New Client/Server Application Development Tools Support Team Environments

SOMERS, N.Y., Oct. 24, 1994 . . . Programmers working in teams can write
better applications, faster and more efficiently, with application
development tools announced by IBM. The new productivity tools provide
common resources and services that make it easier for developers to
collaborate on projects, share and reuse application code, and quickly
incorporate code changes.

Highlights of today's announcement include:

*  VisualGen Team Suite, a set of powerful, workstation-based
   tools for the rapid development of client/server
   applications in team environments. Included in this suite
   are:

   - IBM TeamConnection for OS/2, a new facility that uses
     object-oriented technology to manage and store
     application components that are shared during team
     development;

   - IBM DataAtlas for OS/2, a new data dictionary that
     provides a central source for creating and maintaining
     data definitions;

   - a new release of VisualGen, a rapid application
     development tool for building client/server
     applications that run on a variety of operating
     systems;

   - new tools to assist in the analysis and design of
     applications.

"This announcement responds to customers' needs to manage shared designs,
standards and code across the organization," said John Swainson, vice
president, Application Development Solutions, IBM. "These powerful tools
work in concert, allowing programmers to create enterprise applications
that can be executed on a wide range of clients and servers."

VisualGen Team Suite

IBM VisualGen Team Suite delivers an advanced LAN-based programming
environment for developing business-critical transaction processing
applications. It provides a fully integrated visual programming solution,
which includes a LAN-based library, configuration management facility,
repository and data dictionary.

Using VisualGen Team Suite, programming teams can develop enterprise
client/server applications in less time, with fewer programming errors,
and with high levels of data security and integrity. The suite offers the
productivity advantages of visual programming by allowing developers to
build applications quickly and easily by visually connecting component
parts, or iconic representations of the underlying code.

"The value of the VisualGen Team Suite component approach is that it
conforms to a wide variety of corporate development environments,
leveraging existing skills as well as allowing the choice of the most
appropriate tools to re-engineer legacy applications," said Tony Picardi,
director of Worldwide Software, International Data Corporation (IDC). "The
IBM VisualGen Team Suite object repository has an advantage over
relational repositories as it facilitates more efficient navigation to
structurally rich information."

The product also incorporates a powerful requirements definition tool that
allows systems analysts and application designers to document and organize
their development activities and shared data in the LAN repository. A new
data modeler and database designer help developers create optimal database
designs.

VisualGen Team Suite produces applications that are optimized for use with
database, transaction processing and message queuing environments, and
provides broad support for the DATABASE 2 (DB2) family of database
products, Customer Information Control System (CICS), Information
Management System (IMS) and the Message Queuing Series (MQSeries).

IBM TeamConnection for OS/2

IBM TeamConnection for OS/2 is both a software configuration management
facility and a robust LAN-based object repository that tightly integrates
and manages the VisualGen Team Suite development tools. TeamConnection
provides project-wide coordination across all phases of the development
life cycle. For example, it automates the application build process and
packages applications for quick and reliable delivery, as well as provides
the underlying connection services for the complete VisualGen Team Suite,
COBOL, and the C Set++ development environments.

IBM Exchange for OS/2, a companion product for TeamConnection, helps
customers protect their existing application development investments by
enabling them to migrate their data models into TeamConnection.

IBM DataAtlas for OS/2

IBM DataAtlas for OS/2 provides a central point of control and
standardization for the data definitions of relational databases,
hierarchical databases and high-level language applications. Database
administrators and data designers can use DataAtlas to create, maintain,
and generate data descriptors.

VisualGen

A new release of VisualGen, IBM's enterprise client/server application
development tool for business-critical applications, allows programmers to
develop both client and server code concurrently -- for use on both
workstations and the host.

It brings new functionality through support for Windows clients, and C++
application generation for OS/2 and AIX. In addition, IBM has announced
its intent to extend VisualGen support to the OS/400 operating system.

"We selected VisualGen as our strategic application development tool," said
Ronald J. McEvoy, senior vice president and CIO, Fred Meyer, Inc.,
Portland, OR. "VisualGen leveraged our investment in existing programming
tools. It also allowed us to use our iterative prototyping approach, where
we work with our users to continually refine applications during the
development process. With VisualGen, our developers can take advantage of
cooperative processing. We expect to see a 2 to 1 productivity
improvement."

Pricing and Availability

The new release of VisualGen will be generally available 
December 1994. One-time charge pricing for the VisualGen components is as
follows:

VisualGen Developer 1.1                              -- $ 3,500
VisualGen OS/2 Application Generator for OS/2 1.0    -- $ 5,000
VisualGen AIX Application Generator for OS/2 1.0     -- $ 7,000
VisualGen Application Generator for MVS Version 1.0  -- $13,500
VisualGen Application Generator for VSE Version 1.0  -- $11,000
VisualGen Workgroup Services for OS/2 Version 1.1    -- $ 1,250
VisualGen Services for AIX Version 1.1               -- $ 1,250

VisualGen Host Services Version 1.1 pricing will be based on group
processor size (one-time charge or monthly license charge pricing is
available).

Beta testing of IBM VisualGen Team Suite, IBM DataAtlas for OS/2 and IBM
TeamConnection for OS/2 is scheduled to begin by year-end 1994. Prices
will be announced when the products are generally available.

These new offerings are part of IBM's application productivity family and
are consistent with IBM's enterprise strategy for open distributed
computing as described in the IBM Open Blueprint. The Open Blueprint is a
structure for a distributed systems environment and incorporates a wide
range of standards. It provides the base upon which to build, run and
manage distributed applications in a diverse multivendor world.

For additional information on IBM's application productivity family, users
in the U.S. can call 1-914-766-9155.

IBM's Software Solutions Division provides data management, application
development, and workgroup solutions for mission-critical applications on
PCs, workstations, LANs and host systems.

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