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I was very pleased to see 45 people out to the last OSUG meeting on April 4th at the Crowne Plaze Hotel in Ottawa! This was a very special event focused on the modelling software product PowerDesigner from Sybase. Mr Joe Burger from the International Sybase User Group (ISUG) was unable to attend as his plane was grounded from take-off due to high winds. However, Joe was able to contact me and provide the OSUG meeting attendees with a promtion code that allowed us to register as an ISUG member for $60. Included in this registration fee is over $5,000 worth of Sybase NFR software ... thanks Joe! Joe has also informed me that he has rescheduled his flight and will be joining us for the May, 2nd meeting. Note: OSUG meeting attendees ... please let me know if you have not received any eMail with the ISUG code ASAP.
There were two door prize winners: Mr Jospeh Danis of Jex Infomration Resources Management Ltd and Mr. David Marengere of Service Canada won a copy each of the new SQLEffects Clarity product. The Clarity product works with the ASE, Oracle and SQLServer database engines. To obtain more information on this product, visit the SQLEffects web site. Many thanks to Mr Robert Gelb of SQL Effects Software for donating their software! If you would like more information on Clarity, you can also contact Robert at: rgelb@sqleffects.com.
Our main presenter for thiis meeting was Mr David Dichman who is the Senior Product Manager for Sybase's PowerDesigner product. David informed me that while PD is over 15 years old and has been known as Star-Designer, S-Designer and now PowerDesigner - in its recent releases has undergone extensive improvements in GUI Interface, Complete round-trip forward / reverse engineering, plug-in for Eclipse, PowerBuilder and now VisulaStudio2005, support for the newest DBMS's like Oracle 10g, ASE 15, and SQLServer2005 amoung many others. The main development team is still located in Paris France (that explains the fully bilingual available version) but there is also a new seconday team located in China that works on various interfaces.
David did a super presentation on the new PowerDesigner version 12! It was very easy to see his over 10 years experience with PD and working at Sybase - combined with excellent presentation skills and enthusiasm for the product - shine through. Even though I have used PD for many years from the Data Modelling side - I was pleased to learn many new things about the product, such as: 1) It interfaces to business applications through §Silwood Saphir and real time modelling simulations through it's Simul8 product interface; 2) Supports all of today's modelling diciplines and conventions; 3) The #1 tool in the world in Data Modelling; 4) Can import any type of requirements - even MS-Word; 5) Supports XML and SOA definitions and mapping to data and processes; 6) Averages one release per year to keep up with new technologies; etc.
David also backed up his presentation with timely and robust live product demonstrations covering all the major product features. He was able to confidently answer any question from the floor and backed this up with live product examples (most impressive)! David was also very happy at the end of the meeting to answer specific questions on a one-on-one basis and seemed to dazzle the audience. Many thanks from all of the OSUG members Dave, for a job well done!
Also, a special note to regional sales manager Dan Murphy for his support of this event and manning the Sybase / OSUG registration desk. Thanks to all who joined us - it was nice to see many familiar faces coming out of winter hybernation *g*!
Regards ... Chris
Chris Pollach (cpollach@travel-net.com)
OSUG CoOrdinator (552-2757)
