.NET Developer's Journal Editor-in-Chief Derek Ferguson caught up with Dean Guida, CEO of Infragistics. In this exclusive interview, Guida talks about how Infragistics adds value to Microsoft products, competition with offshore ISVs, and the importance of the user experience.

.NETDJ: What does Infragistics do?
DG: Infragistics is the market leader in providing a broad range of presentation layer development tools and services for building applications utilizing Microsoft .NET, COM, and Java environments. Infragistics' flagship product is NetAdvantage 2004, a complete toolset for developing commercial-quality user interfaces for all Microsoft environments.

.NETDJ: Having recently exhibited at Tech Ed 2004, what was your take on the event?
DG: It was an exciting conference for Infragistics. Microsoft announced the launch of Visual Studio 2005 Team System, an extensible lifecycle tools platform that was designed to improve collaboration across software teams. The announcement of this release came at the same time that the findings of Industry thought leaders from Gartner, Microsoft and Infragistics were published. These findings addressed the increasing importance of presentation layer development in an enterprise organization.

According to Mark Driver, Vice President at Gartner, Presentation Layer Development takes up anywhere from 25-40% of development time throughout the application development life cycle and because of this, presentation layer development should be a tier 1 strategy. Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Team System can assist an enterprise in creating this strategy as they do .NET development projects across their organization.

.NETDJ: How will you be adding value to Whidbey?
DG: Our early test with the alpha versions of Whidbey show that our current Windows Forms and ASP.NET UI elements work today with Whidbey. As the betas hit the market we will be releasing in Whidbey only bits that take advantage of smart tags for better design- time experience in Visual Studio, increase performance in our ASP.NET elements using the new out-of-band technology and we will be building new UI elements to continue to empower our customers with the latest UI elements and Microsoft style look and feel.

.NETDJ: How will you be adding value to Longhorn?
DG: Infragistics mission and focus is to power the presentation layer. We will continue this with Avalon/ Longhorn in a number of ways. One design goal our team has is to bring our existing Windows Forms developers to Avalon as smoothly as possible. There are some really neat things our architects and graphic designers can create for the presentation layer for Longhorn that we are planning now. We see ourselves continuing to provide the rich functionality and fidelity in reusable presentation elements for this new exciting UI layer. In addition, we see new areas for us to innovate using the new composite UI creation capabilities of Avalon to provide a set of granular UI elements to construct compelling user interfaces. We are also excited by the new market opportunities that the new markup language XAML will create, by enabling a broader set of developers to build cool UI interfaces using our Avalon UI elements.

.NETDJ: How long has your company been in business? What is its history?
DG: Infragistics was formed in November 2000 as the result of the merger between two of the industry's leading component publishers, Sheridan Software and ProtoView Development. As early adaptors of Microsoft's .NET environments, the two companies recognized the impending need for Windows Forms and ASP.NET development tools and fused with the common vision to build a best of breed toolset of presentation layer tools for all Microsoft environments.

.NETDJ: Today, why should developers buy UI elements rather than building their own?
DG: Designing user-friendly applications is always a challenge. Today, more and more developers need to concentrate on the business logic needed in each application. Presentation-layer development tools allow them to do just that. With a toolset purchased from an independent tools publisher, developers can easily and effectively deliver their end users robust capabilities and performance with the Microsoft Windows or Office style to which they have grown accustomed.

In addition, you can labor for weeks or months on highly sophisticated code, which handles all the important processing of your application. But if the user interface that interacts with that code is not accepted, or it is deemed difficult to use, then it will all be for nothing. Put simply, a good user interface is one that users do not reject. When a development team or organization standardizes on a set of commercial class development tools they will be able to reduce R&D costs while delivering a consistent user friendly UI across all of their applications.

.NETDJ: How do you plan to compete with cheaper, offshore ISVs?
DG: This may be a threat to us, considering they will have a lower R&D and G&A expense structure. I believe it is a three-point strategy.

1. Continue to look for ways to lower our cost structure.
2. Increase and maintain our subscriber base by over-delivering value and service at an affordable price point.
3. Continue to lead the market in producing high fidelity commercial class UI elements.

.NETDJ: Who else of note do you have working for Infragistics?
DG: Derek, I am pleased to say that Infragistics has one of the most talented .NET development teams in the world. The Infragistics teams are led by Joe Dour, industry veteran and co-founder of Sheridan Software, and Brad McCabe, who in addition to holding the title of director of development at Infragistics, is also our chief technology evangelist. His day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing product development and managing Infragistics' rapidly expanding Evangelism Division.

Most recently, we were pleased to announce that Jason Beres is the newest member of our evangelism team. Jason was previously a .NET architect and .NET evangelist for Computer Ways, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. In addition, he is currently a member of the INETA Speaker's Bureau. Jason will be responsible for managing Infragistics' DevCenter, devcenter.infragistics.com, a comprehensive online resource for developers "Powering the Presentation Layer," as well as authoring .NET technology articles and delivering Infragistics' .NET technology demonstrations worldwide.

.NETDJ: Why have you launched your new DevCenter initiative?
DG: DevCenter was launched as a way to empower the developer community. We realize that while developers need great tools, they also need resources that enable them to be more productive. DevCenter features articles from leading industry publishers such as .NET Developer's Journal; numerous tutorials and how-tos, which provide Windows Forms and ASP.NET code samples and step-by-step lessons on how to develop a more sophisticated user interface; easy access to downloads, hot fixes, user manuals and ASP.NET and Windows Forms reference applications that provide developers with insight on how to write commercial class applications using Microsoft technologies and user interface elements from NetAdvantage. As a market leader we feel it is important to continue to support the developer community through initiatives outside of product development.

.NETDJ: Who is the target audience for your DevCenter? What level of expertise? What platform(s)?
DG: The target audience for DevCenter is any level of .NET developer who is looking to improve their presentation layer development skills. The value of DevCenter is that it offers focused resources for presentation-layer development in one easy-to-search site. Developers can come to DevCenter at their own leisure and research the vast array of different productivity and learning tools located on the site and move at a speed that they determine is comfortable for them. For those who learn more quickly, the site is constantly growing with new articles, how-tos, code samples and other valuable resources.

.NETDJ: When do you think .NET adoption will really begin to take off?
DG: It is really taking off now!

.NETDJ: Why should developers purchase UI development tools rather than using the ones "in the box" with VS.NET?
DG: End users are more educated than ever, and expect more from the applications that you develop. Users not only expect robust capabilities, but they also expect robust performance and a slick and friendly user interface design. Though Visual Studio .NET gives you more user interface controls than any previous Microsoft development environment, there are many times where the controls in the box fall short. In these cases, you will need to start thinking outside of the box to get the user interface that you are after to satisfy the needs of your end users.

.NETDJ: What is NetAdvantage?
DG: Infragistics' NetAdvantage 2004 is the ultimate presentation layer toolset available for Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Tablet PC, and COM. Infragistics NetAdvantage 2004 is comprised of all major interface elements including grids, scheduling, charting, toolbars, menus, listbars, trees, tabs, explorer bars, UI and editors. NetAdvantage 2004 Volume 2, which just released on June 14, 2004, now features new designers and style presets across all ASP.NET elements; MSDN-style help through HelpCenter; new features in WebTab, WebGrid, WebCombo, WinSchedule and WinGrid; and three new elements: WinDataSource, WinGridBagLayout, and WinFlowLayout.

.NETDJ: Why such an interest in Tablet functionality?
DG: Ink is such a natural way to take notes and annotate daily documents we use in business. When you combine that with lightweight convertible laptop (laptop and Tablet) and Wi-Fi for mobile wireless connectivity, the productivity gains are enormous.

Last October we released Net-Advantage 2003 Vol 3, in which we ink enabled our Presentation Layer Framework. This was a big win for our customers, as they only have to drop an ink provider control on their forms and their applications can take ink as input. That is a huge benefit of using reusable UI elements from Infragistics. We are seeing our customers in the financial, insurance, and medical industry deploying Tablet PCs with ink enabled applications.

.NETDJ: What unique issues and opportunities do you see as one of the few vendors to support both J2EE and .NET?
DG: An enterprise can standardize on our UI development tools for .NET and J2EE and leverage a single point of contact, purchasing power, and learning with our consistent API strategy. It also enables a consistent look and feel across platforms.

.NETDJ: Where do you see Infragistics five years from now?
DG: A company that has a culture of continued learning, is intellectually stimulating, and is an open and honest company that attracts and retains over achievers. We will still be powering the presentation layer, but for Avalon/ Longhorn.

Infragistics has and will continue to define the market space with its leading technology initiatives and dedicated support and sales teams. Through this dedication Infragistics will continue to assist enterprises in meeting the challenges which are most important to them - reducing the time and cost involved with rolling out new applications while providing development teams with the tools to ensure that end users encounter a familiar, easy-to-use interface - whatever the application, whatever the platform, and whatever the direction of the next wind of technological change.

.NETDJ: When should an organization focus on having a first-rate user interface? Mission-critical apps? Customer-facing apps? All the time?
DG: All the time!!! The effort to have a really compelling user interface using NetAdvantage UI elements is minimal. It is what most users will first judge your work by and it will increase user acceptance of your software.

.NETDJ: How are your products licensed and priced?
DG: Infragistics NetAdvantage is licensed on a per developer basis. NetAdvantage 2004 Vol.2 has an introductory manufacturer's suggested retail price of $495, the NetAdvantage 2004 Vol. 2 with Subscription has an MSRP of $695, and the NetAdvantage 2004 Vol.2 with Subscription and Priority Support has an MSRP of $995. The subscription includes all updates, upgrades, Infragistics .NET source code, and all new elements added to NetAdvantage 2004 for one year. The Subscription and Priority Support edition includes products, source code, and annual subscription as well as guaranteed response priority support for one year.

Infragistics also offers an Enterprise License Program for corporations looking to standardize on a presentation layer toolset. This program allows businesses purchasing 25 seats or more to realize the benefits of a corporate buy, such as volume-based discounts, priority tech support, and participation in beta programs, on-site training, and much more.

.NETDJ: What is your #1 piece of advice to folks starting .NET-based software companies today?
DG: Understand the market size and realistic revenue you can win with your product offering based on the resources you have to bring it to the market. Remember a great product will get you into the game, but consistent execution in all aspects of the business will make you first survive, and then grow.