Portland chooses Progress-based SeaTrak to automate auctions

Maine's Portland Fish Exchange has deployed the seafood inventory system SeaTrak to provide bar-code-based inventory management of every fish container and feed their daily auction.

DC Systems built SeaTrak using Progress OpenEdge, SonicMQ, bar codes and wireless technology to track fish as they are handled in the fish exchange and auctioned online. This new system reduces fish data collection errors, lets workers to unload, sort and stage the fish more quickly, and gives Portland a new, larger market by offering its auction online to buyers beyond New England.

Manually entering data at a pier has been an error-prone process. DC Systems understood our data collection, communications, inventory and warehousing needs and proposed an innovative solution that was very appealing to us. This new bar coding system not only saved us tens of thousands of dollars in capital equipment purchases, it also allowed us to enhance our data collection accuracy and increase employee productivity. Employees never have to touch a keyboard to enter information, and they can do their jobs on the docks without worrying about keying in data. - Bert Jongerden, General Manager of the Portland Fish Exchange

DC Systems is another example of Progress Application Partners automating business with vertical market software. Read the rest of the article on ebizQ. Join the industry trade association for Progress OpenEdge developers at Application Partner Buisiness Council.

Big change for Progress?

One of the benefits us "old timers" get as Progress Software buys more mainstream and less embedded technologies is some exposure in the press. OpenEdge (read as Progress 4GL) rarely comes up on the radar and we rarely see industry, much less analyst, coverage of the business software building tools we love so much. One shining example did emerge last week that gives me hope at the same time it causes me no small amount of concern.

Neil Ward-Dutton posted a entry about Progress in the Software Infrastructure for Business Value blog over at ebiz. He was covering the SOA offerings and ended up chatting with PSC execs via Twitter. That conversation fueled his blog post and he made a very interesting point about Progress Software.

The most interesting bit, however, was a comment on Neil's blog from Mark Palmer. His response shone some much-needed light into what Progress Software is thinking and what choices Rick Reidy is facing.

Neil observed that Progress Software is like Unilever: a conglomerate of technologies, not always aligned, but most definitely not unified under a single brand or moniker. The effect of which is the individual technologies gain no benefit from being part of the Progress Software umbrella. Well put.

Mark, a former GM at Apama, chimed in and pointed out that Joe Alsop's strategy was, indeed, that of balkanization and Rick now has to choose how to move forward. Those choices will very much so affect Application Partners and I encourage each of you to join the conversation either at Neil's blog on in the forums at the Application Partner Business Council.

Regardless of whether or not the Progress APs can sway Rick one way or another in his decision, we do need to give him candid input, now, and he needs to hear from us what we need the final result to do for our OpenEdge-based software development businesses. Where PSC is headed, the benefits that move gives to the OpenEdge partners, and the effects on us in the meantime are all significant.

Rick Reidy Appointed President and CEO

Late last month, Progress Software announced Rick Reidy had been appointed as the new president and CEO. Joe Alsop is stepping down to allow Rick to take the leadership and will exit the board of directors when his term runs out.

Rick has been with Progress since very early on, has been a part of OpenEdge most of that time, he helped build EMEA, and more recently led the DataDirect and development at Apama. So, Rick comes from the long-standing Progress 4GL / database side of the business, knows development well and has experience with APs, how Progress works outside North America, and has recent experience with some of the new acquisitions.

That strong understanding and history with the OpenEdge side should bode well for us Application Partners. We should expect that as Rick helps Progress Software chart it's course for the coming years, the perspective of the APs will be taken into careful consideration.

No doubt you've got a daunting task ahead of you, Rick. Here's to your (and our) success!

Is Dell's channel offering good for partners?

Dell has finally stepping into the channel, is offering products and partnering with our typical distributors. This is a benefit for APs who want to offer Dell products and their name brand, but want to remain in control.
Can Dell balance its business between direct-to-consumer, whitebox solutions, and the channel? it seems so until you consider the many discounts and offers Dell hands directly to consumers and direct business customers.
ChannelInsider considers Dell's past, its pricing and our future with Dell in this interesting article.