Case Study: FinalBuilder and Alter Ego Services
Olivier Beltrami, owner of Alter Ego Services, talks about how FinalBuilder is an essential tool that they just couldn't do without.
Overview
"Apart from the obvious benefit of automating our software builds, FinalBuilder has allowed us to automate website updates when new data becomes available. Our site, www.qppstudio.net, contains the public holidays of 239 countries around the world and is now the leading source of public holiday information on the Web. The site, although free, has generated many leads for our Q++ Studio diary typesetting software system."
Challenges faced
"Propagating minor changes in data all the way to the web is a complex task. Firstly, the public holiday rules database needs to be updated, then new dates calculated from these modified rules. Then the relevant web pages need to be updated. This usually involves a lot of tweaking of the HTML and JavaScript code. Finally, the updated pages need to be uploaded reliably. FinalBuilder handles the entire process for both Q++ and the web site - from compiling our applications, creating installers, running Front page, HTML Protector, HTML De-Tagger, lots of text manipulation, and of course uploading everything to our website."
Why Alter Ego Services chose FinalBuilder
"We started using FinalBuilder version 1 back in early 2001. At the time it was the only automated build tool that covered our developer toolset. Now there are many other automated build tools but, from our point of view, FinalBuilder still has a healthy lead; plus we are more than satisfied with VSoft Technologies' product and support."
FinalBuilder's Return on Investment
"Without FinalBuilder, our public holidays web site would be updated much less often. We would also be forced to use a much simpler (ie plain) interface, and would probably be left with a lot of errors and omissions. Without our site’s popularity and appeal, many of the leads that we got for our Q++ Studio diary typesetting software system might never have been generated. A single sale of Q++ Studio pays for the cost of FinalBuilder almost a hundred-fold."
Recommended
"We definitely recommend FinalBuilder. I think it should be an essential part of any developer’s tool chest. Support is great and the product constantly evolves. As far as ease of use goes, it's a piece of cake. I travel over 200 days of the year, and use it everywhere I go on both my laptop and desktop workstation."
About Alter Ego Services
Alter Ego Services is a software consulting company located in Nantes, France. Alter Ego was founded in 1999, to provide software consulting and information services for the diary publishing industry. Our regular clients are major diary and calendar publishers worldwide, to whom we provide Q++ Studio training and consulting, as well as date-related information such as world holidays.
About Alter Ego's products
Our flagship product, the Q++ Studio diary typesetting software, is currently installed at over 35 production sites in over 20 countries. Q++ Studio is a QuarkXPress-based professional software system that automates the typesetting of diaries and calendars (one year to the next, multi-lingual, customized …). It comes with a sample database of over 25 languages, public holidays in 239 countries, and it automatically calculates and inserts into diaries astronomical information such as sunrise/sunsets, moon phases, moonrise/moonset, equinoxes, solstices, zodiac signs, seasons, and most information that can be found in ephemerides.
About VSoft Technologies
VSoft Technologies have been in business since 1996, and are focused on developing automation software for software developers, software configuration managers, system administrators, network administrators and IT professionals. Both FinalBuilder and Automise save time and money by providing easy to use, flexible and powerful solutions to automation tasks. Visit our website at either https://www.finalbuilder.com to find out more information and to download fully functional 30 day evaluation editions. FinalBuilder™ is a Trade Mark of VSoft Technologies Pty Ltd. All other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.