OpenTechnology™

Our extraordinary longevity provides us a unique perspective from which to evaluate, select, and deploy the technologies that are best for our products and clients.

Our products are well ahead of competitive offerings.  Each year, the technological distance between us and the "rest of the pack" continues to widen.

As computers, operating systems, standards, languages, databases, networks, human interfaces, external system interfaces, and digital appliances continue to emerge and evolve, our clients will continue to reap the rewards of our longevity and our technical superiority.

If you're looking for a solution that will remain successful and "state of the art" 15 or 20 years from now, then you should select one of our OpenTechnology systems.

BACKGROUND

OpenTechnology evolved from WonderWare and provides the most technologically-advanced software development and the most flexible software deployment architecture currently available.

OpenTechnology was used to develop OpenMETRIC, OpenPROTRAK, OpenEMBARC, WebMETRIC, WebWriter, and ThinMETRIC.

OpenTechnology incorporates several of the WonderWare "Power Tools."

PLATFORM INDEPENDENCE

OpenTechnology allows our products to run on over 700 different platforms, while enabling us to maintain a single source tree.  The output of our development activity are platform-independent object modules which are executed by platform-specific runtimes, called WonderRun.

OpenTechnology currently supports all Windows platforms, as well as most UNIX/LINUX platforms.

As a result, you can change your platforms without throwing out the application on which your critical calibration records depend.  You can upgrade to new platforms in the future, knowing that your applications will "keep up."

SCALABILITY

OpenTechnology allows our products to operate on a single laptop, on a small LAN, on multi-server WANs, and on global extranets.

As a result, our products are suitable for a wide range of clients as well as those clients that may be small now but expect to grow significantly in the future.

DATABASE INDEPENDENCE

OpenTechnology allows our products to utilize virtually all popular database systems, while enabling us to maintain a single source tree.

Our systems include, at no charge, a "no frills," high-performance database system called VISION.  WonderWare "Power Tools" WonderServer and WonderODBC are specifically designed to support and supplement VISION.

In addition to VISION, our systems support Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Informix, and even Microsoft Access.  Our software interfaces with these popular databases via Wonder4GL.

Our systems include a powerful and flexible FilePorter utility which automatically converts and transfers your databases between any of these popular databases.

As a result, you can change the database on which your critical calibration records depend without "starting over."  This makes it much easier to interface with other corporate applications and databases, by ensuring that your equipment management database is fully compatible with your corporate financial, production planning, maintenance, ERP, and other applications.

NETWORK INDEPENDENCE

OpenTechnology allows our products to operate with virtually all networks, including Microsoft Wondows (NT/2000/XP), Novelle, IBM, etc.  Our products can operate on any TCP/IP network.

As a result, you can upgrade your network without losing compatibility with our systems.

CLIENT/SERVER ARCHITECTURE FLEXIBILITY

In describing client/server architecture, it is helpful to differentiate between where things reside versus where things execute.  For example, most of the administrative and managerial benefits of "thin client" are achieved by making everything reside on the server, regardless of where things actually execute.  On the other hand, making lengthy processes actually execute on the server may dramatically improve performance if the network "bottlenecks" response time.

OpenTechnology provides complete flexibility for our products, both in terms of where things reside as well as where things execute.

OpenTechnology allows our systems to operate as thin clients/fat servers, fat clients/thin servers, and virtually any degree in between.  Via WonderConnect, you can specify that lengthy or "batch" functions execute directly on servers for higher performance.

As a result, you can "fine tune" the performance characteristics of our systems to satisfy your current and future requirements.

INTEGRATION WITH OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCTS

OpenTechnology allows our systems to integrate smoothly with popular office productivity products such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express,  Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, and MS FrontPage.

As a result, your calibration data is readily accessible and presentable in convenient, familiar formats for manipulation, collaboration, and distribution.

INTEGRATION WITH EMAIL

OpenTechnology allows our systems to integrate smoothly with email systems.

As a result, you can become "as paperless as you want to be," relying on email and other electronic communication instead of physically moving paper records.

INTERFACE AND INTEGRATION WITH EXTERNAL SYSTEMS

OpenTechnology allows our systems to interface and to integrate easily with other external systems.