Georg Heeg to Focus on Smalltalk Application Business
Georg Heeg founded his Smalltalk company, Georg Heeg eK, in 1987 when he was 33 years old. The company took care of Smalltalk customers in Central Europe and offered licenses, training, consulting, and project development.
After Cincom Systems, Inc. acquired the Smalltalk business from ObjectShare in 1999, Georg Heeg eK aligned its business to partner with Cincom’s successful Smalltalk business. Heeg and Cincom agreed to a multi-year agreement that focused on Smalltalk Support, Engineering, and Consulting Services to provide Smalltalk services to Cincom, Cincom Smalltalk™ customers, and application partners.
Georg Heeg has been involved with this network technology since the beginning of the Internet age. He was a staff member at Dortmund University when the Internet came to Germany in the 1980s. A whole series of software technologies have emerged from this ongoing debate, the latest of which is SmalltyWeb – a highly flexible CMS system.
In June 2011, the subsidiary, Georg Heeg AG, purchased the ERP system Component Studio and began to actively modernize the ERP solution. To further develop and modernize Component Studio using Cincom Smalltalk, Heeg entered a Value Added Reseller (VAR) relationship with Cincom. Through the VAR relationship, Heeg developed the Smallty platform, and in 2023, Component Studio was renamed SmalltyERP, and it has been maintained and further developed using the current Cincom Smalltalk.
The Smallty platform is the basis for Heeg’s Smalltalk as a Service business with:
- SmalltyWeb – A highly flexible Web Content Management System for small, medium, large, and highly complex websites
- SmalltyERP – A highly fixable ERP system for SME that is adaptable to each specific business
- SmalltyPDF and SmalltyPDF lite – A programmatic creation of PDF files from Cincom® VisualWorks®
- SmalltyPy – The bridge between Smalltalk and Python
- SmalltyAIConnect – The bridge between Smalltalk and OpenAI
With the success of the Smalltalk as a Service business, in late 2023, Heeg initiated discussions with Cincom Systems to transition the 25-year multifaceted relationship to focus on his new application and services business. Through the first quarter of 2024, Cincom and Georg Heeg eK agreed to discontinue the existing agreement, and several Heeg developers, consultants, and support staff members joined Cincom’s Smalltalk team.
Georg Heeg will continue to develop the Smallty platform with the applications based on this platform and offer training and high-level consulting.
Suzanne Fortman, Smalltalk Operations Director at Cincom, said:
“Having worked closely with the Heeg team for more than 20 years, integrating several members of the development and support staff to Cincom and our Cincom Smalltalk team is a natural fit. The collaboration with the core staff will be even closer and it will benefit the further development of Cincom Smalltalk. Cincom and the Cincom Smalltalk team are delighted to have gained such highly qualified and enthusiastic new colleagues.”
Georg Heeg, owner of Georg Heeg eK and main shareholder of Georg Heeg AG said:
“I founded my company more than 36 years ago to spread Smalltalk in Central Europe. Smalltalk is still the best technology to develop software because Smalltalk software is much easier to understand than other technologies. This step strengthens basic technology. My company will continue to develop our own products and offer services on the market. Our new partnership with Cincom is as a Value Added Reseller to build our applications using Cincom Smalltalk and to partner with Cincom to market our products. Georg and Cincom will also enter into a new consulting services agreement to provide consulting services and training as needed for Cincom’s Smalltalk customers and partners. As a Cincom Smalltalk customer, we will also benefit from the newly expanded development team at Cincom.”