Action speaks volumes
In the short term we are focusing on our existing customers with the intention of rebuilding technical and commercial trust and credibility.
On the technical front, new builds and OS versions are in progress and on the commercial front we have already committed to honouring all existing contracts, clarified the licensing arrangements in favour of users, reviewed and rationalised our pricing model and implemented new escrow arrangements.
Customers will no longer face uncertainty or inconsistency when requesting reassignments of licence keys. There will be no charge for employing third party contractors and maintenance & support fees have been reduced.
If you would like to discuss how these changes affect you, please email info@rapidgen.co.uk
or call +44 (0)20 8786 6909.
Development work is underway again and many of the technical team who were involved in the past are back on board.
The new owner and management team in London took over in December and are now firmly established and working hard to erase the legacy of Cristal and the 'Monaco Years'.
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Legal footnote
By order of the High Court in London dated 19th December 2005, all IPR and other rights to the Genius Software products and derivatives, previously claimed by Cristal Media Communications SAM of Monaco and by Margaret Moore in particular, were ordered to be transferred to the original owner J. Ritchie McGladdery and through him RapidGen Software Limited of the U.K.
On 22nd February 2006 District Judge Berry of the Principal Registry of the Family Division signed an assignment of the legal title of the assets on behalf of Margaret Moore and Cristal into the name of J. Ritchie McGladdery.
This was the final act in returning Genius to UK ownership and control.
New escrow arrangements in place
Escrow copies of the Genius Software are held by our solicitors Messrs Hanne & Co.   
These copies are kept up to date on a regular basis and previous versions are also held in the escrow deposit.
Escrow protection is offered on a 5 year renewable term.  Details of the subscription are available from support@rapidgen.co.uk
If it ain't broke don't fix it
The Genius Application Suite is robust, flexible enterprise software, capable of operating reliably under the most demanding conditions.  It supports operations as diverse as aircraft assembly, warehousing and distribution and billing systems. It benchmarks favourably against other leading enterprise software solutions and it is our intention that it will be performing this role well into the future.
There will be two main thrusts in our medium term strategy:
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OpenVMS 8.2 Alpha
Existing Genius 2.4 kits do not install on VMS 8.2. Please contact us for the updated version
Developing a sustainable legacy
 
Whilst the Genius Solution is in use with high reliability on many OpenVMS sites, both older VAX systems and more recent Alpha platforms, and we continue to test Genius on the latest releases, HP's announcement of the dates for final Alpha orders later this year means that we must all look at the platforms for the future.
For the next five years, HP will still be offering support of OpenVMS/Alpha systems, so customers have a window in which to move to other platforms.
It goes without saying that all the platforms which we expect to survive beyond the next few years are 64 bit, and have significant market share already.
The Genius Solution is already available on both IBM PowerPC architecture and Sun Sparc architecture. More work is being progressed on both these platforms to make sure the software continues to work on the latest IBM I-series and P-series, as well as the latest Sun Fire T2000 series of coolthreads servers.
At the lower end of the market, the existing X86 versions of Genius for Windows and Linux will be extended to support the Windows XP X64 edition and similar versions of Linux and be joined by a Solaris version for the Sun Opteron based servers.
We are still canvassing our existing OpenVMS/Alpha customers to determine the level of interest in
OpenVMS/Itanium. Whilst work on a port to this platform was started a number of years ago, it was deferred due to the absence of customer interest.
Our primary goals include ensuring the ease of migration to new hardware platforms and their operating systems for existing customers, and simplifying integration with other systems by extending XML and intranet functionality.
In addition to support for the latest 64-bit systems, we are improving the installation experience on all the supported platforms, by changing to use the current standard installers on each platform, such as Polycenter on VMS, RPMs on Linux.
Full customer support with new licensing and service arrangements are being implemented.
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Software Vendors and Enterprises Continue to Move Toward Subscription-Based Business Models*
For the second year in a row, the data clearly suggests that software vendors are moving aggressively towards subscription-based licensing models and away from the more traditional perpetual licensing model.
The continuing market acceptance and understanding of emerging trends such as hosted software and on-demand and utility computing have shown vendors that these new methods deliver improved value and satisfaction to their customers, while providing greater revenue predictability.
Last year, one in three vendors were were offering subscription models as their primary pricing method; that number has risen 7% this year to 40%. By 2007, an additional 20% of Vendors expect to use subscriptions
As their primary licensing model.
The data suggests that the perpetual licensing strategy will continue its gradual decline and subscription-based methods will likely soon become the pervasive model in place.
The primary reason why ISV's are moving to the subscription model is to enjoy greater predictability of revenues (43%).
The second most popular reason is to foster customer adoption by offering a lower up-front price for their software.
This was cited by enterprises as being one of their top reasons for embracing the subscription model.
At the same time, while the majority of enterprises still prefer to purchase software through perpetual licensing, they seem to be softening their resistance to subscription pricing, with 43% now preferring that model, an increase of 7% over last year.
*Study Oct 2005 Conducted By SIIA, Macrovision, SoftSummit, and CELUG
With the benefit of thirty years experience of the software industry, I know that success is built upon re-investment in research and development and treating customers as stakeholders.  These principles will shape my plans for the future growth of RapidGen Software and the Genius Application Suite.
A word from Ritchie McGladdery
Founder of Rapid-Gen Systems Ltd, the original developer of Genius and now Chairman of RapidGen Software Ltd.  
The last few years have been a challenging period, recovering the business I launched and built. With this now achieved, I will once again be setting strategy, re-focussing on development and building strong relationships with our customers.