Report from TigerLogic UK Regional Conference 2011

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The Bull Hotel in Gerrards Cross was the venue for a well attended 2011 TigerLogic UK Regional Conference. There were TigerLogic representatives from the UK (Bob Whiting, David Skipsey, Ray Whiffin, Richard Mortimer), France (Alain Teboul, Jean Lemonnier) and the USA (John Bramley, Janet cioffi-Kennedy, Robert Burke).

The day began with an update from TigerLogic who now have 1,100 active ISV resellers in a variety of countries with over 500,000 seats and over 30,000 customers. TL also reported that they have resellers in over 32 countries and have had a solid business for over 3 decades.

TigerLogic’s product line now includes:

Roadmaps for all the products were outlined with projected release dates. The plans outlined were being very well received. There was a strong emphasis on the fact that all developments were coming from user feedback rather than someone sitting in an ivory tower and just thinking things up in isolation. John Bramley also covered the new licensing which whilst initially confusing appears to be more flexible and better value.

Partnerships were also mentioned and TigerLogic are welcoming their new focus on partnerships and bringing more product into the marketspace. There were mentions of :

TigerLogic seems determined to help its customer base make the most of some of the newer technologies availabe today. There is now pure .Net (which is bundled with the product and FREE) but FlashConnect is still working and it will continue to be supported.

The .Net API and Java API seemed to be welcomed by most and there was a lot of interest in the TigerLogic Dashboard and with mvDesigner.

3 great user stories from MACE Systems, Yeo Valley and Qualtec.

The most memorable (for me!) has to be the one from Yeo Valley and not just for the visuals of the singing farmers “The Churned”. Yeo Valley have been using D3 for over 20 years with a very demanding supply chain. D3 powers their entire business. Peter Robinson talked about one of their recent projects which was their warehousing system.

The Smart Truck Pallet location tracking system  (solution called Total-Trax by Sky-Trax) used by Yeo has to be one of the most innovative systems with incredible integration of a variety of modern and less modern technqiues with great success. The aim of the project was to ensure:

Right Pallet – Right Place, Right Time – Every Time !

Yeo Valley implemented an indoor GPS system which is accurate to a few centimetres everywhere in a 3 dimensional environment and which requires no user input! They used a mix of technologies including:

  • Optical Position Markers (OPM – a bit like 2D barcodes) placed on ceilings
  • Truck mounted computer
  • Impact sensor
  • Lift height sensor
  • Optical label reader
  • Pallet detector

Yeo Valley who have harnessed the power of Social Media to help spread product awareness and increase sales to great effect.

Earlier, John Bramley had created a mock up social media content  from Yeo Valley using their Postano product. Postano is basically a stream that can point to multiple destinations via an embed code. You get to aggregate, style and syndicate the content. Postano will update in real time. You can add Postano as a tab within a Facebook fan page or you can embed it on a blog or webpage and enable customers / people to engage there. You simply choose where you want it, select your feeds, style in and embed it.

Peter Robinson from Yeo Valley closed by saying that the words to the Pick Rap in 1991 “Pick’s got the power” is still true today in 2011.  If you ever get a chance to hear or see this presentation, it is well worth it.

The day was long and full but certainly worth the time investment and it’s great to get a preview of the enhancements which TigerLogic has in store.  




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