Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

I believe the person dealing with Trifox is Chuck BANZAI::STATA.

Try contacting him.

Tony J.

    Zahir,

    Jay Wang and I hosted the Trifox president, Su Lin, the
    vice-president of marketing, J. Brian Skone and Dave Mumms from
    the Center for Migration Services (DEC) here at NYO for the
    past 3 days.  Perhaps I can be of some assistance.

    The product set is in 3 parts:

    	TRIM/APP  - SQL*Forms like application development package.
    Benefits include greater flexibility for triggering, buffered data
    access, more efficient use of locking, simple "C"-like imbedded
    procedural trigger language.

    	TRIM/RPT   - SQL*Report like report generator.  Benefits
    include the above as well as consistency in user interface.

    	TRIP/TRANSLATE   - Conversion program to automate conversion
    from SQL*Forms to TRIM/APP.  Can perform 80-90% of logic
    translation and 90-95% of look and feel translation.

    Major benefit is that the first two products access Rdb, Sybase or
    ORACLE database formats (RMS will be available end of June). 
    Product is written in C and is available VAX/VMS,SUN,DOS,IBM (most
    environments) and OS2 (other environments available at request.)

    Dave Mumms and Tom Koski at the CMS are putting together the
    logistics for Digital to sell the product.  Trifox is a software
    development company.  They make the software but use big companies
    as their sales channel. ( They used ORACLE to market their QMX
    report/query product. )

    We are developing internal expertise to provide technical support
    locally.  Dave has developed expertise to start support on a more
    national level.

    If you need further information -technical specs, positioning,
    whatever, please contact me:

    	James N. Friedman
    	(212) 856-2108
    	(DTN) 352-2108
    	(No All-in-1)
    	2 Penn Plaza, 7th Floor
    	New York City, NY 10121

>>    Jay Wang and I hosted the Trifox president, Su Lin, the
>>    vice-president of marketing, J. Brian Skone and Dave Mumms from
>>    the Center for Migration Services (DEC) here at NYO for the

	Make that Dave Munns, not Mumms.  Sparkling he is, but I should get his
	name correct.

James.

    
    
    One caution with Trifox.  Although they have what appears to be a great
    product, and it will migrate a customer off of SQL*Forms to something
    that runs on top of VAX Rdb, it still doesn't provide a conversion path
    to a Digital strategic forms manager.  When I first heard about Trifox
    last september, the talk of the town was a DECforms conversion path by
    January.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt and predicted February. 
    Still no decforms conversion to DECforms at present.  Of course, this
    doesn't appear as a problem to Trifox, since it is their Trim*
    application that the customer has migrated to.  If we want to take an
    application and migrate it from SQL*forms to DECforms, there
    doesn't appear to be anything available.  Where is the DECforms
    conversion piece? 
    
    Better yet, where is the functionality that would allow one to create 
    a form with DECforms, and then query an Rdb database without having to
    write 3gl code?  (Like Dbase, SQL*forms, etc).  Lack of THAT 
    functionality is what really kills us in competitive situations.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Gil
    

    
    
    Gil, there is some software written by a SWS type in Hong Kong,
    it goes the other way, from an Rdb database it generates a load
    of DECforms that can use the database. It is called SQLGEN. 
    
    See note 407 in BANZAI::RDB_31 (kp 7 and all that)
    
    Also Rally will be able to build a complete application from an
    Rdb database in version 2.2. Enter rally, say build application
    and voila! Lots of screens and menus!
    
    Simon

    
    The agreement between DEC and Trifox is finally in place.  Colorado's
    Center for Migration Service now has the program to convert ORACLE
    applications to run with Rdb/VMS.  The contact is Tom Koski.
    
    TRIM (Trifox's 4GL) is just one of many tools that works with Rdb/VMS.  
    Once ORACLE users convert to Rdb/VMS, we have the opportunities to sell
    other products that works with Rdb/VMS.  Products like Rally, Teamdata,
    RdbExpert, ACMS, just to name a few.  These opportunities can only
    happen after the conversion.  Is TRIM's ability to DECforms still that
    important?
    
    If the goal is to displace ORACLE in a account.  I believe the strategy
    is to migrate customers from ORACLE to rdb/VMS first.  Like what IBM
    tells its sales force, we most own the data (database) in order to have 
    account control.
    
    Jay Wang   

    re .4
    
    Gil,
    
    We have two strategic partners helping us convert from ORACLE to Rdb.
    
    SmartStar will convert SQL*Forms applications into SmartStar
    applications using DECforms.
    
    Trifox will convert SQL*Forms applications into TRIM applications 
    using their own SQL*Forms-like forms system.
    
    Although we'd like to convert all of our customers to our strategic
    forms environment, many customers are rather attached to the SQL*Forms
    environment.  With this type of customer, TRIFOX provides a tremendous
    advantage since they can convert the customer to Rdb, AND the customer
    still has the look and feel of SQL*Forms.  And, TRIM on Rdb runs 
    incredibly faster than SQL*Forms on ORACLE.

    As far as I know Smartstar will only convert the look and feel, not the
    SQL*FORMS triggers.  SQL*FORMS triggers are the logic behind the
    application.  Trifox's conversion utility will convert most of the
    SQL*FROMS triggers, which in my opinion is the advantage Trifox has
    over Smartstar.
    
    Jay Wang