ReadQ Systems consolidates five platforms into one with Servoy 

In 2006, ReadQ started to figure out a game plan for their re-engineering project. Basic decisions needed to be made with regards to the programming environment (Java or .NET?) and the type of hosting (data center, private cloud or public cloud?). Other considerations to be taken into account related to the cost and effort to introduce a completely new platform, the migration path for existing customers, and the manpower, training and consulting requirements. 

After evaluation of several alternative development platforms, ReadQ selected the Servoy Business Application Platform as their environment of choice. And they had many good reasons for this decision: The rapid application development and proto-typing, the ability to easily extend the product through custom plug-ins developed in Java, and the ease of deployment were major advantages of the Servoy platform. 

The ReadQ team also found the Servoy platform to be extremely flexible and future-proof: It is database-agnostic, can be hosted onsite or in the cloud on one single platform, and uses the same code for smart clients, web clients and mobile clients. Reporting could be streamlined and tightly integrated. While the old application required BusinessObjects for reporting – with a separate login, which represented a clear security risk, the Servoy platform offers integrated reporting, and the users can generate reports with one single click. 

ReadQ has always worked in Unix/Linux environments, so they felt much more comfortable with Java than they would have with Microsoft .NET, and appreciated the familiar IDE, built off the industry standard Eclipse. Given all these advantages, ReadQ was convinced that the development team would be able to adapt to Servoy easily. And they knew there was a large Servoy community out there to which they could reach out at any time. 

“A big key for our success was that our legacy developers were able to pick up Servoy quickly”, says Robert Cardone, President of ReadQ. “We are a software company first and foremost, so we knew that the development and maintenance needed to be in-house.” Therefore, ReadQ decided to phase out the consultants, whom they had utilized for training and the initial start of the migration, after several months when the on-site developers were comfortable with Servoy and able to rely on the forum and other sources. One major goal of the reengineering was to consolidate the five existing platforms – Green Screens, OpenLook, C reports, PowerBuilder, BusinessObjects – into one. 

The development team replaced each platform, one at a time, while the other platforms were still in use. In parallel, they designed a new user interface, as a smart client which met the user requirements better than a web client. 

As for the database, Servoy was put on top of the existing Sybase data model. The database was extended with new tables to support new features, while some tables were deprecated for improved performance. ReadQ’s new, Servoy-based platform was named QTIX and successfully launched in 2009 after only 6 man-months of development with only one developer.

Since then, a dedicated Servoy development team has been put in place – and thousands of improvements have been added since the platform was first launched. Existing customers have been upgraded to the new platform. And the ReadQ sales force is getting new wins on a regular basis. 

“The Servoy platform supports a lean approach towards modernization of existing applications”, says Robert Cardone. “This enabled us to build, with our limited resources, a very competitive and compelling offering for the financial industry, delighting our customers’ end users.” All of the separate platforms are now in the same architecture, providing a single system to the end users. With one login and the consistent look and feel of an intuitive user interface, they have easy access now to all the information they need, consolidated into specific views.

Maintenance and enhancements are much more manageable and completed faster. Bug fixes and enhancements can be made in a timely fashion, and a more sophisticated user rights administration enables better risk management. Training new staff on how to use the application is much faster and easier than before, because of the consistent user interface, integrated applications and streamlined workflows. 

With the new platform, real-time data is automatically displayed. No need to push the Refresh button all the time. Enhanced and integrated reporting is provided as a standard, using integrated reporting. 

The developers work with current-state technologies that are industry standard and have large active developer communities. The IDE is modern, extendable, and also an industry standard. The bulk of the coding work relates to business logic and process flow now, not to simple routine tasks. 

For standard functions, developers do not have to write their own components, but can integrate ready-made functionality provided by Servoy. This improves development productivity and accelerates the time-to-market. The Servoy platform is easy to learn and easy to use. At ReadQ, a Java developer is now up to speed in weeks rather than in months. Last, but by no means least: Servoy turned out to be an extremely cost-effective solution.

Outlook 

With the Servoy platform, the development team found exactly the environment they needed to successfully develop QTIX, the new ReadQ system which provides broker-dealers with a robust yet user-friendly solution that is easy to implement. But their ambitions do not stop there – the next enhancements are already in the works. Future versions of QTIX will, for instance, provide even more analytics. 

As Robert Cardone puts it: “The more reports we provide, the more our customers want. With the integrated reporting features, Servoy makes it easy for us to meet these requirements.” 

In the future, ReadQ Systems might also offer their QTIX platform in international environments, for instance to traders in India, South Korea or other parts of Asia. The necessary adaptations could easily be made, as the Servoy platform provides all the required flexibility – together with a range of valuable services and high-quality support that the Servoy team gives to their customers. And ReadQ is becoming part of this team, as the company recently decided to offer Servoy consulting services.