Sustaining Members’ News
New Management at Dyalog Ltd.
On April 7th 2005, a consortium consisting of APL Italiana SpA, Insight Systems ApS and Simcorp A/S, purchased 100% of the shares of Dyalog Ltd. On that date, Gitte Christensen and Morten Kromberg, currently Managing Director and Technical Director of Insight Systems ApS (respectively), assumed the same roles at Dyalog.
The direct reason for the reorganisation of the management team at Dyalog APL is that Peter Donnelly, Managing Directory of Dyalog, was keen to retire. Having identified that the team at Insight Systems ApS had the ideal combination of business and technical skills to take the APL business forward, APL Italiana SpA (of Milan, Italy) and SimCorp A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark) were identified as ideal financial backers, because they have a firm understanding of the value of APL and long term commitment to the technology at the highest level of management. The two companies both develop and market asset management solutions, and are thus competitors, but are keen to participate in this joint venture because both companies firmly believe that all customers, including themselves, are best served by a strong and independent Dyalog Ltd.
We believe that most readers of Vector are familiar with the qualities of Dyalog APL and the remarkable qualifications of the development team who are behind the product. However, we recognise that some of you may be less familiar with Gitte and Morten and the team at Insight.
The management team at Insight started their careers at I.P.Sharp Associates and have been working with APL for more than 25 years. During that time, the team has worked on just about every APL system and platform in commercial use since 1980, and primarily used Dyalog APL for the last ten years. Insight Systems, formed in 1990, are recognised as specialists in interfacing APL to components developed in other tools, in the tuning of large APL applications, and in conversions between different APL systems. The company has a broad software experience, ranging from Graphical (CAD) application development in C, MVS systems programming, APL system extensions in the form of Auxiliary Processors, DLLs and Unix add-ins developed in C, Web Applications using Visual Studio.NET, Client/Server technology as well as general software Analysis, Design and Teaching skills. Insight Systems have been purveyors of portable SQL interfaces to a large part of the APL community for more than a decade, and have provided Dyalog with an ODBC interface for the last 13 years.
In the late 1990s, Insight Systems ApS was part of Adaytum Software Inc. The global development team which built Adaytum Planning was recruited and managed from Denmark by Gitte and Morten. The adventure ultimately resulted in the sale of Adaytum Inc. to Cognos in 2002. It is the proceeds from Insight’s participation in Adaytum which has now made it financially possible for Insight Systems ApS to perform a ‘management buy in’ to Dyalog with the help of two of Dyalog’s customers.
We are both happy to be able to have this opportunity to contribute to the future of APL and we see our new roles as a logical conclusion of many years of professional dedication to APL
says Morten Kromberg.
We believe that the combination of Dyalog’s core technology with the application-building skills and sales and marketing know-how at Insight Systems will make it possible not only to provide an even higher level of service to existing customers, but also to substantially grow the company and the APL market in the 21st century. The most significant benefit to existing customers is that this will enable a significantly higher level of investment in APL technology and services. We firmly believe that APL is a development methodology which is still in its infancy, with significant growth potential.
Commenting on the deal, Peter Donnelly said:
This deal has not come about by accident. Two years ago, John Scholes and I recognised the need to find the right people to take over the Dyalog business to ensure its future growth and prosperity when we eventually retired. We decided that Morten Kromberg and Gitte Christensen had exactly the right combination of APL technical skills, enthusiasm, and commercial experience that we were looking for. Early in 2004, with the full agreement and support of our staff, we approached Morten and Gitte. They responded enthusiastically, and the process began.
Both John and I are delighted that our plans have come to fruition and we confidently hand over the business to the new management. We know that Dyalog is in good hands and will continue to serve our customers well.
John Scholes will continue to work for Dyalog in his capacity as language designer. The interpreter development team will continue to be based in the UK. All current employees of the company, including Geoff Streeter and John Daintree, continue in their current rles, and it is our plan to add new members to the team within the next year or two.
Administration will be handled from Denmark, where Helene Bœsen will be responsible for accounting, sales, shipping, conferences and events.
We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the Dyalog 2005 conference, to be held in Denmark from October 19th to 21st. Our intention is to alternate between hosting the conference in European countries in odd-numbered years, and North America in even-numbered years — in co-operation with other vendors of Array Languages if practical. We sincerely hope that you will attend our conferences regularly, participate in sharing your solutions and problems, and in building a thriving community.
For more information, please visit www.dyalog.com.