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Third-Party Products

Third-Party Products
By John Olson
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January 1, 2003 12:00 AM EST
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 11,380

My goal in this article is to raise your awareness of the products available and give you enough information to go on if you choose to investigate them. I'll also discuss some of the main issues involved in searching for and selecting off-the-shelf products. Finally, this article ends by listing a few dozen products you should find useful.

What's Out There?
Often the only products that are well known are the ones for which large amounts are spent on advertising, which often translates into a high-price tag. It's a paradox of capitalism. For a company to get its product noticed, it has to spend a lot of money, but to cover those expenses it must raise the price of the product, which in turn reduces its sales and profits. That's a simplistic view, but especially during an economic downturn, it's the most fundamental reason that product companies stop making and selling their products.

To complicate matters, PowerBuilder doesn't have tens of thousands of heads-down programmers like Java does. Let's face it, PB is the tool of choice for client/server and Web development, but only for thousands. That may sound like a lot, but when most of those thousands have limited budgets, it makes for a small market for the third-party product companies. That's one reason several companies we've been buying products from for many years have recently consolidated. A good example of this was the data-modeling product ERWin being bought by Computer Associates. Another was Rational buying SQA to bolster its toolset to include not only object modeling, change management, and requirements tracking, but also defect and load testing.

Where there once were many products, now there are only a few. To some extent it's similar to the narrowing of the application server offerings. Instead of dozens of weak and immature products, there are now only a handful of products, but they are mature and proven. This narrowing is true of all product categories, whether related to PowerBuilder or not. It's a cycle repeated over and over in the free market. Even breakfast cereals are subject to this law. In the PB industry we have a small market and a small number of products to choose from. That makes this article so much easier...well, actually, there are still dozens of products to choose from, but they can be hard to find.

If You Don't Look for It You Won't Find It
Where are these tools? Just walk into your local software store and, well... you won't find any PowerBuilder utilities...and you also won't find any high-end design and modeling tools because they don't sell them there either. This may be a good time to point out that there aren't many midrange tools for PowerBuilder. There are dozens of small utilities that are cheap or free and a dozen or so higher-end tools that integrate with PB that cost thousands of dollars. There aren't many in the middle, and those are the types of products typically sold at CompUSA, Software Etc, and so on.

Unfortunately, there isn't one place you can go to to find all the tools you may need. Well, actually there is; it's called the Internet. But there isn't one place that provides nice little summaries and categorizations for all products related to PowerBuilder. There are some sites that bring a lot of that information together though. Are you familiar with the PowerBuilder Developer's Web Ring? Most freeware, shareware, and low-cost utilities are on the ring. The home is hosted by TeamSybase and can be found at www.teamsybase.com/webring/webring.html.

As you surf your way around the ring you'll find several sites that have pages of links for utilities and products. One of my favorites is PowerBuilder Developer's Resource (PBDR). Ken Howe, the brain behind www.pbdr.com, has some great tools as well as links to others. If you've read this magazine over the years, you've seen several reviews of Ken's products, including my favorite, PBDelta. I could write whole paragraphs about that one product, but simply want to convey that there are inexpensive little tools available that you may not know exist, and if you had them they could change your life. I'm not exaggerating; some of the tools I use reduce my stress levels and are adding years to my life.

Publications are another good source for locating products. For the high-end products, you can pick almost any content-appropriate software magazine, or visit www.sybase.com, and look for news and links to products that have features specific to PB and EAServer. For the midrange and lower-priced products, which are usually built specifically for PowerBuilder, look at the ads in the PowerBuilder and Sybase periodicals. Here are a few magazines to look at:

  • PowerBuilder Developer's Journal: www.sys-con.com
  • Sybase Magazine: www.sybase.com/about_sybase/magazine
  • ISUG Technical Journal: www.isug.com

    Don't forget to look at their Web sites for online advertising and reviews. Also, watch for advertising on the PowerBuilder Developer's Web Ring.

    Serving Those That Serve Us
    I often allude to the fact that the articles you read and the tools you use were created by a PB developer who probably has no life and isn't getting paid much. That work is for love, not money. Every dollar that person receives for his or her efforts makes him or her a little more likely to continue producing.You'd be surprised at how much time people put into writing articles or building tools yet how little money they get out of it. It's not much above minimum wage. If a product has good sales and makes profits for its creator, that company or individual is more likely to make more products, which will in turn help us do our jobs better.

    Okay, this is where you come in. When I said, "If a product has really good sales," I was referring to your money. Find products that will make your life easier and help you do your job better, then buy them. Some cost only $20! If we spend even a little of our money, free market capitalism will lead to many more tools and utilities being made available to us.

    It's amazing how often I see people run shareware forever without paying the small amount of shekels to use it. If you use a shareware utility for more than the evaluation period, do us all a favor and pay the few dollars. That way, when I'm standing over your shoulder helping you with a problem, I won't have to wait for the annoyance screen to clear before we can continue. (For the few of you who do register your shareware, the "annoyance screen" is the dialog that pops up to remind you that it has been x number of days since you installed the software and that it's high time you paid for it. My favorite is once again Ken Howe's version. His tools pop up a dialog that slowly counts down the number of days since you installed it. As the months and years pass it takes longer and longer to launch his products.)

    Personally, I buy tools because it makes me more valuable to my clients. But it helps to know that the little bit of money I spend on a product will encourage the person behind the product to continue his or her hard work. Just for the record, I did pay for my WinZip and TextPad.

    Buy vs Build -
    The War Rages On
    The buy versus build argument has been a staple of my work environment for years. Before I became a consultant I waged war to buy instead of build, thinking there had to be a product in existence that would meet my company's needs. After becoming a consultant I realized that a new factor came into play: money. As a consultant I earn my income helping companies and governments build custom software. If I encourage them to buy, I may as well just clear my desk and let myself out. Those thoughts came into perspective as I planned my future

    I realized that the right thing to do for my customer happens to be the right thing to do for me. If I leave behind a trail of satisfied customers, I'm nearly guaranteed future opportunities. The value of a good reference cannot be underestimated. If I were to encourage my customers to make a bad decision, and possibly squeeze a few extra dollars out of them in the short term, it would cost me a lot in the long term. Those types of bad decisions stick to consultants like glue, and poor references reduce future opportunities. As a consultant the best thing I can do for a customer is to work myself out of a job as soon as possible. Sometimes that means convincing them to buy rather than build; sometimes it means mentoring and training my customer's staff. Unfortunately, all consultants can't be expected to have that long-range perspective. So always take motives into account when you listen to your consultant's advice.

    Though I make my living building custom software, I firmly believe, and strongly recommend, that companies exert maximum effort to find existing software to meet their needs. If a good effort doesn't turn up reliable candidates, that company should pursue building custom software. Though I find it rewarding to roll out a new custom system, it's also rewarding to see a solid and reliable off-the-shelf system implemented for far less, and much earlier than any custom system could have been.

    Tips on Selecting a Product

  • Know your requirements
    If you don't know what you need you won't know what to look for. Take the extra time up front to write down what you need. Be specific. The more specific you are the easier it will be to evaluate the products you find.

  • Know what's available
    You can't make a good decision without all the facts, so do your best to find all the available products that come close to meeting your needs.

  • Be flexible
    Don't expect to find a product that will meet all your needs because you won't find one. Determine which features you must have versus those you could live without. Be flexible. If you rate too many of your requirements as must-haves you'll be much more likely to spend a lot of money and wait a long time while the system you hope meets your needs is built.

  • Consider reengineering your business processes
    I'm a big believer in business process reengineering. If your company can't use the same systems to do the same things as other companies, figure out why. It may be that you need to come in-line with industry standards, adopt best practices, and replace your homegrown ways for proven ways. Sometimes the search for software uncovers this problem and results in companies changing to conform to normal business practices.

  • Be realistic
    Building takes a lot of time, money, and expertise. It's inherently fraught with cost overruns and delays, and the results are often less than desirable and sometimes a total disaster. I've seen many project managers spending their time daydreaming of future glories rather than focusing on the hard facts of custom software development. It's risky unless you know what you're doing and have a proven track record. When you buy software you can know the cost, know the implementation date, and know what you're getting. That isn't true of custom software.

  • Carefully consider the stability of the product company
    The more you invest in a product the more you depend on the company that stands behind it. Do your homework and make sure that company will be around as long as you need it to be. And that they will continue enhancing and supporting the product as long as you need them to.

    Sybase and SilverStream are good case studies. Four years ago people were concerned about Sybase's future because their revenues weren't growing and the database market had softened. Meanwhile, SilverStream had a hot new product and was taking off. Believe it or not, some companies chose SilverStream products over Sybase solely because of their perception of future viability. Sybase had a solid and broad set of products and continues to bring in nearly a billion dollars per year with no letup in sight. SilverStream only dreamt of revenues that high, faded along with most other ".com" companies, and was finally bought by Novell. Those that went with SilverStream are now retooling.

  • Buy the source code
    If you are buying a big ticket item, like a manufacturing system, or are buying something you will become dependent on, like a class library, purchase the source code or get a legal commitment that you could obtain it if something goes awry with the product company. Beware if they are unwilling. That may mean they are already considering closing out that product line or selling it.

  • Get references
    Buying software, at least the expensive kind, is like hiring an employee. Would you hire someone without checking references? I hope not. Don't take the salesman's word for it when he says, "It's the greatest product ever made! There are no bugs and never will be!" Second, don't settle for references that the salesman gives you. Seek out other users of that product and contact them independently of the product company. Finding references may be as simple as searching news group archives on www.groups.google.com.

    For those of you out to spend big $, there are books available that can help you get through the software selection process. If you are buying a small tool for $20, I suggest you keep some of these points in mind but skip the process. Don't waste days evaluating $20. Buy it and get on with your job.

    Types of Software
    Back to your earlier question: "What types of software are available?" There are utilities, frameworks, development IDEs that work with PB and sometimes compete with it, design tools, modeling tools, documentation generators, and on and on. Products fall into three categories: efficiency, design, co-implementation.

    Efficiency
    Efficiency tools are ones that help a programmer or manager do a job more accurately and faster. PowerGen is a great example of this type of tool. Though everything PowerGen does can be done manually in the PB IDE, PowerGen does it a lot faster and can save a huge amount of time over and over.

    Design
    Design tools are those that help designers and developers document requirements, design databases, model objects, etc. These are tools that store knowledge about the system and may even generate foundational code.

    Co-Implementation
    Some third-party products not only help with development but actually roll out custom systems. Examples of this type of product are smlPortal by Power Objects and Enterprise Application Framework by Cynergy Systems. While EAF is the foundation upon which the custom system is built, smlPortal can be a sibling component that provides report viewing capabilities to end users.

    PowerBuilder Utilities
    There are utilities that will help you with just about anything you want to do. Search the Internet and I'll bet you can find "Tiddlywinks on the Desktop" and other fine productivity tools. There are thousands and thousands of free and nearly free utilities. You'll find most are worthless to you, but there are still hundreds that could be of value. The ones I'm interested in are those related to PowerBuilder or, even more specifically, those that integrate with PowerBuilder.

    Table 1 provides a sample listing intended to give you some idea as to what products are available.

    Independent of PowerBuilder
    Not that utilities are not serious software, but most of the ones listed in Table 1 are niche products marketed solely to PB users. The independent products category is reserved for products that serve the software market at large and aren't limited to one or two languages. Most of these products cost thousands of dollars. This category is reserved for tools like PowerDesigner, JBuilder, etc., tools that consist of more than a few hundred, or even thousand, lines of code. Most integrate with PowerBuilder in some way, but some are entirely independent of it.

    Table 2 provides a sample listing intended to give you some idea as to what products are available.

    Though the market has narrowed, there are still dozens of third-party products available to help you do your job better, faster, and more accurately. I listed 17 utilities and 10 independent tools. Each could meet a need you know you have, or possibly one you aren't even aware of. Watch for the upcoming PowerBuilder 9 book, Advanced Client/ Server Development, where I will have more space to go in-depth into some of the issues I mentioned as well as give detailed information about these products and many more.

    • Published January 1, 2003 – Reads 11,380
    Copyright © 2003 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
    Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

    More Stories By John Olson

    John D. Olson is a principal of Developower, Inc., a consulting company specializing in software solutions using Sybase development tools. A CPD Professional and charter member of TeamSybase, he is co-editor and author of two PB9 books, and the recipient of the ISUG Innovation and Achievement Award for 2003.

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