Software development house, MIP Holdings has appointed Hansen IT Consulting (HIT) of Denmark to distribute its Progress-based Astra and AstraGen rapid application development tools (RAD) in Europe.
HIT will market the Astra and AstraGen tools to the massive European Progress user-base, which represents 30% of Progress`s annual $1.5 billion turnover. HIT is headed by Thomas Hansen, a European consultant for Starbase`s Roundtable.
Roundtable is a comprehensive repository-based Total Software Management System (TSMS) designed for and implemented in the Progress 4GL. Astra and AstraGen are integrated with Roundtable using its TSM capabilities to enhance their effectiveness.
"We believe HIT is very well placed to introduce the AstraGen toolsets to European Progress users," says MIP Holdings chairman Richard Firth. "Thomas Hansen is the top European consultant for Roundtable and a former Progress Europe technical support centre engineer. He maintains close ties with most of the major Progress developers in Europe through his work as a Roundtable consultant.
Hansen was initially interested in Astra and AstraGen because of the way they integrate with Roundtable`s management features. Once MIP showed him the products` capabilities, he recognised the tremendous potential for the toolkit in Europe.
"Speed of delivery and efficient project development are key to successful systems development projects today, and I would go so far as to say no development team should consider starting a project without the powerful combination of Astra, AstraGen and Roundtable.
"On new projects, Astra is especially effective at teaching developers to design and set up a system quickly," he says. "The generic nature of the Astra framework means you can build any type of system, and are not limited to a specific type of industry or business activity.
"Since the toolkit follows standard Progress methodologies, users are able to future-proof their systems. Anything built in Astra and AstraGen now will be easily adaptable when future technology developments and innovations are added. Developers will be able to add Web integration with tools like Webspeed and Apptivity, to get globally accessible applications without having to do huge rewrites."
Hansen says Oracle and SAP are Progress`s main competitors in Europe, but that their high price has made them prohibitive for small, innovative systems developers and small companies wanting to develop their own systems. This has allowed Progress to attract some of the best young talent in the market as well as clients that have grown to giants using Progress-based systems.
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