TurnOver^™ for WebSphere^® Studio

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TurnOver Change Management Earns iSeries' First "Ready for WebSphere Studio" Validation

WebSphere Studio integration provides change management and deployment for iSeries and Web applications

Peterborough, N.H. — May 29, 2003 — SoftLanding Systems, a leading provider of Software Management solutions for iSeries and multi-platform development, today announces that its TurnOver Change Management solution has been successfully validated to the requirements of IBM's Ready for WebSphere Studio V2, including WebSphere Studio Workbench V2 and WebSphere Studio V5. As such, TurnOver becomes the first and only solution with iSeries-specific support to achieve Ready for WebSphere Studio status, and the only set of WebSphere Studio plug-ins to support both native iSeries and Web development. IBM confirmed TurnOver's validation on April 22, 2003.

According to IBM, software products that satisfy Workbench and Studio Family integration criteria offer easier implementation and increased quality of solutions. The rigorous validation process starts with a pre-test, which involves documenting well over 100 points of integration for areas such as user interface, API conformance, installation, serviceability, help systems, and integration with Java Development Tools. The pre-test is followed by a live validation session within which integration claims are physically tested and proven by IBM staff.

"We have used WDSC and TurnOver continuously since we began participating in SoftLanding's WDSC Plug-in Early Release Program in March 2003," says Chris Nickchen of New Penn Motor Express, Inc., a subsidiary of Roadway Corporation. "We can tell you that the TurnOver plug-ins for WDSC are really solid. And I was impressed by how responsive SoftLanding was to our enhancement requests. It was very different from our experiences with most other vendors."

Bob Cancilla, Managing Director, IGNITe/400, sees SoftLanding's plug-ins as a significant step forward in fulfilling the promise of Eclipse in the iSeries market. "Last year, when IBM announced Eclipse and the Eclipse-based WebSphere Studio tools, many of us saw an opportunity for third-party software vendors to integrate their tools with IBM's tools via the open source Eclipse platform," says Cancilla. "SoftLanding has not only integrated their own tools, but they have provided a free spooled file plug-in that anyone, customer or not, can download from their Website. It makes access to spool files for any developer working in WDSC a dream come true! This is one very large step towards fulfilling the promise of Eclipse and the extensibility of the WDSC development platform. It is my hope that other iSeries vendors follow SoftLanding's lead and integrate their tooling with Eclipse, and/or contribute other useful utilities that extend WDSC as SoftLanding did."

"We are pleased with SoftLanding's efforts to provide integrated support for both WebSphere application development on iSeries and other platforms through WebSphere Studio and the TurnOver plug-ins. As one of the first validated plug-ins to support native iSeries development, TurnOver is effectively expanding the Ready for WebSphere Studio program to support additional eServer platforms," stated Bob Sutor, IBM's Director of WebSphere Infrastructure Software.

"Market response to the TurnOver plug-ins has been fantastic!" says Steve Gapp, President/CEO of SoftLanding Systems. "We are proud to be the first to offer IBM-validated WebSphere Studio plug-ins with integrated support for both native iSeries and Web development. This is an important milestone for both SoftLanding and the iSeries market."

The TurnOver Plug-Ins

Collectively known as TurnOver for WebSphere Studio, the TurnOver plug-ins are unique in that they embed complete native iSeries change management support into WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries, or WDSC, making TurnOver's functions virtually indistinguishable from native WDSC functions. Because the plug-ins replicate WDSC's graphical user interface, the learning curve is minimized. Using the TurnOver plug-ins, developers can now work with RPG, ILE, SQL, or any native iSeries object, with full change management support from work request to multi-platform deployment, without ever leaving WDSC.

In addition to supporting native iSeries development, TurnOver for WebSphere Studio also supports non-iSeries development from within any Eclipse-based IDE, including WDSC, WSAD, and WSSD. In this instance, the plug-ins let developers review and manage their task assignments, automatically collect all changed files in preparation for promotion, execute promotion requests, and deploy their changes to production on any combination of iSeries, Windows, Linux, or Unix servers. TurnOver synchronizes the deployment of all application components across platforms. Behind the scenes, TurnOver also provides full application archiving, automated recovery from problematic deployments, and auditable change history.

The resulting solution unifies cross-platform development teams under one overall development process.

Availability and More Information

The validated TurnOver plug-ins, currently available from SoftLanding Systems, require TurnOver 5.3 and WDSC 5.0 or higher, or any other IDE that's based on Eclipse 2.0 or higher, such as WSSD or WSAD.

TurnOver for WebSphere Studio is included free as a base part of every TurnOver Change Management development license. Existing TurnOver customers receive TurnOver for WebSphere Studio as a free upgrade.

For more information about TurnOver for WebSphere Studio, call SoftLanding Systems at 800-545-9485 or 603-924-8818, or email us at info@softlanding.com.

About SoftLanding Systems

SoftLanding Systems, a leading provider of Software Management solutions for iSeries and multi-platform development, specializes in solutions that streamline the entire software development and maintenance process, resulting in enhanced productivity, higher quality software, and improved application availability. SoftLanding's strength is in creating the ideal Software Management solution for any software environment, regardless of complexity, by drawing on expertise and tools in the following areas: software change management, database change management, rapid problem resolution, application deployment, security, debugging, and testing.