Vivek Mannige

India Software Inc. and software products are like Kipling’s West and the East, the twain that never meet, barring a few companies. One of them is the Pune-based AccelTree Software, an associate of the 11-year-old Indus Software, that has over the years specialised in shrink-wrapped software tools and products for the financial segment. Founded early this year, AccelTree has moved into the limelight with Fulcrum, a rapid code assembler that streamlines Java application development by using a novel concept of ‘code templates’ for typical classes, methods, etc. used in application development.

The templates include Java Class, EJB (Enterprise Java Beans), Class Method, Code Block and Program Specification templates, that generate documentation automatically. Fulcrum also provides pre-defined JavaScript front-end validations for data formats, numeric validations and a ‘Presentation Manager,’ to link HTML controls. The features also include a business rule engine to which Java classes can make calls, besides the ability to generate XML and XSL on-the-fly, which can then be rendered on a browser.

Vivek Mannige, chairman, AccelTree Software says, “Our mission is to produce software tools that enhance a customer’s productivity and ability to market them globally, thereby bringing international recognition for Indian shrink-wrapped software products.” But is the Indian market mature enough for adoption of automated software development tools? According to Mannige, as India continues to grow in importance as the world’s software development service centre, efficiency and level of service will be the strategic differentiators among the players in the field. Process driven software development using automated development tools is key to maintaining this competitive advantage. “While the need is clearly there, the Indian market needs to avoid inertia and only early adopters will be able to provide value-added services in the global market.”

Explaining Fulcrum’s biggest advantage, Mannige points to the fact that makes code templates available to the developer in an integrated fashion in order to reduce the time taken for coding and testing. This sharply reduces the development time and gives architectural clarity to the coding process. The ‘template’ concept in Fulcrum has been integrated through the development process from class definition to unit testing and presentation. For a typical Java development team using Fulcrum, the savings in development time range from 30-50 percent, with larger or complex applications yielding higher savings. In the words of Mannige, Fulcrum is a tool that will change the way Java code is written.