Mertech Data Systems Releases Flex2CrystalTM

Mertech Data Systems, Inc. has released Flex2Crystal, a new tool that lets users of Crystal Reports X1 RDC interface seamlessly adopt newer versions of Crystal Reports with minimal changes to the code. The first release of the product targets Visual DataFlex users; Mertech plans to support other tools in the near future.

In 2006, Business Objects announced it would no longer support the Crystal Report Design Component (RDC) COM interface and instead will move to a .NET-based interface. Visual DataFlex does not support working with .NET and this change left Visual DataFlex developers facing two significant business challenges. First, they couldn’t adopt newer versions of Crystal Reports and second, they would have to invest in redeveloping their reports in another tool.

“Flex2Crystal solves both of these problems in a completely transparent and easy way that doesn’t require changing existing reports or code for embedding these reports,” say Riaz Merchant, CEO of Mertech Data. “Some companies have 500+ reports in their application and redeveloping them in another tool would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Flex2Crystal is a faction of that cost!”

Flex2Crystal is a combination of Visual DataFlex classes and Flex2.NET, a COM to .NET interoperability bridge that lets Visual DataFlex programs utilize .NET components.

Visual DataFlex developers can download a free white paper, “Flex2Crystal: The Future of Crystal Reports for VDF Users.” The paper outlines how Flex2Crystal works and shows a sample migration. Developers can also visit the Mertech Data Website at http://www.mertechdata.com/home/products/flex2crystal.

About Mertech Data Systems, Inc.

Since 1996, Mertech Data Systems, Inc. has developed a growing family of trusted, powerful ISAM to SQL Database drivers for DataFlex and Btrieve transaction engines. Mertech’s plug-in architecture allows companies to switch to Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2, MySQL and PostgreSQL without source level changes. Headquartered in Pembroke Pines, FL and with offices in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Mertech maintains strategic partnerships with Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and MySQL. Over 8,500 companies around the world power their mission critical applications with Mertech’s products. For more information, visit http://www.mertechdata.com.