Return to Simplicity

Business ApplicationsHigh Tech without High Cost

2

Agenda

Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion

3

Company Overview

90 employees Privately held

• No banks, VCs, or external debt Global presence

• European HQ in Paris• North American HQ in Dallas

Management team• Jean George Schwartz, President & CEO• Bryn Jenkins, COO• Stephen Sykes, SVP & GM Americas• Herve Hellebronth, VP Marketing & Communication

4

Sequential, Profitable Growth

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

$10m Revenue

5,000 Developers1,000 VARs

3,000,000 UsersFounded in 1995 with $1million seed money from founders

5

Select Customers and Partners

VARs

Municipal Retail

CRM

Financial

FDS

Supply Chain

Peace Software

End Users

Retail Manufacturing

Media Finance

6

Strategic Worldwide Reseller Relationship• Four J’s provides

• Upgrade for Informix 4GL• Rapid development and deployment of new business

applications against Informix and DB2 databases

• IBM provides• Sales, Marketing, Support, Training and Consulting

• We Cooperate• On joint marketing and selling• On development of training, documentation, and services

and

7

Agenda

Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion

8

Business Applications … Are Not About Technology

Businesses use applications for two primary reasons• To lower the cost of operations (and services)• To enable operations (and services)

Business Applications must be measured on ROI• Investment: What is the total lifecycle cost?• Return: How effectively does the software

• Improve operational efficiency?• Improve market share and revenue?

9

Legacy Bound

Today’s business application using state-of-the-art technology is tomorrow’s legacy application• Version 1 – started with dumb terminals• Version 2 – rewrote for Windows• Version 2.5 – rewrote for HTML• Version 3+ – rewrite for Java, e-commerce, m-commerce…

ROI

0%

100%

Infrastructure Business Logic

Application

ROI comes from businessfunctionality, not infrastructure

10

Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!

Constant investment in technology• People, software, development• Slows your time to market• Distracts you from doing things that add value• Is expensive!

Detracts from focus on business value – constantly dealing with• Application Portability• Application Performance• Application Complexity• Application Programmer Availability

11

Business Applications …Are about Business Features

You’re Noble Systems, the provider of call center software to AOL, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, etc.

Your key corporate goal is to own the outsourced telemarketing firms that target retail companies.

You want to enable these centers to offer low cost, rapid integration with their customer’s retail inventory and ordering systems.

This will make you the clear market leader – but two of your strategic targets are making 5 year vendor commitments within the next six months.

How quickly can you develop this capability, and how much will it cost?

12

Agenda

Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion

13

Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure

Abstract interface – single source code stream automatically supports multiple client platforms• Intelligent creation of interfaces on Windows, HTML, Java, X11,

PDA/mobile, ASCII• No investment, development, or lock-in to client-side technologies

Single source code stream supports multiple databases• Open Database Interface supports DB2, Informix, Oracle, SQL Server…• Multiple, simultaneous, native, high-performance access

Thin client, three-tier architecture• Automatic management and optimization of client/server communications• High performance server – without special client-server skills

Web Services support without special infrastructure skills

Keeping development effort focused on business logic, not infrastructure or deployment issues

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Insulating Business Logic from Technology Infrastructure

ASCII Windows X11 Java HTML HTML WML

WebServices

15

Agenda

Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion

16

Business Benefits

Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,

and evolution of Business Applications

17

“Infocell is pushing the envelope in terms of wireless applications. Four J's dramatically improved our

time-to-market, giving us the competitive edge we enjoy today.”

“We could never have brought such a far-reaching solution to market this quickly using other

development environments.”

Michael O'ConnorTechnical Director, Infocell

Cost Reduction & Time to Market

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Business Benefits

Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,

and evolution of Business Applications High Tech without High Cost

• Enable full exploitation of state-of-the-art infrastructure, without investment in special skills or development

19

“We’re able to offer a sophisticated Java application, utilizing highly visual third party applets to extend our functionality, without heavy investment in Java skills or development.”

“We compete based on our rich feature set, high tech look and feel, and absolute flexibility – we license our source code to customers and provide SLA support for their modifications. Four J’s has enabled us to deliver on all three of these goals

– without compromise.”

Eddie HillardPresident and CEO

Financial Database Services

High Tech without High Cost

20

Business Benefits

Cost Reduction & Time to Market • Enable the rapid development, deployment,

and evolution of Business Applications High Tech without High Cost

• Enable full exploitation of state-of-the-art infrastructure, without investment in special skills or development

Future Proof – not Legacy Bound!• Insulate the investment in business

applications from waves of technology innovation

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“Four J’s allows us to seamlessly track and leverage evolving technologies, without investment in expensive

staff or development projects, or compromising our application’s reliability or complex and powerful

business logic.”

Jim NoblePresident and CEO

Future Proof – not Legacy Bound!

22

Agenda

Company Overview Business Problem Four J’s Solution Business Benefits Product Strategy & Vision Conclusion

23

Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure -- Open to Change

Closed Four J’s Open

I4GLInformixWindows

I4GL + BDLInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, X11

I4GL + BDLInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, X11,Java, WMLWeb Services

I4GL + BDL + OOPInformix, DB2,Oracle, Sybase,SQL ServerWindows,HTML, Java,X11, WML, XMLWeb Services,App Servers

20021998 2000 2003

*BDL – Four J’s Business Development Language

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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure Strategy for Market Adoption

Huge captive Informix 4GL target market• High direct value proposition• Establish beachhead in 4J’s and Informix 4GL

install base• Evangelize within to grow usage

Branch to new development everywhere Promote de facto industry standard

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Intelligent Business Application Infrastructure

““Four J’s mission is to provide an intelligent Four J’s mission is to provide an intelligent infrastructure for business applications that excels in infrastructure for business applications that excels in its openness, flexibility and performance, taking full its openness, flexibility and performance, taking full

advantage of new technologies while preserving advantage of new technologies while preserving business functionality.”business functionality.”

26

Contacts

Horizon Communications

Philippe Wagner408-969-4888 x108

pw@horizonpr.com

Four J’s Americas

Tony Lacy-Thompson408-398-6284

tonylt@4js.com

Return to Simplicity

Business ApplicationsHigh Tech without High Cost

Appendix

Industry Perspective

29

Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!

Application Portability

"Developers for Vignette have to rewrite its code to work with application servers made by BEA, IBM and Sun. They write to the core application server, then we go

back and write the specific code for each specific application server." 

Santi Pierini

VP of Product Strategy, Vignette

(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)

30

Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!

Application Complexity

"Finally, the complexity of Java itself continues to be a problem. Complaints have particularly surrounded a key piece of the Java standard, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)."

"The original intention behind EJBs was to save programmers time. But many say they’re finding

headaches instead. Compounding the problem is that EJBs, as part of the popular J2EE specification, are often

used as the basis for Java products."

(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)

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Focused on Tech: Expensive & Risky!

Application Programmer Availability

"You’ve got a whole mass of developers out there who are not hard-core technical guys, but are mainstream business application developers in medium to large

companies."

John MageeSenior Director, Oracle 9i Marketing

(c|net – "Java Jigsaw", NEWS.COM Special Report, March 25, 2002)