Smalltalk Digest: June Edition
Welcome to the June 2020 edition of the Cincom Smalltalk™ Digest. In this valuable edition, we will talk about the following:
CUSTOMERS and PARTNERS
- A Look Back: Cincom’s Historic Flight of the Concorde
- How Is Cincom Communicating with Customers and Partners?
- What Is the Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter, and Why Is It Valuable for Customers and Partners?
- How Can Cincom Help Your Business Grow?
NEWBIES, FREELANCERS and DEVELOPERS
- What Is “Fintech,” and How Can It Work with Cincom Smalltalk?
- How Can You “Try” and “Buy” Cincom Smalltalk?
- Tips and Techniques of Using Name Spaces in Cincom Smalltalk
- What Changes Have Been Made to Upcoming Developer Events?
- Cincom® VisualWorks® for macOS Catalina 10.15.5
- Where Can You Find Product Resources?
Snippets for these articles can be found below:
CUSTOMERS and PARTNERS
A Look Back: Cincom’s Historic Flight of the Concorde
Thirty-two years ago, Cincom brought the Concorde SST to Cincinnati, Ohio. On board were 70 Cincom clients from 10 European countries who were invited to Cincom World Headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio as a part of Cincom’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
This historic flight of the supersonic jet was the first-ever chartered flight for the Concorde. It was also the first inland landing of the Concorde in America and the only time it came to Cincinnati, which at the time, was celebrating its bicentennial.
Here we are 32 years after that historic flight, and Cincom is still going strong. Having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, the company’s growth is still fueled by that same energy, ingenuity and commitment of many, many Cincomers worldwide.
- Click here to read more details and comments from Tom Nies, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cincom.
How Is Cincom Communicating with Customers and Partners?
Mike Kappel of Business2Community says:
“Communication is key to a business running smoothly. You need to be able to communicate with your employees, vendors, investors and especially customers and partners.”
He then goes on to describe a few important ways to communicate with customers, namely:
- Be accessible on multiple channels.
- Provide personalized communication.
Because Cincom plays a significant leadership role in providing commercial Smalltalk, it’s imperative that we are communicating with our customers, partners and users on a regular basis, helping them understand the multiple communication channels we have available. For your reference, we want to provide a breakdown of the various ways we communicate as well as some of the resources we have available to you.
From upgrading your product to the current release of Cincom Smalltalk Version 9, to customer programs and services, tutorials and videos, we have everything listed for you here.
What Is the Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter, and Why Is It Valuable for Customers and Partners?
In the article above, Mike Kappel of Business2Community defines providing personal communication as another important method for properly connecting with customers and partners. The Cincom Smalltalk Product Team is always available to answer questions or provide assistance to any customer or partner. You can reach us directly at CSSTARTeam@cincom.com.
We also provide a few newsletters throughout the month. One example of that is the Cincom Smalltalk Digest you are currently reading. In addition, we also have the Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter that is only available to customers and partners who subscribe to it.
This opt-in-only newsletter was created to be a useful tool in making it easier to do business with Cincom. In this monthly newsletter, customers will find things like the latest Hidden Gems screencast, featured Cincom Smalltalk programs and updates on Smalltalk events.
However, the most important reason we publish the Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter is to let customers know what’s going on with the product since the last release so they can see what resolutions might be available to them.
If you are a current Cincom Smalltalk customer and are interested in receiving the Resolutions Newsletter, simply fill out the form on this page. Be sure to include your customer number, as only current Cincom Smalltalk customers have access to the Resolutions email.
Hear more about the Resolutions Newsletter from Kimberly Thomas, the Director, Global Product Support, here:
How Can Cincom Help Your Business Grow?
There has been a lot of change in our world over the past six months. It seems daunting to try and keep up with what happens, seemingly on a daily basis. For many business owners who are trying to navigate these tricky waters in which we find ourselves today, it can be quite stressful and overwhelming. Your priority is keeping your business afloat and bolstering the things in your company that already bring you revenue. There’s no time to think about growing your business now, right?
That’s where we come in.
The Cincom Smalltalk group makes the success of our customers and partners priority number one. Our Product and Services teams have decades of experience in helping to increase customer profitability and success. We have the knowledge and creativity to discover opportunities to prosper, improve productivity and add value in your application and business. In addition, our team can do this remotely, safely and comfortably for you and your employees.
In the customer and partner discovery zone, there are several ways we can assist you in finding new potential in your application and make your business flourish:
- Product Upgrades
- Performance Enhancement
- Proof of Concept
- Migrations
- Mentoring
- Troubleshooting
Interested? See more details, and learn how to get started with this discovery and advancement here.
NEWBIES, FREELANCERS and DEVELOPERS
What Is “Fintech,” and How Can It Work with Cincom Smalltalk?
The financial services industry has many types of businesses involved in managing money while playing a major role in the world’s economy. This industry is massive and includes companies for investing, lending, insuring, securities trading, asset management, financial advising, accounting and foreign exchange among others.
As technology has changed and improved over the years, new segments of the financial services industry have emerged. One example of this is Financial Technology, or Fintech, which is “… new tech that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services.” (Investopedia)
Working with companies in the financial services industry is nothing new for Cincom and Cincom Smalltalk, having successful customers, partners and users like JP Morgan. From a personnel standpoint, Arden Thomas, the Cincom Smalltalk Product Manager, has had more than three decades of professional and personal interest in stock charting and technical analysis. Before coming to Cincom, Arden had several years of experience developing in Smalltalk for a hedge fund.
How Can You “Try” and “Buy” Cincom Smalltalk?
There’s been a recent surge in our Personal Use License downloads as well as motivated developers who are eagerly jumping on board and partnering with us through our REV Program. We want to offer those same opportunities to you:
Try Cincom Smalltalk ─ A great opportunity to try Smalltalk! The Personal Use License of Cincom Smalltalk makes it easy for someone to learn and become familiar with our technology. The Personal Use License is free for you to use for your own private use.
Curious? Click here to start exploring Cincom Smalltalk and all that it can do for you.
Buy Cincom Smalltalk ─ A great opportunity to take your idea to the next level and create your own business! This popular program is an affordable investment of $500 that was created to give you a low-cost opportunity to partner with Cincom and receive all the benefits of being a customer. As a Cincom Smalltalk customer, you receive:
-
- Access to the full product and all releases for 1 year/12 months
- Full support for the product during the 1 year/12 months
- An opportunity to join the Developer Program to get early beta releases of our product to see where we are taking it and comment to help us build out the future of commercial Smalltalk
- An opportunity to join the Partner Promotion Program to promote your application, help you develop the right markets or find the smartest space to promote what you have been working on
Interested? Join the other entrepreneurs like you and get started in this very popular program today! Click here to start your partnership for only $500.
Tips and Techniques of Using Name Spaces in Cincom Smalltalk
The Hidden Gems screencast is the most successful video series we publish and is the most watched playlist on the Cincom Smalltalk YouTube account. Arden Thomas, created this series for developers who are passionate about their use of Cincom Smalltalk. These screencasts give the viewer live coding examples while sharing valuable insight into the product and informing them about things they may not know about.
Hidden Gems – Name Spaces
This new Hidden Gems is an introduction to name spaces, and answers:
- What is a namespace?
- Where do you find name spaces?
- How do you create a namespace?
- What are some examples of how to use name spaces?
- What are some tips and techniques about name spaces?
Watch the video below, or click here.
You can find more details on name spaces in the AppDevGuide.pdf (doc directory) “Name Spaces” chapter in your installed product. The current listing of name spaces is on the Cincom Smalltalk website here.
Please send comments, questions and suggestions to the Cincom Smalltalk Product Team at CSSTARTeam@cincom.com.
Watch over 50 other Hidden Gem screencasts in our video archive here.
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/videos/
What Changes Have Been Made to Upcoming Developer Events?
The first half of 2020 has given us a powerful lesson on adaptability. As society continues to adapt to these global changes and the circumstances that accompany them, most plans for events and meetups will continue to be fluid. Here are a few updates for some upcoming events. Please adjust your plans and calendars accordingly:
- June 30, 2020 — DevRelCon Earth 2020 (ONLINE)
- July 19, 2020 — Women in Agile 2020 (ONLINE)
- July 20-24, 2020 — Agile2020 (POSTPONED)
- July 29, 2020— UK Smalltalk User Group
- August 26, 2020— UK Smalltalk User Group
- August 29 & 30, 2020 — Camp Smalltalk (POSTPONED)
- August 31-September 4, 2020 — European Smalltalk User Group Meeting (POSTPONED)
- September 29, 2020 —International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies (VIRTUAL)
You can monitor other future meetups and conferences, as well as any changes to their scheduling on our Events page here.
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/events/
Cincom VisualWorks for macOS Catalina 10.15.5
On May 26, 2020, Apple released a Catalina update (10.15.5) that breaks compatibility with our VisualWorks macOS VM.
If you run Cincom VisualWorks on macOS and perform this latest Apple update, you will run into an issue where VisualWorks will no longer run due to changes from the update to the macOS.
Cincom Smalltalk engineering has addressed this compatibility issue, and customers/partners can request an updated VM that solves the problem. Please visit https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/users/support/ to contact support and request a compatible macOS VM.
If you have any questions, please contact the Cincom Smalltalk Product Team at CSSTARTeam@cincom.com.
For other frequently asked questions, visit our FAQs section where we answer “How do I…?” and other questions here.
Where Can You Find Product Resources?
If you are a Cincom Smalltalk newbie, seasoned veteran or just need help in finding something specific on our website, this section will be a quick guide to the popular resources we currently have available:
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/presentations/
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/smalltalk-product-tutorials/
https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/community/resources/videos/