Our goals for 2008

This is always a tough one to write, but it is an important one to have. I certainly have the plan and making it public adds some pressure to execute it right. So here they come, our goals for 2008:

1. Bring all editions of WebORB (Java, .NET, PHP and Ruby) to the same functional level. Right now WebORB for .NET is well ahead of others and sets the bar quite high. We're actively working on all four versions of the product and should be leveling the feature-set quite soon. The biggest challenge is providing rich media streaming support for the PHP and Ruby environments. That might continue to be the only difference there.


2. Publish complete documentation for WDMF. The framework is very solid now as we have used it in several consulting engagements. Mostly all of the projects are in production and I feel quite confident about the stability of WDMF. The timing could not be better for everyone to start using the functionality.


3. Double our professional services/consulting staff. We already had significant growth in 2007 and now do a lot of professional services work, but we're getting inquiries for more work than we can handle.


4. Establish official WebORB training curriculum and start formal WebORB certification program. Enroll training partners.


5. Introduce and evolve our business intelligence product offering (sorry, can't say more now, but, this is going to kick butt).


6. Quadruple annual sales while lowering the price point. We have already reduced the price to ZERO for all editions of WebORB for Java and we're dedicated to providing a very affordable integration platform for all other backends.


7. Fully embrace Silverlight and AJAX in the same capacity as Flex/Flash. We recognize that Silverlight is going to be a major player in the RIA space, especially with the 2.0 release later this year. WebORB has always been a client-agnostic development/runtime platform, so addition of SL fits perfectly into the product architecture.


8. Kill the competition (you know who you are). No, we will not send tough, kneecaps-breaking Russian guys in black uniforms to you, but your nightmares will be just as scary.

I plan to pair up our accomplishments with these goals at the end of the year and see how well we've done. This is going to be a very exciting year!

Happy Birthday Midnight Coders!

Five years ago today I had a New Year resolution to spend a few hours every day working on something cool. I was working late evenings and some weekends and referred to the work I was doing as 'midnight coding'. As a result, picking the company name was easy. Six months later I had a product that was a commercial alternative to the Macromedia's Flash Remoting. Fast forward five years and we have thousands of dedicated users, solid product providing integration between Flex, Flash, AJAX and a variety of backend systems. Our professional services team is working on five concurrent projects and we plan to double our capacity this year. We are also working on a business intelligence solution specifically targeting the RIA space and plan to release it this year. We're still young, but it feels great to be 5 years old! Here's to a fantastic 2008!