Magic Information Systems Chooses Pervasive Software's SQL Database

Solutions for the Information Project Team • www.dbta.com Volume 16, Number 7 •July 2002 Magic Information Systems Chooses Pervasive Software's SQL Database By Walt Jordan ability to support multiple cur- parallel transactional applica- having to invest much time or Magic Information Systems rencies, landed costs tracking tion with the SQL relational energy tuning the database. has been creating database and others. And though it was database. Now, Btrieve is And neither have his clients. applications since 1989. originally geared to Windows, embedded into Pervasive's SQL The Magic RAD tool is data- Originally called Hartronix, a the company ported it to Unix database. base independent. All the value-added reseller, the com- and other platforms as well. That combination solved reporting is generated by pany created a management But new challenges accompa- Rapoport's problems. "With Crystal Reports Writer from package for wholesale distribu- nied the success. "It was a good Pervasive wrapping Btrieve in a Seagate. "That is our operating tion and light manufacturing product, but maintaining it and relational database and Magic environment, and Pervasive is called Accountware. Over time, customizing it was a headache," as the rapid application devel- at the core," Rapoport said. the Accountware application Rapoport said. "We began look- opment tool, we found that we Interestingly, customers are grew to generate 80 percent of ing for a tool that would let us really didn't need to go any fur- becoming more interested in the overall business. As a get away from the 800,000 lines ther," Rapoport said. what is the underlying data- result, the company was con- of code that we had written in In fact, using Pervasive SQL base. "Microsoft SQL has made fronted with the challenges of C." as the database provided Magic enough noise that customers keeping the product current and That proved to be a tricky Information System understand that there is an SQL viable in a changing IT envi- process. The company began (www.magic-info.com ) with a database underneath," ronment. looking for a 4GL rapid applica- competitive edge. The database Rapoport said. "But they still When Accountware tion development tool such as requires no administration. rely on the vendor to make the (www.accountware.net) was Power Builder. Unfortunately, "Our clients are mainly smaller choice. And we assure them first developed, the company Rapoport said, most of the tools and mid-sized companies with that they will never have to used Btrieve as its underlying his team looked at would only sales ranging from $5 million make another choice." database. At that time, Btrieve work with SQL relational prod- to $100 million," Rapoport Furthermore, the majority of was offered by SoftCraft, a ucts. "They had ODBC but they noted. "They are not likely to Rapoport's competitors also use company founded by the would not touch Btrieve in those take on a $65,000-a-year guy to the Pervasive database, after founders of Pervasive Software days," he said. balance and tune the database. using a proprietary product for (www.pervasive.com ) "Btrieve Then Rapoport came across an They need something that they many years. "Every time an was a very solid, robust ISAM application development tool, can just turn on and go. And if operating system moved ahead, product," said Isaac Rapoport, now called eDeveloper, from the power fails or the net-work their systems would fall apart president of Magic Information Magic Software (www.magic- cable goes, they can shut it off and nobody liked that," Systems. "We tried dBase and software.com ), an Israeli com- and bring it back up." Rapoport said. others, but at 10,000 records pany, popular in Europe and Pervasive SQL 2000, Rapoport has also made a sig- and up, it started crashing all Asia. "Not only did it work with Rapoport said, "certainly cuts nificant commitment to Magic the time." all the relational databases, it the mustard. It is lightweight; it Software. His company has SoftCraft was ultimately pur- also worked with Btrieve," is fast; its memory footing is become a Magic Software solu- chased by Novell, which helped Rapoport said. As he began to not too heavy. It is an excellent tions provider and has been Accountware's growth. The explore the use of the Magic choice from every respect." renamed Magic Information application was written in C RAD tool, Pervasive came out Those typical sites may have Systems. Accountware has and had several unique features with its SQL line. At first, from five to 70 users; Rapoport been renamed eWholesaler. at the time, including the Pervasive had Btrieve run as a says that he cannot recall ever.

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