intelligently (in accordance with business processes) and providing automation standards based on mainly in the efficiency of the Back-End.
Today, we have reached a point where the quality of the controls provided by ERP, coupled with BI intelligence, gives business applications a solid testament to their success.
But with the explosion of mobility and diversity of devices, the focus of the application is migrating very quickly. With the backend very well resolved, companies now need to face a new variable, which is the customer experience that is becoming more popular worldwide through the syllable UX.
Thus, the attention of the developer now turns to the application interface (or UI in the jargon of the market), and the best application is the one with the greatest power to engage with the user. In other words, the ideal application, by today's standards, is the one that manages to extract the best resources from the rear, regardless of the different data models involved, while offering the best navigation on any type of device.
It no longer matters whether the user's device is a desktop PC or a smartphone; it makes no difference what operating system it uses, no matter what the screen format - tiny, giant, oval, square, rigid or flexible. What matters is that the good experience of that user at the end will decide the success or failure of a business application.
And it is important that this application is done at a glance to follow the extremely fast and volatile cycle of demands in the connected society.
Therefore, we live in a very particular technology environment, in which change and the diversity of environments dominate the scene. But Progress, in this regard, is not a company caught by surprise.
In this new industry paradigm, our attitude, once again, demonstrates our position as a visionary company. A position, moreover, already recognized consecutively by Gartner and other global institutes.
Two market attitudes are very much in the DNA of Progress, which are very appropriate for the current situation in the software sector.
The first is to be constantly trying to understand and share the "pains" of the application developer, and to work day by day to facilitate the life of this professional.
Through tools such as OpenEdge and the functional components of the DataDirect family, we have been at the forefront of openness movements, interoperability, developmental modularity. Finally, we always strive for the principle of open and agnostic development.
The second commitment that we are reaffirming now is about the type of alliance that our company seeks to establish with the market.
Even with an expressive volume of direct customers who use our tools, our go-to-market model has always been and continues to happen mainly from partners.
Today, more than 70% of our businesses are based on independent software developers (ISVs). With this policy of always favoring partners, today we are able to mobilize a community of more than 1.7 million developers worldwide.
The strategy for this was to create a range of technologies covering all current trends. Among these is the integration and analysis of unstructured data, employed in big data and real-time information processing, through Modulus platforms. Another trend is the production of software in the "drag and click" model and with cloud processing (via Rollbase products); and the automation of business rules, through the Corticon family.
We are currently a global benchmark in retail product design with a primary appeal to the user experience.
With support from Telerik, acquired in 2014, we are making Progress a unique stopping point for the developer and, with all this list of features, we have also implemented our strategy of enabling these developers to take advantage of new opportunities and launch into niche markets. emerging opportunities such as opportunistic Apps and the IoT niche.
All of this with a range of delivery models that gives the developer freedom of choice (with pay-as you-go options in the cloud or on-premise) and that allows the small entrepreneur to become a challenger of large global companies without this requires heavy investments.
In conclusion, it is a fact that a lot has changed in the IT world and especially in business applications. But apart from the change in technology, one of the effects of the disruption is to break the cycle of dominance of company A or giant B over the software business. In the new global scenario, the rule is change and not permanence.
From one moment to the next, a company with few dollars, but with innovative ideas, can emerge in the market from the quick and low-cost access to development tools as sophisticated as those employed by the major players. With the support of cloud execution models, they can have high processing power without having to purchase a single machine.
It is in this new environment that Progress is directing its support.
It is true that, over the last few decades, there have been many and quite significant changes in our scenario. The evolution of data systems and business transaction models has led corporate IT to high levels of excellence and levels of performance until recently unthinkable.
But, as a general guideline, the main focus of our industry has, until recently, been on organizing data, integrating it in the best way, articulating it intelligently (in accordance with business processes) and providing automation standards based on mainly in the efficiency of the Back-End.
Today, we have reached a point where the quality of the controls provided by ERP, coupled with BI intelligence, gives business applications a solid testament to their success.
But with the explosion of mobility and diversity of devices, the focus of the application is migrating very quickly. With the backend very well resolved, companies now need to face a new variable, which is the customer experience that is becoming more popular worldwide through the syllable UX.
Thus, the attention of the developer now turns to the application interface (or UI in the jargon of the market), and the best application is the one with the greatest power to engage with the user. In other words, the ideal application, by today's standards, is the one that manages to extract the best resources from the rear, regardless of the different data models involved, while offering the best navigation on any type of device.
It no longer matters whether the user's device is a desktop PC or a smartphone; it makes no difference what operating system it uses, no matter what the screen format - tiny, giant, oval, square, rigid or flexible. What matters is that the good experience of that user at the end will decide the success or failure of a business application.
And it is important that this application is done at a glance to follow the extremely fast and volatile cycle of demands in the connected society.
Therefore, we live in a very particular technology environment, in which change and the diversity of environments dominate the scene. But Progress, in this regard, is not a company caught by surprise.
In this new industry paradigm, our attitude, once again, demonstrates our position as a visionary company. A position, moreover, already recognized consecutively by Gartner and other global institutes.
Two market attitudes are very much in the DNA of Progress, which are very appropriate for the current situation in the software sector.
The first is to be constantly trying to understand and share the "pains" of the application developer, and to work day by day to facilitate the life of this professional.
Through tools such as OpenEdge and the functional components of the DataDirect family, we have been at the forefront of openness movements, interoperability, developmental modularity. Finally, we always strive for the principle of open and agnostic development.
The second commitment that we are reaffirming now is about the type of alliance that our company seeks to establish with the market.
Even with an expressive volume of direct customers who use our tools, our go-to-market model has always been and continues to happen mainly from partners.
Today, more than 70% of our businesses are based on independent software developers (ISVs). With this policy of always favoring partners, today we are able to mobilize a community of more than 1.7 million developers worldwide.
The strategy for this was to create a range of technologies covering all current trends. Among these is the integration and analysis of unstructured data, employed in big data and real-time information processing, through Modulus platforms. Another trend is the production of software in the "drag and click" model and with cloud processing (via Rollbase products); and the automation of business rules, through the Corticon family.
We are currently a global benchmark in retail product design with a primary appeal to the user experience.
With support from Telerik, acquired in 2014, we are making Progress a unique stopping point for the developer and, with all this list of features, we have also implemented our strategy of enabling these developers to take advantage of new opportunities and launch into niche markets. emerging opportunities such as opportunistic Apps and the IoT niche.
All of this with a range of delivery models that gives the developer freedom of choice (with pay-as you-go options in the cloud or on-premise) and that allows the small entrepreneur to become a challenger of large global companies without this requires heavy investments.
In conclusion, it is a fact that a lot has changed in the IT world and especially in business applications. But apart from the change in technology, one of the effects of the disruption is to break the cycle of dominance of company A or giant B over the software business. In the new global scenario, the rule is change and not permanence.
From one moment to the next, a company with few dollars, but with innovative ideas, can emerge in the market from the quick and low-cost access to development tools as sophisticated as those employed by the major players. With the support of cloud execution models, they can have high processing power without having to purchase a single machine.
It is in this new environment that Progress is directing its support.
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