The Aviarc® Story - Aviarc® - Smarter enterprise application development on the web.

Our disruptive essence: foundation principles

Throughout the journey there have been some very important principles, which we have stayed true to; these have guided our progress and helped us to keep on track and more importantly, they have helped us re-write the rules. These principles are broadly:

• Think different - if we didn't change the way software programming worked, how could we expect to overcome what seemed fundamental issues in the nature of software. Einstein summed this up nicely: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
• Don't expect to change the nature of people - we know business people work differently to the way software developers would ideally like, e.g. business people often have incomplete ideas when starting software projects, whereas developers need the complete picture before being able to start an effective engineering phase. We expect business people will only know what they want once they see it, we also expect developers to need new tools to allow them to engineer effectively in this instance.
• Customized software is the key to improving human productivity - if software was in third grade, its report card would read "has all the capability, but not yet delivering anywhere near the potential".
• Genuine LOB/IT collaboration is a must - the best software requires the expertise of both business people and IT people; only when both parties can fully participate, will the best software result.
• The web is the future of software - the web provides freedom and simplicity. The challenge was to use the web without compromising the comprehensiveness and quality of the solutions; this meant staying clear of forms based, or template based applications, i.e. web applications shouldn't sacrifice end-user flexibility or productivity.
• Line of Business Applications are the competitive edge - focus on the Line of Business (LOB) or Business Unit applications, which we term "Tactical Enterprise Systems". This name recognizes the full involvement of both the business ("Tactical") and IT ("Enterprise"), this segment also sits between the two existing segments; situational applications (i.e. business driven) and enterprise applications (i.e. IT driven).

Our R&D directions: the connected needs of business and IT

With these principles in place, we approached the research and development from two opposite (sometimes competing) perspectives:

• The human perspective - working very closely with business people (who needed custom software) and the developers (who needed to construct it), to build an understanding of what would and wouldn't work from a human perspective.
• The technology void - creating a new technology platform that could fundamentally change the nature of software development, so that the development process wasn't hindered by technology constraints. James Gosling sums this type of tooling issue up nicely: "Q. Do you think agile is the right approach then? A. Agile as a philosophy solves a lot of problems but the problem can be a lack of tools support. Standard tooling often forces a waterfall model, and frankly waterfall is hideous."

As a result of the breakthrough technologies that make up Aviarc, there are four patents pending.

Into the light: delivering the Aviarc® vision

The most important part of our story is our clients; we have had clients using Aviarc® in enterprise environments for over four years. Some CIOs even created "shop-fronts" and a Tactical Enterprise Systems team to service the needs of their Line of Business executives. Most importantly, our clients have been prepared to share their perspectives and experiences; they have helped us understand how to make a whole solution, which serves both the business users and works within the bounds of an enterprise IT operation.

We have deliberately chosen to operate "under the radar" up until now; with a focus on close relationships with key clients, so we could complete our research and development in-market, based on real-world experience. As we now go above the radar and start our globalization program, enterprise clients can join our journey, knowing that we are here to help IT grow a productive relationship with their Line of Business executives.

Aviarc® has been successfully used by ourselves, our partners and our clients to deliver solutions across a wide range of industries, including:

Aviarc® applied in the real world: collaborative productivity between IT and business

• A major private health insurer quickly introduces an innovative and sophisticated sales incentive and tracking system to meet the needs of many hundreds of staff spread across thousands of miles. They go on to develop many more applications.
• A defence contractor quickly implements a health and safety management system throughout the community of sub contractors collaborating to build warships.
• An internationally renowned university uses Aviarc® for many tactical applications including the organization and administration of its catering industry school and facilities.
• A finance company runs its mission critical applications in Aviarc®.
• A film industry venture delivering scale aviation models setting a new benchmark for miniatures utilizes Aviarc® for its integrated web commerce, logistics and transactional systems.
• An insurance enterprise uses Aviarc® to rapidly and cost effectively replace aging applications whose expert support is leaving; sees Aviarc® as "safe innovation".
• A national law enforcement agency uses Aviarc® for a range of tactical but mission critical applications from management of DNA and fingerprinting to dog handling.
• A business oriented tertiary institution needed to drive higher productivity than it could get from .NET for a certain class of application, chose Aviarc® and came in under time and budget.
• A distributor and retailer to the plumbing trade utilized Aviarc® to help integrate the operations of merged companies.
• A company specializing in SaaS offerings in state of the art premises/visitor management systems utilizes Aviarc® for the redevelopment of its applications.
• A fuel industry services company uses Aviarc® to replace timesheeting applications written in Access.
• A federal government judiciary agency utilizes Aviarc® to change the way employment agreements are catalogued, analyzed and monitored - all against an incredibly tight legislative deadline.