Islington, London-based AS/400 software engineering tool developer Synon Ltd is embarking on a major UKP3m research and development programme. The company says it is pursuing two major new directions – it is about to introduce a graphical user interface for its flagship Synon/2 product in response to user demand, which marketing manager Ian Ruddlesden reckons will put Synon Ltd at least a year ahead of its competitors, and a new Systems Application Archietcture-based product is planned for the end of the year which he hopes will position the company a further two to three years ahead. Ruddlesden is carefully guarding the details of the six new products which are scheduled to be launched this year but plans for Synon/2, including an new capability to generate co-operative processing systems, were disclosed to users at their annual User Group meeting last month, and it was reported that Synon’s support for IBM’s External Source Format will mean that applications developed in Synon can be adapted for other SAA environments, such as 391.
