We've been busy, traveling to Customers and conferences to determine product needs. Here, Technical Product Manager Greg Grisham shares the latest from the Java One Conference. Chief Technical Officer John Schroeder tells how he spent his summer–visiting BASIS Customers in Europe. Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jane McKenzie outlines recommendations from our annual Distributors Meeting. And Product Marketing Manager Mike Young discusses a plan for Customer-driven product development.

BASIS DIRECTION REINFORCED AT JAVA ONE
In June, I was fortunate enough to attend the Java One conference put on by Sun Microsystems. That is to say, I was fortunate enough to attend with 25,000 of my closest friends. I didn't get the exact number of countries represented at the conference, but it was noticeable by all of the professional translators. This was the only flower garden and all the bees were there.

At first, I was a little tentative because our language is older than some of the people attending the conference. And my personal tenure in the application business probably originated before most of the attendees owned their first video game. It was an extremely young, bright group.

The message was simple, if it has an electronic pulse, Java can control it. That struck me as rather ostentatious, but they went on to prove it. What I witnessed was an In-Your-Face, Show-Me conference that included demonstrations of all of the whiz-bang programming functionality you could dream of. They demonstrated control of all types of household devices through all types of input devices, from cellular phones to personal digital assistants (PDAs) talking to PCs, servers and mainframes. The point was simple. There is no limit.

On the exhibit floor were just as many cutting-edge vendor demonstrations. One of my favorites was a robotic arm that could count jelly beans. Okay, maybe I don't have an immediate need for that particular functionality, but the demonstration succeeded in inspiring a lot of creative thought.

Mobility, voice control and robotics were just some of the innovations demonstrated, but I'm still an accounting-application kind of guy. The idea of talking to my Accounts Receivable is neat but still a stretch for me. What I realized, however, was that there were no limits to this world. If you can reach a system electronically, you can converse with it using Java. That cell phone just becomes an input device...Very cool.

As the show went on, I reflected on how all of this applies to BASIS and what our Customers are trying to do. As I walked the huge- exhibit floor, I was wow-ed by all of the "e-based" technology. What I noticed was missing was any substantive business applications, particularly vertical applications - BASIS Customers' bailiwick. Wow! Here are the latest in technological advancements and we have just what they need! I wanted BBj™ to be done and out as soon as possible and then I realized another thing. Everyone else there was in the same boat: the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.3 is the ticket to the superhighway. (Ed. note: See What's Brewing With Java in this issue.) BASIS is firmly placed on the cutting edge of the latest technology in the world, and we and our Customers are in it together. We continue to develop tools for business application development and our Customers continue to develop world-class applications. I suddenly felt extremely happy about where we are and where we are going.––Greg Grisham

GREAT IDEAS COME FROM BASIS DISTRIBUTORS

Right and Lower: BASIS CEO George Hight discussed BBj development and product requirements with BASIS distributors.

BASIS management heard valuable input from our distributors as they raised the issues, questions and concerns of their VARs and end users around the world at the annual BASIS Distributors Meeting, held in July in Stockholm, Sweden.

BASIS Distributor Sven Nützmann, President of Basic Systems AB, was host to this year's meeting in which, among other action items, we planned to make U.S. training class materials, pricing tools and BASIS Web look-and-feel templates available to distributors on our Web site.

Distributors were pleased about BASIS Solution Partner products, and we discussed new and easier ways to make them available to Customers worldwide. In particular, distributors felt SW-Tools' TRIO set provided very good added functionality to the BASIS product suite.

Distributors also put forth a product development wish list that included:

• Transaction tracking in future releases of BBj™
• READ/WRITE access to SQL databases, using a "white box" interface for transparently translating BASIC READ/WRITE verbs into SQL
• Continued work on rapid application development tools for user interfaces and business rules
• Improved licensing for BBj applications.
• Enhancements to the BBj Data Server's™ Enterprise Manager, such as allowing the review of historical information on queries to suggest additional indices or having a "post query" advice message suggesting how the query could be improved. Distributors also suggested a variety of utilities be added to the Enterprise Manager.
• Availability of BASIS e-commerce code along with a demo database

Robert Nützmann, of Basic Systems AB, Serge Kraemer, of BASIS France, Denise Schmitz, of BASIS International Software GmbH, Herbert Schmitz, also of BASIS International Software GmbH, and Sven Nützmann, also of Basic Systems AB, looked over new sales and marketing materials for BASIS resellers.

The management team is giving considerable time and thought to each of these suggestions and more proposed by our distributors.

At the conclusion of our meeting, Bryan Miller, another BASIS Distributor and President of Risegold Pty Ltd., agreed to be the host of our next BASIS Distributors Meeting in the fall of 2001 in his home country of Australia. ––Jane McKenzie

  EURO ROADSHOW 2000 (Or What I Did Last Summer)

June was Euro Roadshow 2000 month for BASIS International Ltd.

At a meeting of Business Basic developers in Wiesbaden, Germany, attendees examined our Software Asset Management (SAM) Plan along other BASIS products and services.

The first leg involved our German subsidiary, BASIS International Software GmbH. BASIS GmbH Director Herbert Schmitz, Technical Support Consultant Falk Spitzberg and I traveled from the subsidiary's base in Wiesbaden to several German cities, visiting about 100 BASIS VARs and end users over the course of 10 days. The purpose was to bring the VARs and end users up to date on BASIS products and BBj™ development.

These visits were well received by our German Customers, die Deutsche Kunden, who helped us to understand their product needs, such as the ability to access the Java Swing classes directly from within BBj and the need for tree controls in our GUI products.

I was supposed to be in Paris next, where Serge Kraemer, our French Sales Representative, and Peter Scholtz, a technical associate of BASIS GmbH, conducted a seminar for our French Customers. Unfortunately, I got stuck in London because of a strike by French air traffic controllers. C'est la vie!

Herbert Schmitz, director of BASIS International Software GmbH, showcased the Advantage while presenting BASIS at a meeting in Munich, Germany.

I was finally able to meet up with Serge, and we visited Sotirios Kalantzis, Operations Director, and Hervé Buissart, Senior Project Leader, of LGS, Inc. LGS is an IBM subsidiary and handles technical support and training for BASIS in France from its headquarters in Belfort. Together, BASIS and LGS personnel met with senior managers and technical personnel from Carrefour, France's largest hypermarket (discount superstore) company, and LGS' largest customer. The meeting was very successful and well timed. Carrefour had just purchased France's third largest supermarket company and was making a decision on what software to use in the new acquisition. Later in the summer, Serge was able to close an order with LGS for Carrefour, making this trip exceptionally useful!

Falk Spitzberg, of BSI F. Spitzberg, a company providing BASIS technical support in Europe, informed German audiences in Wiesbaden of BBj features and benefits.

Then it was off to the Netherlands for presentations to Dutch Customers with the help of Peter van der Spek from LCS Systemen BV, the BASIS distributor for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Benelux Customers are very active developers and users of BASIS products, and the seminars gave them the opportunity to learn more about BASIS products as well as make suggestions for product enhancements, such as enhancements to the TBL function to allow conversion tables to be defined in the config.bbx file. The afternoon seminar was cut a little short, so that all the attendees could watch the European Cup Semi-Final Football (soccer) between the Netherlands and Italy. Unfortunately, the Dutch team lost a very close match to Italy, and there was no joy in the Netherlands that evening.

The last leg of the journey was a visit to Inter Access, one of LCS' larger Customers. Daan Wielings and Kees Vis of Inter Access are heading up the GUI migration of Inter Access' popular manufacturing and distribution application. It was a very useful exchange and I came away with several suggestions for product improvements. Among them, Inter Access wants its GUI product to look like other GUI competitors, such as SAP. Inter Access developers want more control over the low-level colors on buttons and borders, which are not yet available. They would also like to see user-accessible fields on the program header to handle such things as version control. Inter Access decided to take some mid-course corrections based on our discussions and is progressing well on the migration.––John Schroeder

Business Basic developers in Munich, Germany, heard all about BASIS and BBj. Munich was only one of about a dozen European cities targeted for sales and marketing efforts this summer.

Improving The Software Product Marketing Cycle

I recently attended a Practical Product Management course developed by Pragmatic Marketing in San Francisco with BASIS Technical Product Manager Greg Grisham. The course, which focused on the software product development cycle and the implications of Customer-driven design, was enlightening for both of us in terms what we can improve at BASIS in the development of BBj™.

All successful software applications fulfill a new need within an industry or significantly improve existing technology. Industry demand drives a software developer's business and makes an application or tool successful. If the sale of an application or tool has decreased over the last few years, someone else's application or tool is meeting Customer demand.

It is important for any business in the software industry-whether you're an application developer or a tool developer like us-to periodically examine its product marketing cycle and determine what is driving development. One of the main points of the seminar was that idea-driven applications or tools run a significant risk of failure simply because they are not driven by Customer needs. Customers are always willing to pay for those enhancements they drive. And there is a very basic methodology that ensures Customers drive product development and therefore will be willing to pay for enhancements that are implemented.

1. SURVEY CUSTOMERS

It's best to begin an in-depth dialog with existing customers. At BASIS, we have begun to do this more and more in the last two years, with quarterly Customer Council meetings, annual Distributor meetings, at Solution Showcases across the country and our individual conversations with Customers. We know we have to be willing to disregard our own opinions and listen to you, our Customers. We need to know how our tools are meeting your current business needs and how your business is changing. We will be utilizing this process as we begin to add functionality in the BBj product line. BASIS will roll out several programs in conjunction with the product launch that are focused on customer feedback, starting with a feedback forum located on the BASIS Web site.

2. EVALUATE RESULTS

There are basically only two categories for Customer feedback: "Must Have" and "Nice to Have." The Must Have category will most typically be those enhancements that Customers are willing to buy. The Nice to Have category will typically be enhancements that won't make or break an application and can be addressed at a later time or implemented with very little effort. At BASIS, we will make these determinations based on your feedback.

3. PRIORITIZE CUSTOMER 'MUST HAVES'

Developers should prioritize Must Have enhancements by both the number of times the enhancement is requested and by the value of the individual Customer giving the feedback. Every business needs to rank development priorities by weighting Customers. If 50 percent of the business is coming from one Customer, that Customer's Must Haves should be priority. By prioritizing enhancements with this methodology, we can stay focused on revenue-generating requests.

4. INVEST ENGINEERING RESOURCES

While it is critical to address the highest of priorities, developers still have to be willing to eliminate high priorities from the list if the return on investment is prohibitive.

There are times when because of the finite amount of resources, BASIS must abandon a particular Customer's Must Have. It happens. We are trying to be as objective and up front about these decisions as possible.

5. SHARE RESULTS AND DECISIONS

We can only continue the relationships we have built with our Customers if we honor Customer confidence by striving to realistically project development completion dates and by being honest when we are unable to meet those dates and Customer expectations.

As we move into 2001, we continue to formalize these concepts in BASIS processes and procedures, as we hope application developers working with BASIS tools will do also. We understand that Customers are not satisfied by ideas but by applications and tools that help them meet the demands of their businesses, today and tomorrow. - Mike Young