Your job is to decide on the development tool that your company (or your department) will be using for years to come. It's an important decision, because the applications that will be developed will last, probably, beyond 2020.
The widening gap
The IT industry, like many other sectors of the South African economy, has shed jobs as a result of the global economic situation forcing projects to be delayed or cancelled because of budgetary constraints.
With fresh IT graduates dwindling and newer technologies and platforms emerging, the skills gap between demand and supply seems to be on an ever-increasing curve.
Large companies operating in the software development industry see a lack of skills to grow their businesses with very little new talent coming from educational industries.
Smaller companies and micro enterprises operating in the software development industry are also lagging behind as new platforms and technologies emerge, without them having the resources to acquire these new skills and support their business demands at the same time.
Supply and demand
There are various ways that the supply of skills can be achieved - graduates from educational institutes, in-service training of new personnel, re-skilling of existing work force and incoming migration, to name but a few.
Business is looking for a skillset that will help them achieve stability and growth irrespective of whatever new flavour-of-the-month technology comes along, and this normally means that older software and data platforms are kept in use and tweaked and patched long after their end of life date has been reached, instead of moving to newer technology platforms with their enhanced offerings.
This then results in a higher cost to do business and old skills are promoted, leading to an ever-widening gap in skills for older workers between what is needed for new development and what is used to support legacy systems.
Common solution
Students from tertiary institutes are poorly prepared for the workplace and it is small and mid-sized companies that are shouldering the burden to turn new graduates into productive professionals through on-the-job training and mentoring.
From a software development point of view, having a solution that can minimise the skills needed to target the most platforms, is a dream that many software development companies strive towards.
One solution is offered by using for instance Java or HTML5 and JavaScript, developing solutions that runs via browsers on multiple platforms. These types of solutions targets the most common denominators of these different platforms, losing out to native applications in functionality and rich experiences for the user.
WINDEV Solution for single skilled, multiple platforms native applications.
Riebens Systems offers a WINDEV 5GL IDE+ALM tool that any software developer can self-train within one week to start becoming productive.
Programming in WINDEV suite is open to 4GL and 3GL: the possibility to reuse code in Java, C, C++, C#, VB, Pascal, Cobol, Fortran and .Net assembly classes
Access to all databases, AS/400, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Informix, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Access, Progress, Sybase, xBase etc. that your heart can desire.
A free encrypt-able HyperFileSQL database (clustered servers, client/server, local mode and mobile) included for Windows and Linux, android and iOS platforms.
Native support for PDF, Java, PHP, SAP, XML, Word, Excel, Open Office and Native SAP R/3 access, Lotus Notes, Outlook, Google, Salesforce etc.
Distribution of native applications to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Html4, HTML5, Windows Phone, etc.
The user of an application developed in WINDEV benefits automatically from features (the AAF) such as:
* a reports and queries editor,
* exporting to Word, Excel or Open Office,
* creating PDFs,
* sending e-mails,
* resizable windows,
* 3D graphs,
* calculations etc.
All this with zero (0) lines of code from the developer.
Top enterprise companies, universities and engineering schools in France are using WINDEV to keep themselves profitable and at the forefront of modern technology and innovation.
Come visit the free introduction to WINDEV suite of software development tools on 7 April 2014 at Diaz Strand hotel in Mossel Bay and see for yourself.
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Riebens Systems
Riebens Systems is an internationally renowned company and is much sought after for bespoke Clarion, WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobil software products and professional Web applications, and provides business and computer-related services to companies in the IT, agricultural, financial and logistic environments.
Riebens Systems is the southern African distributor of the WINDEV products and also provides IT consulting and training on Clarion and WINDEV products. (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho).
With PC Soft's 25-year track record of delivering usable software development tools, the company feels confident in promoting and supporting the products as a solution to current and future development efforts in southern Africa.
PC Soft
PC Soft was started in 1984 and specialises in the design of professional development tools for Internet, intranet, Windows, Linux, Unix, Android, Windows Phone and iOS.
PC Soft has been following its vision of making high-technology tools available to a wide population.
PC Soft's first best-seller was a screen generator called Hi Screen (10 000 copies sold in the US). On the strength of the experience gained from this tool, which sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide, PC SOFT then created WINDEV, a Windows-based computer aided software environment (IDE & ALM suite) that is the most complete and the easiest to use.
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