Attachmate and EnableSoft: Two Data Task Automation Competitors Chat

Our Vice President of Product Management and I attended the recent SHARE conference in San Diego http://www.share.org/events/SanDiego/index.cfm .  One of the companies we were really interested in speaking with was Attachmate.  

Attachmate is well known as a major supplier of terminal emulation software. My interest  was in learning some of their thinking on the demise of the green screens and subsequent replacement by GUIs.

We were tired after flying all day from Orlando and our first appearance at the conference was for the first evening’s cocktail reception.  Our persistence was rewarded as the first person we met at Attachmate’s booth was their Product Marketing Manager; just the person who would be able to parse the issues we wanted to discuss.

You see, many EnableSoft clients - http://www.enablesoft.com/caseStudies/index.aspx - that have made the transition to client/server or GUI front ends for their core systems.   They were dependent on emulator scripting for automating data entry, business process / workflow automation, data conversions, and data migrations.  They have successfully transitioned to our FoxtrotOne scripting technology for Windows and Internet browsers to accomplish the data scripting that they had previously accomplished with terminal emulator scripting.

We were interested to know what Attachmate’s thinking was on that and if they had an alternative.

We weren’t sure how we would be received.  As a competitor in the legacy scripting arena, we had a lot of clients who had previously used WRQ Reflections scripting and were still using the Reflections emulator with our Foxtrot LE legacy scripting technology http://www.enablesoft.com/what/index.aspx .  As well,  we had encountered many Reflections scripting users that were perfectly content.  Nevertheless, we are competitors.

Sitting at my desk and looking at the Attachmate business card, I’m smiling because the gentleman we met with was not only pleasant but helpful, interested, and intelligent.  All in all, “a good egg”.   Unfortunately, in business, that is not often the case.

We had a lively discussion about alternatives and industry trends.  We learned some things about Attachmate and he learned some things about EnableSoft.  Attachmate is a vibrant firm with many initiatives that are in step with and even ahead of the market - but scripting support for GUIs and Internet browsers didn’t appear to be one of them.

It’s been several months since the conference and I haven’t followed up with the Product Marketing Manager from Attachmate.  I’m thinking… today’s competitors are often tomorrow’s partners.  I’ll think I’ll make a phone call…

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