The creation of Aonix from the merger of Thomson CSF’s Software Products group with Interactive Development Environments Inc last November (CI No 3,040) is still offering its customer base little more than a new name. Although Aonix Inc has finally followed through on its promise to deliver a long called-for Windows NT version of its flagship Software through Pictures (SfT) object-oriented tool set – it put one out in August, a year or more later than promised – many users are far from happy with the product and are choosing to stay with their older more trusted Unix-based StP/SE and StP/OMT tools.
By Krishna Roy
Aonix’s best hope post-merger was to follow the rest of the market into the Windows development space. The arrival in August of StP/UML for Windows NT, the Aonix OO tool which supports the very latest unified modeling language (UML) 1.0, as well as Booch, OMT and OO/SE, bears testimony to the fact that the company is desperately trying to move in the same direction as the rest of the market. But the efforts of Aonix appear to be slow and faltering. As Jerry Lee at US defense and electronics company Raytheon told us, I tested StP for Windows NT two and half years ago. I gave them a lot of recommendations back then – one of which was to get it running natively on NT. But from what I’ve seen it still isn’t there. Aonix has, in fact, scheduled a native NT implementation to be available by mid-1998, but as Lee told us I just don’t believe they [Aonix] will be able to deliver within this time frame. An NT version is a high priority for Lee and his software engineering team. The company is in the process of moving its application development effort off Sun servers and onto a high-end PC-based system. He feels that StP/UML for Windows NT is still not quite up to scratch and he therefore plans to retain two of his existing seven StP/SE licenses to run the Unix side of the development project and transfer the rest to Rational’s fast expanding PC-based OO tools suite. Quite clearly it is essential that Aonix pays more than lip service to users’ concerns over StP/UML for Windows NT if it wants to guard against other high-profile sites following Lee’s lead.
Flushed with success
However, it is equally crucial from a market perspective. Flushed with success from promoting the Unified Modeling Language standard as the de facto methodology for modern object application developments, Rational’s UML-based offerings are casting a shadow over older more traditional OMT and Booch-based development tools from the likes of Aonix and Cayenne. A main stumbling block at the moment for StP/UML for Windows NT (other than its price – software modules will be made available for modeling, reverse engineering, code-generation and documentation-with prices beginning at $2,500 for the modeling module on Windows NT) seems to be that its GUI still needs improvement. One user told us that the integration between the core system (StP/UML utilizes the StP core 2.4) and the UML implementation layer was at best patchy; the GUI is clumsy… for example, when you check the integrity of a design you have to use two different menu bars, one for the core and one for the UML implementation. That said, most users agree that the functionality within StP is second to none. StP is very effective at blending the OMT and Booch object application methods so that OMT and Booch models can be used together. Developers, can, therefore automatically map items in both methodologies which logically have the same semantic meaning to a single object in the repository. Most users also agree that it is an ‘open’ tool which means that it is easy to customize. But questions remain as to whether software engineers still want to use a combination of OMT, Booch, SE and IM design methodologies when UML-based tools offer the promise of making OO design and development easier by allowing them to focus on just one modeling language. When we spoke with Aonix executives of the shortcomings of StP/UML for Windows NT we were told that they were working hard to enhance the product. Top of a list of planned enhancements scheduled for mid-1998 includes a native Windows interface, the ability to support larger teams of developers, the ability to work in heterogeneous Unix and NT environments with all clients and servers sharing the same repository, and better version control. This month should see the launch of StP/SE for NT, and a new version of StP/UML which will reverse engineer and generate Java and IDL code. In January, there should be a version of the so-called StP ‘lite’, aimed at Visual Basic and Delphi users. And by the end of 1998 we are promised a release of ObjectAda for real time applications. A closer inspection of Aonix’s product plans indicate that it is still setting great store by its traditional Ada user base which use the programming language for writing safe and reliable object-oriented programs. Roughly 40% of the company’s revenues still come from military/aerospace business, although Aonix assures us that its commercial user base is growing with the likes of Direct TV, MCI and BMW recently signing up to use the latest version of StP. But it is clear that a fully functioning version of StP/UML is vital for the company to safeguard its future.
Revised revenue projections
In financial terms Aonix does not look as if it will be able to meet the revenue projections made when we spoke to chief executive officer Chris Kenber earlier this year. Kenber has since left and been replaced by former chief operating officer Ben Goodwin and we are told that the revised revenue projections are in no way related to his departure. Nevertheless, Aonix is now saying that it will not be able to meet the $15m growth in revenues to reach $90m by 1998 which Kenber first forecast. The reason: it underestimated certain merger related costs and therefore will remain static as a $75m company for the next year. This news does not bode well – Thomson Software Products by itself was a $75m company two years before the merger with IDE.
A longer version of this article appeared in the December 1997 edition of M&A Impact.
