The ACT Financial Systems arm of ACT Group Plc, Birmingham is basing its entire strategy for future growth on the success of its Momentum object-oriented modular software for the international financial services market. According to technical director Peter O’Connell, Momentum is not an option, but something we must do to maintain growth. Managing director Paul Newton goes one stage further. Momentum, he says, is a long term strategy – it is an entire product strategy, technology strategy, and business strategy. His aim is to make ACT number one supplier for the international finance sector, and although he admits he couldn’t have said such a thing three years ago without being laughed at, he now feels confident that it is a realisable goal. ACT decided to go down the object-oriented route for several reasons. Firstly, over the past few years, it has acquired various software businesses with related but incompatible products. Momentum, therefore, is an attempt to provide customers with a standardised and integrated product line. A centralised product development team generates core objects in C or C++, using personal computer-based standard software engineering tools.
Seamless
Application programming interfaces provide single, seamless integration between each module, meaning that ACT only has to develop each core object once. Every object is self-contained, so the company doesn’t have to change or re-write basic code. It simply re-uses core objects as necessary. According to O’Connell, this saves on both development time and costs for ACT and its customers, and makes it easier to manage complex applications. Development time is, in fact, he says, cut from years to months. Because each application programming interface is open and published, a customer also has the option to add on different objects or modules as required, without needing to buy source code. And not just ACT’s code, but modules developed internally or by a third party. This is important, O’Connell says, because a priority for every supplier these days is to defend its native markets and work with others to satisfy customer needs. ACT can also generate additional objects to create customised products – the group will effectively make up a bespoke product, assemble a bespoke suit to fit each client. O’Connell attests that this is a much more elegant way of offering bespoke software, formerly a high revenue earner for the company. It also means that other staff are free to concentrate on what he calls business logic – or a customer’s business requirements. In fact, he reckons that Momentum is the businessman’s solution to the businessman’s problem.
By Catherine Everett
The second advantage of object-oriented software, according to business development director, Duncan Paterson, is that it can meet the demands of an increasingly global market. Many of ACT’s customers, he says, have now become serious global players, so they need integrated products that can be used worldwide. Also, he says, because ACT is now dominant in the UK financial services marketplace, it has to continue expanding internationally to maintain growth, moving into new niche markets and new geographical locations. Areas of interest include South America, the Far East, especially China, and Eastern Europe. The company reckons it has a major advantage over its competitors because it does not have to develop a new product for each market – it simply adds a local user interface, which also cuts down on development and maintenance costs. Furthermore, Paterson says, unlike rival offerings, the various modules that make up Momentum will cover all aspects of a customer’s business rather than just certain elements. The software also runs in a variety of environments from mainframes to client-servers to personal computers, and, he added, can, therefore, be used on a company-wide basis. It currently supports MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, and various versions of Unix, including Hewlett Packard Co’s HP-UX, Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s Unix and Ultrix. It can run Oracle Corp and Sybase Corp database
s, and graphical user interfaces such as Microsoft Corp’s Windows 3 and Presentation Manager. Motif will follow in the third quarter. O’Connell says the company was proud to say that it had won Posix-compliance and it now hopes to gain X/Open’s XPG branding. The third benefit of object-oriented software, O’Connell claims, is that ACT can respond quickly to changing market conditions at minimal cost. Momentum, he says, will be able to conform to new standards coming onto the market as well as take advantage of any new technology, such as cheaper and faster hardware or more sophisticated system software, especially relational databases. In the past, he says, the company was at a disadvantage because of its dependence on system software suppliers for information on databases, graphical user interfaces and operating systems.
A commodity
Now, however, he says, ACT owns source code rights to every element of Momentum and so can no longer be held to ransom. Moreover O’Connell believes that the commoditisation of the computer hardware industry means it is only a matter of time before software becomes a commodity too. As this will inevitably lead to a drop in prices, the group intends to defend its position by offering a product that can be sold in high volumes on a global scale. At the moment, it has two products under development: OpenLimits, a global risk management product, developed with the help of Hewlett-Packard, and due for release in September; and Market-Making. This was developed in conjunction with Stratus Computer Inc, and should start shipping in November. ACT intends to pur-sue such partnership agreements more and more as time goes on. It expects to release a total two or three products this year, but O’Connell reckons that the company’s entire range should be covered within about three years. It intends to concentrate on its main markets first, but also intends to provide migration tools for those customers that want them. No decisions have yet been made as to pricing, but O’Connell says ACT intended to make it as easy for existing customers as possible. As for licences, Momentum’s price will be based on the number of users and the number of objects purchased.
