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The most distinguishing feature of the database software FileMaker is its user-friendliness, according to Steve McManus, FileMaker's general manager for Asia-Pacific.

Oracle might be big among enterprises and Microsoft's Access might come bundled with Microsoft's Office suite, but no database allowed the user as much ease of control as FileMaker, he said.

'The essence of FileMaker has not changed since 1992. What motivates people to do things is that they sense they are 'getting somewhere'. FileMaker makes you think you are getting somewhere.'

Computers might be confusing and sometimes downright frustrating, but FileMaker was relatively easy on the nerves, he said.

'FileMaker was designed from the ground up to be user friendly.'

FileMaker, as an application, was created in 1992 by Claris, a subsidiary of Apple. FileMaker has since become a company unto itself and remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.

Mr McManus was one of the first to see the original program.

'In 1992, I was called in to the Claris office in Sydney because of my project manager experience. They gave me a look at FileMaker and I immediately saw its potential.

'I said: You guys are going to make a killing. So I joined the company and have been there ever since,' he said.

To back up FileMaker's case for ease of use, Mr McManus described retrieving data from a database.

'In FileMaker there is a Find command that people easily understand. In other database systems, there is Query. Who knows what that means? Most customers are business people who know their business but are less familiar with the arcane language of a database.'

Companies such as Oracle were trying to bring their products 'down to the desktop', he said, but that was arduous.

'Engineering something like Oracle or any other big database to come down to the desktop is really difficult. It is, in fact, far easier for us to scale upwards than it is for them to try to scale downwards,' he said.

FileMaker was targeted at what Mr McManus called those who dealt in knowledge, not technology.

'Our target market is knowledge workers or subject-matter experts. They understand the little bits of data they need, but they are not IT experts.'

FileMaker had even been used in life-or-death situations, he said.

'In Australia, we have doctors in Sydney controlling a transplant database with FileMaker,' Mr McManus said.

The company has developed a server version of the database for Linux but not yet for any other forms of Unix.

'We have a FileMaker version for Linux on the server, but not the client. There is not a lot of Linux on the desktop,' he said.

Unfortunately, there is no Chinese version. Mr McManus was unable to comment on whether FileMaker would release a Chinese version because company policy prohibited employees from discussing products other than those already available.

In fact, a Chinese version was released in Taiwan a few years ago but it was discontinued. A Japanese version still exists, so the ability to display Asian languages is not the issue.

A plausible reason for not releasing a Chinese version is the likelihood of piracy, but Mr McManus declined comment.

Version 6, the latest FileMaker program, supports Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS 9 and OS X, and Linux.



FileMaker success built on easy control