Product Roadmap Update

[Brovin Yaroslav]

Over the last few days, as we continue to execute on our global plans, we received some questions about our product Roadmap. Given that we have had two months since 10.1 Berlin, I think that it is appropriate to give a quick update. Our product managers will provide more details in the coming days and weeks and we are always available for 1:1 discussions with partners or customers. I personally find these very useful and energizing.

In February, we provided a detailed view of our Product Roadmap… http://community.embarcadero.com/article/news/16211-embarcadero-rad-studio-2016-product-approach-and-roadmap-2. We continue to make excellent progress in all areas and the Roadmap remains largely unchanged. We are very happy with 10.1 Berlin. We could have made even more progress towards the IDE evolution, but we have received very positive feedback so far, so progress in most areas is great. As we expand the use of IDERA’s R&D Network (100s of developers around the world) we will accelerate the effort to deliver on this Roadmap. The development processes are different from what Embarcadero has used in the past (more structured outsourcing) and there is always room for improvement, but the progress to-date with VCL updates and other projects has instilled the team with confidence that we can continue to deliver on all product objectives.

There are some nuances to the Roadmap that are interesting to note. I am even happier with the team’s decision to support the Linux development and push forward as aggressively as possible without compromising on quality. This is based on many, many customer and partner discussions. Allowing for a more robust and flexible back-end (more APIs and platforms) is critical to opening the architecture of Delphi applications. This is aligned with our investment in RAD Server, an effort that we plan to continue. The product team strongly believes that making Delphi applications easier to integrate with different dev technologies (e.g. JS clients) will be beneficial for Delphi developers, and removes the “niche” classification that has constrained us in the past. This is not an overnight transformation, but we are ready and able to invest in product to support this strategic direction.

Another nuance that is important is our commitment to be more open and collaborative with our existing community of tech partners (different from our R&D Network). I have seen many amazing tech components built by our partners across the world. We need to make it easier for our customers to find and use these components. Especially in the mobile space, showcasing what developers can achieve with FMX is really exciting. This is aligned with the Roadmap published in February, but not something we called out specifically. There are technology and marketing aspects that will both continue to evolve in this area throughout the coming year. 

Finally our focus on expanding the user base is critical. In software, companies either grow or shrink. We are committed to growth! We are investing a lot in marketing to make sure that new developers are aware of our tools. Over the last quarter, we have touched over one million developers with marketing communications, in many cases several different communications. This process will take time, but the number of new customers even this quarter is encouraging. However, we will not be successful without product excellence and continued product investment, so our ability to deliver on and expand the Roadmap are key. I know that many of our MVPs and significant customers are not too shy to ask questions or criticize – It is critical for us to continue to receive this feedback, especially when this is specific to improving our products. Of course, we will not be able to address everything immediately, but our resources are expanding and our ability to accelerate high impact product improvements is going to be much better, so our confidence in the future of Embarcadero is high.

Best,

Atanas

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