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HISTORY
VSC Software is a company that specializes in Enterprise software development. To understand why VSC Software is different from other software companies, it is worthwhile to look at the background of the founders.
Let us look at a few of their projects for the past 20 years. Phil and Arv both started with a background in Electronics and Computer hardware, giving them invaluable insights on how to get the best performance from a computer.
In 1984, Phil wrote a reservations system for Jetabout, a subsidiary of Qantas Airlines. This system supported 300 concurrent users on a machine about the power of a 386 PC.
1986 - Phil cofounds Software Associates, a company that specializes in code generation and middleware technologies and a creator of a software tool named Mercury.
1990 – Software Associates is appointed Asian distributor for Tuxedo, the leading middleware product at the time.
From 1990 onwards Phil and Arv adapt Mercury to work with 32 variants of Unix, 11 databases and 7 different middleware products.
1992 – They write a middleware-based application for handling emergency ambulance calls.
1994 – A billing system for Australia’s largest ISP.
1995 – IBM introduces them to HK Telecom where they build a middleware application integrating multiple Legacy systems including IBM mainframes, databases, VMS and telephone exchange equipment. This is still running and is one of the largest sites in the world.
1997 – They provide mainframe integration services for Security First National Bank, the world’s first Internet banking software provider.
1998 – IBM starts selling Mercury under the name TX Developer as part of their Websphere/TX series product set.
1999 – Mercury is a finalist in the Australian Technology of the Year Awards.
2001 – They build an Internet-based patient record and billing system for HK based medical provider, Quality Healthcare.
In 2001, they sold their company. After a year of semi-retirement, they decide to build a new tool named ToolTwist. This tool has the benefits of Mercury but is J2EE based and produces browser-based applications. It uses AJAX-like technologies years before the term AJAX was invented.
In 2004, they released an IT asset management product named Phinza. This product with 500+ screens is typical of the output of ToolTwist. Despite running in a web browser, it provides an interface equal to or in many cases, better than, a client based application. It requires no installation on the user’s machine and integrates with Legacy systems, security infrastructure, data sources and messaging systems.
In 2007, they developed an employee background checking system that manipulates employment, credit, education and court record data from dozens of Internet-based data sources.
In 2008, they built a system for uploading advertisements to multiple advertising websites.
In 2008, ToolTwist was used to build an e-commerce website for one of the world’s leading online computer resellers. Handling more than 400,000 products, this website processes more than $80 million in sales each month.
ToolTwist allows non-technical Marketing people to build a website. And at the back end, has interfaces to ERP, product pricing and other Legacy systems.
So, what is ToolTwist?
ToolTwist is a software development tool in a run-time environment that is specifically designed for Enterpise applications. This diagram taken from the Sun Java website shows the basic architecture of a J2EE application as taught to programmers.
This architecture works fine for new stand-alone applications but unfortunately is a long way from what is required in an Enterprise environment.
To work within an enterprise, an architecture first needs to provide integration with existing databases and existing systems. It needs to provide fast, consistent and easily deployed functionality to business users. It needs to provide information to the world via a public website and provide e-commerce facilities. And more and more commonly, the infrastructure needs to access and update external systems over the Internet.
To meet these needs, many technologies are required such as IBM web sphere. These technologies work great but learning to use them properly takes years of experience and is beyond the scope of most programmers. People with the appropriate skills are expensive and are hard to find. And this is reflected in the huge budgets and high failure rate of middleware projects.
ToolTwist is a development environment that provides simplified, consistent interface to these technologies. XML is used to communicate between components and also within the code. The repository and code generators allow reliable software to be created quickly by regular programmers.
Services
Phil and Arv work with in-house teams and consultants to help them design and build middleware applications. Despite their history, they are humble and easy to get on with. Their objective is to help your team build the application, providing assistance in taking on any role required.
In addition, VSC Software has an experienced middleware development group who can work with your team or build parts of your application for you. Based in the Philippines, this group is extremely cost effective.
Having VSC and ToolTwist involved in your project has huge benefits:
• Risk is minimized. Experience allows Phil and Arv to get it right the first time.
• Code generation and test harnesses result in higher quality applications.
• Normal developers can be used rather than the high-cost gurus.
• Maintenance and support can be performed by your in-house team.
The experience of Phil and Arv and the use of ToolTwist results in applications being built in a fraction of the normal time and cost. If you choose to also utilize their Philippine development group, amazing cost reductions are possible.
Middleware projects don’t have to be hard.
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