When Oracle announced in 2005 that it was acquiring an in-memory database provider, the term "real time" had become an industry standard. But with the way technology has progressed and broadband driving the demand for speed, the term has now taken on a new relevance. In-memory databases can speed transaction times and give immediate access to real time data, making this a requirement in the gathering of business information. One application that benefits from the speed and accuracy of an in-memory database is call accounting software.

Ten years ago the communications industry that provides call accounting and billing services to organizations and multi-national companies, was faced with requests for immediate access to the wealth of untapped information in call detail records. At that time, a business’ ability to process the call data, and run the reports necessary to effectively acquire and isolate the desired information, could take days or even weeks. In most cases, the task was abandoned before it began. The industry’s challenge was to provide an easy-to-use solution in which data retrieval and reporting are virtually instantaneous.

"To meet customers’ requirements, we set out to meet certain parameters," says Don Simons, CEO of TelSoft Solutions. "All reports, regardless of size and type, had to run in less than five minutes (start to finish.) Call processing speed had to be sustained, (collecting call records, calculating call price information, and database insertion) it had to exceed a rate of one million calls processed per hour, the speed of processing had to ensure that data processing did not delay reporting in any way, even when the call data arrived in large batches, individuals with no programming background and minimal computer experience could easily run and customize reports, and the system had to run on off-the-shelf industry-standard hardware of the time."

Experts in the fastest databases (such as Oracle, Informix, and Ingres) were gathered and divided into competing research teams. Over a period of several months, these teams tested existing technologies in an effort to meet the performance specifications. To best optimize potential solutions, the teams called upon additional experts in each respective database technology. Numerous tuning and caching schemes were implemented. And still, the target goals were nowhere in sight.

During this process, additional calculations proved that no existing off-the-shelf solution – even if disk drives were 100 times faster – could attain the required performance goals. All standard solutions proved unsuccessful.

"We were about to throw in the towel," says Simons. "Then one of the developers came up with an original and exciting idea, an in-memory database manager (IMDB)"

Since call accounting reports by nature access a large majority of the dataset in each query, it wasn’t clear at first that such a solution would be viable or reliable. A team was assigned and a prototype rapidly assembled. The new concept was rigorously tested for performance, reliability, and data integrity. Testing proved that a full-blown IMDB would meet and exceed all specified requirements, even on the standard hardware technology.

TelSoft’s MegaBase IMDB and the MegaCall application were completed and made generally available in 1995. The database runs most reports in just seconds and even large annual reports in under the five-minute limit. It processed real time calls virtually instantaneously, could be used effectively by a novice, required no routine maintenance or additional support personnel, provided seamless archival access, and had extensive open data exchange capabilities.

The ability to access business intelligence immediately and have data be totally secure is vital in today’s competitive environment. Under current conditions requiring the highest levels of security, real-time retrieval of critical data is an essential element in maintaining a secure environment. MegaBase was designed and is currently deployed in enterprises with heightened security requirements as well as the standard reporting needs.

Karen Ritz is the VP Business Development for TelSoft Solutions Inc. Since 1985, TelSoft has been providing call accounting and billing services to meet the challenges of their clients, many of whom have unique telecom management needs. TelSoft provides call accounting solutions like CallTrac for organizations with as few as 100 stations and MegaCall for large multi-location companies exceeding 60,000 stations. For more information, visit http://www.telsoft-solutions.com

While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination, there are still many myths about it and no clear understanding of the opportunities outsourcing to Ukraine can present. Let us look closely at some of those myths and find out whether there is any truth behind them.

Myth No. 1 – Ukraine is politically unstable

This myth has seen its rise in November-December 2004 during the events around the presidential elections that led to the Orange Revolution. However, presently there are no grounds for concerns. During the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian people have shown their devotion to the democratic ideals and prevented the worst scenario from happening, bringing the legitimately elected president to the power. The new Ukrainian government has clearly voiced its intentions to move towards the goal of joining the EU and is making logical steps in that direction. The overall political situation in the country is stable and predictable. Unlike some popular Asian outsourcing destinations, there have never been any threats of terrorist acts in Ukraine.

But even during the most critical events in November and December, no threat existed for the clients of the Ukrainian outsourcing services providers. There were no power shortages, Internet and telephone lines functioned as usual, and no danger was posed to the outsourced project. Many companies did join the national strike that was going on, but the most urgent tasks could still be done uninterrupted. Ukraine has proved that it is a civilized 21-century European nation.

Myth No. 2 – Ukraine’s IT infrastructure is poorly developed

Ukraine’s IT infrastructure is rapidly developing. As the recent research conducted by the Ukrainian Democratic Initiatives Fund and Kiev International Sociology Institute has shown, 13.1% of Ukrainians have a computer. 14% use Internet and/or email either at home or at work. Internet connectivity, being one of the primary concerns, is also developing rapidly. Telecom is one of the fastest growing markets in Ukraine, and fibre optics are continually being laid and new companies are continually opening new connectivity services, which continually lowers cost. For example, monthly fees for a DSL connection are lower in Ukraine than in India. It is considered indispensable for an IT company to have a broadband Internet connection and several telephone lines. Furthermore, there is no shortage in high quality hardware, and IT companies provide their development teams with powerful, modern computers and servers.

Myth No. 3 – Ukraine is software pirates’ paradise

WTO ascension is a top 2005 priority for Ukraine’s government. As Ukraine moves towards this, its intellectual property laws are being revised to comply with WTO standards. While a lot of private users may still be using the cheap pirated copies of the most popular software products on their home computers, companies specialized in software development are under severe control, and to avoid problems with law, switching or have switched to licensed products. Those companies who can’t afford the price of more expensive software products choose Open Source solutions, but the problem is being tackled in one way or another anyway. Ukrainian companies are looking to work legally and don’t want to risk their good reputation.

Moreover, a large part of professional software aimed specifically at software developers has never been available as pirated copies in Ukraine, hence it has always been used in its legal, licensed form (take IBM RationalTM products as an example, as well as many others).

Myth No. 4 – Ukraine is not secure when it comes to sensitive information

Special measures must be taken to protect sensitive information no matter where your project is developed. However, according to the recent reports, India is much more dangerous than Ukraine when it comes to sensitive information leaks or theft. While it is reported that it is difficult to run background checks on employees in India, it is not that problematic in Ukraine. It has become a common practice in Ukraine for the outsourcing customers to sign NDAs with every member of the development team. Additional security policies can also be implemented to protect your sensitive data.

Myth No. 5 – Ukraine’s IT sector lacks support from the government

The new Ukrainian government is showing its extreme interest and support to foreign investments into the country’s economy and international cooperation. While Ukraine moves towards joining the EU and WTO, the laws, including those covering the IP issues, are being revised to create better environment for the economy’s development and growth. This applies to the software development as well, IT being the most rapidly developing sphere of the Ukrainian economics.

According to the reports, the volume of export of Ukrainian IT services and products rose by US$ 40 million or 57% to US$ 110 million in 2004. The export of the IT sector of the Ukrainian economy is the most dynamically developing. At the same time, the total number of IT specialists operating on the market reached 15,000 toward the end of 2004. This was an increase of 50%, compared with 2003.

Myth No. 6 – Ukraine’s IT workforce is cheap

Ukraine’s IT salaries level used to be low, but as the country’s economy develops and integrates into the European and world market, it is growing, even though it is still lower than the salaries of EU and US IT specialists. The Ukrainian programmers possess high level of education and skills, as the IT sphere of the Ukrainian economy develops the demand for them increases, hence their highly intellectual labour cannot be cheap. However, outsourcing customers need to realize that cheap workforce is not a good reason to choose an outsourcing provider, as it is likely to cause problems in the long run that will lead to an increase in expenses instead of savings. The reason behind many outsourcing failures is actually the customers going for cheap workforce and overseeing the quality and efficiency issues.

Outsourcing is seen as a way to cut down the development costs, but this should not be done at the expense of the developers’ salaries and therefore, quality. There are better and more effective ways to save. If a company employs methodology allowing for faster development, better quality source code, automated code generation, less developers involved, etc., this actually does reduce the development costs while still providing a satisfactory software solution.

Myth No. 7 – The language and cultural barrier

It is certainly important to be able to communicate with your outsourcing development team on a level allowing for a smooth development process, and the language and culture differences can be an obstacle.

However, Ukraine is a European nation, and the mentality of people does not differ greatly from that of your country, be it anywhere in Western Europe or the US. There is no striking difference as you would encounter in some Asian countries. Besides, before outsourcing software development came to Ukraine on a large scale, many Ukrainian IT specialists used to go to the Western Europe and USA and work for IT companies there, which means they are familiar with the approach traditional for Europe and America and the procedures used for software development in those companies. Moreover, different international agencies are now offering courses in management providing necessary management skills to the Ukrainian specialists. Thus, all the business processes in a development team can be organized according to the international standards.

While English is not the native language to the Ukrainian developers, this issue is also being actively dealt with. English is the language of choice in the universities and in the schools it is now required from an early age. Several universities are conducting their entire programs in English. Oral and written comprehension is high among software engineers, given the amount of text they have to read for their degree and work programs and the amount of English language programming available in the country. Communicating with the Ukrainian developers through online chats, instant messaging and e-mail in English should not be a problem. While not all the development team members might be completely fluent in English, those who communicate directly with the international customers will speak, read and write in English at the proper level. Many companies conduct in-house English language training programs to improve the language skills of their personnel. Specialists speaking other languages, such as French or German, can also be found, though these languages are not as popular as English.

So as we see, not everything looks as bad as it can be assumed. Care should be taken when planning an outsourcing deal, as is in any business move, but if done wisely, outsourcing to Ukraine can leave you satisfied and meet your expectations.

Julia Lukianova has several years of experience in the outsourcing software development business in Ukraine. She is a marketing manager of Metasoft Ltd. (http://www.metasoft.com.ua)

Increasingly churches are looking to automate some of their routine administration. Several software packages have been developed to support the administration role of the church office.

Choosing the right administration software for your church office is a major decision, particularly as many churches are operating on a limited budget. You will need to consider carefully just what you require and what future requirements you may have.

Software has now been developed to manage every aspect of your church administration such as contribution records, membership tracking, tithes and contributions, attendance tracking, church accounting, financial analysis, growth planning and even your web site.

Church Accounting - In addition to the standard accounting packages, software is available to integrate with your membership information and to track contributions and pledges.

Church Membership - A range of software is available to manage new church plants to churches with thousands of members or attendees.. These specially designed database systems can be designed to integrate with church scheduling, event management, visits or simply to integrate with Word, Excel and Outlook.

Church Growth - Managing successful church growth requires the right tools – to enable you to keep track of visitors, create an automatic follow-up system and plan, organize, and evaluate your events.

For further information and tips on choosing the right church software , visit Church Management Software

This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter of Hope Christian Books

Upgrading. Downtime. Maintenance. Hardware obsolescence. Implementation issues. The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going care-and-feeding of enterprise based applications is enough make the savviest of companies want to engage in anything but another software implementation. Like a full-blown IRS audit. Anything…

If your organization is evaluating inventory management systems, consider that a hosted solution inventory management solution may be ideal for your needs if you feel this way. Hosted inventory management solutions such as Invendia eliminate the justified concerns of many companies that another software implementation is the last thing they want to devote resources to - capital, time, talent.

So, the top seven reasons why a hosted inventory management solution might be right for your organization?…

7. Quicker ROI. From an initial ROI perspective, hosted solutions shorten time-to-value by eliminating software implementation and cost issues. You focus on collecting your data, refining your processes, and defining your business goals.

6. Lower total-cost-of-ownership. Users of hosted inventory management solutions need not ever implement software upgrades, pay for maintenance, or add hardware. The net effect is to keep total cost of ownership in check.

5. Increased flexibility. Customers of hosted solutions subscribe for the user license they need today. As their needs change, they add or reduce the users. In this way, they never face the license over-capacity that plagues so many enterprise software deployments. Even more importantly, they increase their flexibility in responding to rapidly changing business conditions.

4. Reduced risk. Any enterprise software implementation takes time. The longer the elapsed time from project kick-off to go-live, the higher the likelihood that the project will lose momentum and management and staff support. Hosted solutions like Invendia do away with many of the preliminary steps of a software implementation (hardware selection, for example), and cause less friction and trauma within the organization. And hosted solutions offer you the advantage of single-source accountability because of the elimination of multiple vendor relationships that would be the norm in a standard enterprise software deployment.

3. Faster deployment. A faster deployment of the software is always a strong positive factor into how well it will be adopted and used by your organization. Hosted solutions typically offer faster deployments, with fewer internal pressures and distractions from day-to-day operations and activities. In short, the focus of the deployment is on end-user training and acceptance, since you won’t have to install or maintain servers, networking equipment, security products, or other hardware or software.

2. Easier innovation. Another key advantage of the hosted model is that it facilitates on-going process innovation as new functionality can be introduced incrementally over its lifecycle. The traditional model of purchased and locally implemented software binds companies into "big-bang" versioning where updates are introduced in batches - typically every 12 to 18 months. That model inhibits the real-time improvements of software and processes as they become available. In a hosted environment, major new product releases and improvements can literally be made overnight.

1. Lower cost and smoother cash-flows. Hosted solutions like Invendia have a decided cost advantage over traditional packaged software offerings like SAP and Oracle: low hardware and software costs (you need only outfit your users with PCs, which they likely already have), no depreciation costs, no software or hardware maintenance costs, and lower implementation costs.

With hosted solutions, the first year total cost of ownership can be five to ten times less expensive than enterprise software with the majority of savings resulting from the elimination of upfront integration and customization projects. Thus, the payback period is considerably shortened.

And hosted solutions offer much smoother cash-flows, with no large up-front cash outlays that need be subsumed by your organization.

So, the hosted model of enterprise software lowers risk, simplifies licensing, eases deployment, encourages innovation, and decreases costs, all of which result in faster return on investment, lower total cost of ownership, reduced risk, and the flexibility that you need to successfully compete in today’s fast-moving business climate.

Ash Seha is a marketing manager at Invendia, a leading provider of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Web-based Inventory solutions.

Linux terminals share alot in common with their primitive ancestors such as vt100 like consoles. These early devices is capable of sending sequences that signaled events outside of the normal flow of typed characters, such as escape, tab, linefeed…etc. Linux uses CTRL key to send out these out of band signals. This article summarises many of the commonly used control sequences that are used in all Linux terminals.

CTRL-C
This is the most commonly used sequence. In the bash shell, CTRL-C will terminate any currently running process and return you to the bash prompt. For example, if you accidentally run a command that does not stop, use CTRL-C to cancel the command.

CTRL-D
Many Unix commands read their input directly from the keyboard. An example is the WC command. WC counts the number of lines, words and characters that a user types in from the keyboard. So if you tpye WC at the command prompt, the command will wait for your input till you use CTRL-D to signal the end of transmission.

CTRL-Z
CTRL-Z means to suspend a program. For example, you are working with a command and you want to stop it temporary as it is taking too long. To do that, you can use CTRL-Z. You can later restore back the command using the fg command.

CTRL-U
If you have messed up a certain command and you want to start all over, instead of using backspace, you can use CTRL-U. CTRL-U resets the current line.

CTRL-H
Instead of using the backspace key, you can use CTRL-H to function the same way. Unless the backspace key is malfunctioned or mapped wrongly, this sequence serves very little purpose.

CTRL-L
If your screen is too cluttered with unwanted information, you can clear the screen using CTRL-L.

CTRL-S
Freeze your screen. This is a good command to use if you decide to go for a coffee break and do not want any process to run till you are back.

CTRL-Q
This sequence is exactly the opposite to CTRL-S. If you have freezed the screen before, you use this command to unfreeze it.

CTRL-J
Functions the same way as the RETURN key.

CTRL-G
Makes a terminal beep sound for fun and entertainment.

Control Sequences are important to all Linux / Unix users. Some sequences are important while some are useless today. It is worth memorising the first few sequences as described in this article.

Bernard Peh is a great passioner of web technologies and one of the co-founders of Sitecritic.net internet articles. He works with experienced web designers and developers everyday, developing and designing commercial websites. He specialises mainly in SEO and PHP work.

Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision, Axapta, MS RMS integration with UNIX/Java based platforms & non-Microsoft applications: Oracle, Lotus Notes/Domino, DBII, PeopleSoft, SAP

The history of software application development indicates that global trends to unification might be reversed in the future. If you take a look at C programming language, intended as cross platform solution (which resolves graphical interface cross platform migration). Later on java was invented to encapsulate the application within java virtual machine, and at the same time we see thin client conception development, which can not be done in C, due to the nature of the internet browser. So, inevitably – large corporation, where system life cycle should last at least a decade, should consider multiple platform adoption: Unix, Microsoft, Linux, MS SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Lotus Notes/Domino, Microsoft Exchange, etc.

• Microsoft Business Solutions products integration. Project Green will lead to Microsoft suites: Microsoft Financials, Microsoft Distribution/Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Human Resources. The interesting part is – which product will be the base for the specific suite. At this point we don’t know the answer

• Customization Tool evolution. If we look back to the history of Microsoft Great Plains – Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise – it had native programming language / IDE Great Plains Dexterity. Today – Dexterity is concurring with such customization and integration tools as eConnect – the set of stored procedures, this is definitely the trend emphasizing SQL coding and developing

• Cross Platform ODBC/JDBC calls. If we look at MS SQL Server or Oracle Transparent Gateways and Generic Connectivity – we will see that Database tools support cross platform heterogeneous SQL requests and updates. The proof of the co-existence trend – isn’t it?

• Java versus C#. The appearance of C# confirmed the fact, that pure Java conception with its virtual machine and isolation doesn’t satisfy Microsoft .Net development requirements. .Net objects could not be isolated the same way as Java/EJB/J2EE. This is where we again have to admit coexistence of two Worlds: Microsoft Windows and Java

• The Stakes. Probably the mixture – and considering the fact that cross-platform integration is addressed from both sides – different platforms should be just integrated. Good balance would be relatively inexpensive Microsoft Business Solutions ERP application: Great Plains (USA, Canada, Latin America, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, UK), Navision (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Russia and the rest of continental Europe), Axapta – if you need rich ERP functionality – then your business specific application: Freight Forwarding database, Lease tracking, Consignment, etc. should be placed into Oracle/DB2/Unix/Linux. Microsoft CRM - this is the temptation and we do recommend it - it could be integrated with Java applications

• Reporting. If you plan to deploy them from Windows side: use Crystal Reports upon heterogeneous SQL views, in the case of Java – it depends on the vendor: Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Siebel, etc.

We encourage you to analyze your alternatives. You can always appeal to our help, give us a call: 1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan and internationally.

The first thing users will see when logging into SP2, the newly improved Windows® XP operating system, is a new Security Center informing them of the status of critical security features, such as the firewall, antivirus updates, and automatic updates. Following is a brief look at the major improvements in XP security found within SP2.

Network Protection:

Microsoft has renamed the previous Internet Connection Firewall to Windows Firewall. The newly named firewall is now turned on by default, with ports closed except when they are in use, an improved user interface for configuration, improved application compatibility, and enhanced administration through group policy settings which allow separate policies to be defined for firewall configuration. Inbound connections can be restricted based on their origin, and remote procedure call (RPC) vulnerability is greatly reduced through SP2’s insistence upon secure RPC connections. DCOM also has additional access control restrictions to protect against network attacks.

Memory Protection:

Some attacks exploit vulnerabilities that allow too much data to be copied into areas of the computer’s memory (buffer overflow). To mitigate this vulnerability, core Windows components have been recompiled with protection against buffer overruns. Microsoft has also teamed up with Intel and AMD to implement hardware-based protection against the buffer overflow vulnerability. Using this data execution prevention (DEP) mechanism in the processor, the CPU marks all memory locations in an application as non-executable unless they contain executable code. Thus, when a virus or worm inserts malicious code into an application, the application won’t run it.

Email Handling and Web Browsing:

Many of the more prevalent security breaches have emerged from email, messaging applications, and web browsing. SP2 targets these vulnerabilities through enhanced security default settings and improved attachment control using the Attachment Execution Service (AES) API. SP2 also protects against malicious Active X controls and code by "locking down" the Local Machine security zone much the same way it protects web pages through security zones set within the Internet Options of Internet Explorer. Active X controls can’t run in the local machine zone unless the user gives permission. The same is true of JavaScripts and binary code. Scripts are also prevented from elevating the security zone to a less restrictive setting.

MIME types are handled more safely by renaming files to match their true types before placing them in the cache. SP2 also tightens up access to cached objects by blocking access when navigating away from the page that loaded the object. Finally, SP2 has added a pop-up blocker within the Privacy tab of IE’s Internet Options. Users are notified when pop-ups are encountered, and they can choose to view the pop-ups they want to see. Restrictions are also placed on the size, format, and placement of pop-ups, preventing borderless windows which might cover other pages.

Other Features:

With SP2 Microsoft has added some new features to help manage the configuration and updating of systems. A new Manage Add-ons feature assists in managing Active X controls and other IE extensions. This feature lists add-ons that have been loaded, their status, source, and the validity of their digital signatures. Add-ons can be disabled, and a history of usage is available.

A new mechanism has been added for handling and analyzing add-on crashes. Downloading files is now more secure too. Users are warned not only when they download files, but also when they open downloaded files after they have been saved locally. Files extracted from downloaded zipped files also generate the same warning. Finally, SP2 differentiates between Java virtual machines (JVMs) in general and the Microsoft JVM, allowing users to disable the Microsoft JVM without disabling others.

Availability:

A final release version of SP2 was made available August 9thand is nearly 270MB. Microsoft is making it available on the Internet via a broadband connection. The new Windows Update 5.0 includes a "Checkpoint Restart" feature, allowing resumption of a download when the Internet connection is interrupted.

SP2 can be downloaded in the background and will take about 40% of the available bandwidth. For those who have turned on the auto-update feature of Windows, SP2 will download without the user’s knowledge, and Windows Update will not duplicate any download that the automatic update has already installed. For those without broadband connections, Microsoft is offering a free CD via the mail.

SP2 can be installed using a few different methods. If the computer is already running Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional, the standalone version of SP2 can be installed separately as an update. For those wanting to upgrade the operating system as well as install SP2, the operating system and service pack can be installed simultaneously.

Potential Issues:

SP2 is surely good news for organizations and the systems administrators who support them. However, there are some issues to be aware of. Most notable among the potential problems are those caused by the new default firewall. Because the firewall restricts access to ports, some applications may be restricted in ways which will require firewall configuration.

Laptop users pose special problems for operating system firewalls, as they require different configurations based upon whether users are behind or outside of the corporate firewall. In such cases separate profiles will need to be used-the Domain Profile for those behind the corporate firewall, and the Mobile Profile for those beyond the domain controller. The Network Location Awareness tool will determine which to use at any given time. Organizations wanting to adopt SP2 without going through the sometimes frustrating task of configuration can turn off the firewall through a group security policy.

Despite the potential complications, however, SP2 is good news for security-minded IT professionals. Be sure to plan for its deployment in your enterprise soon.

About ITX Corp:

ITX Corp is a business consulting and technology solutions firm focused in nine practice areas including Business Performance, Internet Marketing, IT Staffing, IT Solution Strategies and Implementation, Technical Services, Internet Services, and Technology Research. To learn more about what ITX can do for you visit our website at http://www.itx.net or contact us at (800) 600-7785.

About Jonathan Coupal:

Jonathan Coupal is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of ITX Corp. Mr. Coupal manages both the day-to-day and strategic operations of the Technology Integration Practice Group. Among Mr. Coupal’s greatest strengths are evaluating customers’ unique problems, developing innovative, cost effective solutions and providing a “best practice” implementation methodology. Mr. Coupal’s extensive knowledge and experience enables him to fully analyze client systems to recommend the most effective technologies and solutions that will both optimize their business processes and fulfill immediate and future goals. Mr. Coupal and his team build a high level of trust with clients, establishing ITX as their IT partner of choice.

Mr. Coupal holds certifications with Microsoft and CompTia, including MCSE, MCSA, Security+, Linux+ and i-Net+, and served as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the development of the CompTia Linux+.

The Software 2005 conference is now a wrap. This conference, presented by M.R. Rangaswami and The Sandhill Group, is now an annual event and attendance increased 35% this year over 2004. It is an ideal opportunity for those in the enterprise software industry to see what’s new and what’s coming, as well as to catch up with old colleagues and make new connections. It is also a perfect forum for startups to gain exposure as well as solicit funding and key partnerships.

According to Sandhill, there were 1500 attendees this year, including 100 press and 100 VCs. Half of those in attendance were CEOs. We spotted a number of them, including entrepeneur/CEO (now a VC) Ken Ross, Indus CEO Greg Dukat, Composite SW and entrepeneur Jim Green, former webMethods CEO Phillip Merrick, and a host of others.

M.R. has a rolodex that anyone would die for, and he put it to good use in attracting the top executives from major enterprise software and services companies such as Oracle, Intuit, McKinsey and others for keynote addresses. There were also a number of breakout tracks on the latest trends in our industry, including SaaS, open source and offshoring.

There were a couple of unique forums made available for select startups. including the Launch and the Funding Forum, where startups were given a fixed amount of time to present their business plan to investors, who were invited back to the conference floor for further discussions if interested. Mark Cosway, a member of our board of advisors and President of ActStream Technologies, participated in Launch, and reported new contacts with a number of interested investors.

After taking in this conference, we think that it is safe to say that enterprise software as an industry is ‘cautiously optimistic’. Venture investments are picking up, M&A activity is growing, and the overall buzz was a good one, after the last 4-5 years of doom and gloom. Many of the people that we talked to had taken long sabbaticals after the dot-com bust, and are just now getting back in the game.

All in all, the feeling was that it is a good time to be in the software and information technology business. We hope they’re right - we certainly feel that way.

Ash Seha is a partner at The Launch Factory LLP, a consultancy specializing in marketing, sales, and product management strategy for software and IT companies. Their expertise, garnered from such IT highflyers as i2, webMethods, SAP, and Baan, is focused on breaking the growth bariers that stand between high-growth software and IT companies and their revenue and marketshare goals.

The obvious benefit is the price (It’s generally free!) The downside is it can be difficult to install, support and manage . We look at the pros and cons and offer you a few good resources and show you how to evaluate the packages your considering.

Opensource software is software that is developed by people with a real intereset in developing applications for everyone to use for free. The biggest repository of opensource software on the web is www.sourceforge.net.

Keypoints of open source software

1. It’s free to use and usually distributed for free. Some companies will package it up and make it a little easier to install, for this they charge a small fee. Other companies will sell the product but then give you free support for a limited time.

2. Most open source software is developed for the linux platform. Before considering adopting linux as an operating system you’ll need to make sure you have easy access to linux support people. One really good tech, who happens to be the same guy who sold you the software isn’t good enough. He’ll end up owning your business.

3. Because the operating systems and programming languages the software is developed in are themselves open source, installation, support and upgrades can be exceedingly difficult.

How to evaluate an open source solution.

Despite what your IT staff or consultant might say you want to evaluate any open source solution you’re considering. The depth of the evaluation is dependant on the complexity of the solution. An apache web server would be fairly quick to evaluate. A CRM solution for thirty sales people and several hundred customers is going to require at least a few weeks of testings.

The first step is to set up a test bed server. This can be an older server, just something reliable and fast enough to approximate real world results. As we’ve mentioned before most open source software is linux based so you’re going to need to decide on a linux distribution. Red Hat linux and Suse linux are two of the best and both are supported by the companies that distribute them. Suse linux is now owned by Novell. More than likely you’ll need a development environment and a sql server. Make sure the technican loads a distribution package to do this. The best for Apache, MYsql and PHP is Xampp which can be downloaded at apachefriends.org. Don’t let your techs tell you they’ve got a better way by just installing it piece by piece, you’ll end up paying for it later.

Have your techicians document the installation process, get the application stable and then step back from the test. If they’re spending every day with the end users resolving little problems it should be a red flag that the solution is not stable.

Make sure that the application you’re considering has some external support. This may be as simple as a forum of users but they’re needs to be a place you can go to for basic support issues. Also make sure the application has a user manual. Many open source packages are released with nothing more than a few sentences describing the installation process.

This next step is extremely important. You need to test for a failure. Have the techs rebuild the system from scratch and restore all of the data. If it’s not done within a day, that’s another red flag.

After the evaluation ask yourself these questions.

We’re most people able to take advantage of the software within a day or two? Was it easy to restore from the simulated crash? Were problems fixed in a timely manner? Did the software stay up and running throughout the test? Did they end users feel like they benefited from using the application?

Eric Gurr is a senior editor at Smbrsource. Contact Mr. Gurr at egurr@intralinkinc.com http://www.smbresource.com/opensource.html

When Great Plains Software introduced the first graphical accounting application for Mac and Windows in the beginning of 1990th it had Great Plains Dexterity customization tool, IDE and programming language. Dexterity design was based on several longevity principles: Graphical platform independence and database platform independence and easy switch from one DB to the other among the most important ones. Dexterity was written as a shell in C programming language, which was “platform independent” and at the same time very efficient in compilation (close to assembler). Since then we saw new tools and options:

• Modifier with VBA. This tool allows you place custom buttons and editable fields on the forms and attach VBA scripts to these buttons and fields. Theoretically you can deploy ADO and make a call to the database, but typically this would be given to Dexterity programmer. Also Modifier can deal with ReportWriter report – which is rarely used option, but you should be aware of it. Another usufull feature - calling Crystal Reports engine from VBA, so you can print custom Crystal Report - Invoice from SOP Entry screen, instead of regular Report Writer SOP Invoice Form.

• Continuum for VB and Delphi. We do not touch obvious features of Continuum, but would like to mention its advanced use. First – in Dexterity you can not easily target multiple modules (coming from different software vendors – those days Intellisol Advanced Purchase Order Processing, Project Accounting and ForeStar Fixed Assets). This feature could be addressed through Continuum generated VBA code with inclusion of Dexterity Scripts (Sanscript). The second nice feature of Continuum could be Great Plains Integration Manager custom apps, which allows you to switch Great Plains companies automatically and integrate the whole corporation during the night

• Dexterity SQL Support. When Great Plains C/S+ was introduced on MS SQL Server 6.5 platform – instead of using Dexterity cursors – you could use the way more efficient stored procedures and simply call them from Dexterity code. The negative side of this was – you can not have your custom piece running on Btrieve or Ctree platforms, where Dexterity cursors were the only way to work with the database

• Dexterity COM object support. This was new feature of Microsoft Great Plains Dexterity version 7.0. This feature allows you to call something nice, like web service from your COM object and in this case replace, say Great Plains tax engine with the one working from your web server, located in one place and serving numerous subscribers.

• eConnect. This tool was initially designed for eCommerce developer, who deploys Microsoft Great Plains as the back end/ERP. eConnect is SDK with SQL Stored Procedures and parameters descriptions.

• Extender. We’ll wait the next version – but even now it is very promising and it doesn’t require you to be programmer to customize Great Plains.

We encourage you to analyze your alternatives. You can always appeal to our help, give us a call: 1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan