First Two Weeks

May 18th, 2009

WOW! To say I hit the ground running in my new position at Hydro4GE over the past couple weeks is an understatement. The team has been fantastic and the rapid pace only adds to the level of excellence. In two weeks I’ve engaged in design meetings, met with potential clients, discussed test plans, development of training materials, internship programs, marketing strategies, built an application, the list goes on and I am loving every minute of it!!!

I’ve become more familiar with the Hydro4GE product itself and the overall company vision which is viewed through the eyes of the development team. Personally, I believe that’s what will make us leaders in this industry, taking our experiences in various roles in the I/T industry and giving our customers the tools to excel in the ever competitive world of creating sound business solutions on shoestring budgets. Of course the fact that you can generate a full blown application without engaging in code construction is a pretty big deal too!

Stop back and visit – we’ll be updating more frequently now on any various features and functionality the team is fine-tuning for our Fall release.

Welcome Rose Lackenmier!

May 4th, 2009

We’re pleased to announce that Rose Lackenmier of Mountain Top, PA has accepted the position of VP User Experience with Hydro4GE Inc. A seasoned information technology professional, Rose brings a range of demonstrated technical competencies and leadership experiences to the team.

We’re really excited to have someone of Rose’s caliber join the team as the senior leader for all of our customer facing activities. Her enthusiasm is infectious – you’ll see for yourselves once she settles in.

Welcome RL – All Good!

It Keeps Getting Better

March 13th, 2009

As a long-time client of the developers of Hydro4GE, I have often marveled at how quickly and effectively they have been able to design and implement new systems.  When I learned that Hydro4GE evolved from the proprietary tools that were utilized for our projects, I knew that it would be interesting.

Now with my “hands-on experience”, I’m starting to realize the tremendous business benefits that organizations will achieve with Hydro4GE.  A developer and a user can build up “creative momentum” as they cooperatively design a working, functional system in a matter of hours (as opposed to days, weeks or months).  Hydro4GE offers an unprecedented opportunity for the user’s business knowledge and expertise to be “aroused”, “actualized” and “transformed” into a software application that truly serves and supports the organization.

Hydro4GE may also appeal to a broader range of individuals interested in the developer role.  I can see this as a great tool for anyone who can methodically approach a problem by first framing the “big picture” and then drilling down to define the more detailed processes, quickly turning a rough design into a software application without the typical tedious coding tasks.

I didn’t get to test the production change management functions (SEL) yet, but I look forward to doing so in the future.

The Product We’ve Been Waiting For

March 9th, 2009

As one of the Alpha partners, I recently had the opportunity to see Hydro4GE in action and I was completely blown away.


I’ve been in I/T for 20 years and like many of you reading this post have seen a number of new technologies unveiled.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this time or how it could have an impact on my business.  “Can this really help me deliver a higher quality product in a shorter period of time increasing ROI and profit margins?”  Isn’t that that magic potion we’re all looking for?  Short answer – YES!  The Visualization module is brilliant.  It simplifies the database design process by taking what can be extremely complex to develop and breaks it down into easy to use (click a button and there’s your model) and easy to understand diagrams that demonstrate how information is related.

After a demonstration of the system, we were given the opportunity to see for ourselves with hands on access.  I had a set of requirements that I translated into a functioning process.  I accomplished this in less than an hour.  Unbelievable!

The ease with which a system is built using Hydro4GE will completely change the System Development Life Cycle allowing for greater focus on Requirements and Design which in turn leads to a better product.  In traditional systems development, the majority of time in the SDLC is spent on Code & Testing – 60% or more of allocated time.  If requirements aren’t well thought out and understood, burn rates skyrocket in C&T causing a reassessment of estimates for pending phases, reallocation of resources to accommodate increased burn and often a decrease in quality or reevaluation of scope to meet a promised deliverable.

With Hydro4GE, you’ll allocate more resources in requirements gathering and design phase, utilize this information to create a simple prototype, review the translation of requirements with the client with a visual and significantly reduce rework – and – your prototype is the foundation that you can use to continue to build and layer upon to generate a complete product without wasting resources.  But don’t be fooled – Hydro4GE isn’t a modeling tool – it’s a powerful development platform disguised as an easy to use application that helps you design a value added product for your client or business team.

The Reporting module is still in its infancy but once fully developed will reach well beyond the applications developer.  There’s more to come and I can’t wait to see what the Hydro4GE team will unveil next.

A Remarkable Development

March 9th, 2009

When it came time to experience Hydro4GE first-hand in the Online Development Environment (ODE), I thought I knew what I could expect – instead, I was blown away.

When I think about Hydro4GE, the following words come to mind: quick, easy, powerful, and ground-breaking.  And that’s exactly how I would describe my experience in the ODE.  To get a sense of comparison, I set out to duplicate my Senior Project from college, an online Residence Life Management System.  What originally took me half of a semester to build (a couple months), only took about a day to complete in Hydro4GE.  I found myself spending more time with the business requirements, and not having to worry about database development and web interfaces.

My favorite feature of Hydro4GE is its ability to adapt to changing business requirements, thanks to the Schema Evolution Language (SEL). As a result, making serious changes to the database schema is a cinch, and can be done in minutes.