ERROS - A New Era in Computing from Erros Ltd

From traditional Complexity to new Simplicity

A Paradigm Shift in Computer System Development Methods

Erros Ltd., a British company based near Oxford, has created its unique Application Development Framework, ERROS (Expert Realtime Relational Open System), for IBM Power Systems, running under IBM i. It also runs on earlier IBM i5, iSeries and AS/400 computers. ERROS allows rapid deployment of robust, scaleable, internet enabled, high availability, secure, advanced computing solutions that can be changed on demand.

ERROS is a totally new approach to developing major computing systems and allows development with a speed and ease that is beyond the wildest dreams of even the most experienced system developers.

Creation of a basic hospital system was estimated by experienced developers, using the development method of their choice, to be a 10 man month project. A team of 8 developers working concurrently, with no experience of ERROS, used it to create the same system in just 2 hours (this is not a typing error!). It worked immediately, without any bugs. A single experienced ERROS developer could have completed the task in under two hours. A true paradigm shift!

This extraordinary gain in productivity is possible because of the unique patented ERROS Connectionist Database that uses artificial intelligence techniques and was developed by Erros. ERROS is totally object-oriented but developers do not need to understand the meaning of this.

ERROS is appropriate for any type and size of business. ERROS applications are extremely scaleable and have outstanding performance. It was estimated that the hospital system developed above using ERROS worked at about ten times the speed of a well designed, traditionally built, system.

Developers need to create systems that meet end user requirements within reasonable time and cost scales and without risk. What is more they need to be able to keep these systems up to date in time with the ever evolving world of the end users. The systems must be robust, scaleable, and, for more and more companies, internet enabled and available 24/7. All applications must be totally integrated, sharing an integrated corporate database over which there is real control, with proper security, audit trail, high availability, etc.

ERROS applications have all these features and many more.

Creating a major system for a company or institution can be extremely expensive and has a high risk that it either will not work at all or, that, despite the most careful planning and detailed specifications, it fails to meet user needs and has to be changed, with inevitable time and cost implications.

ERROS development is done incrementally, without detailed database design, and mostly without any new programming. ERROS does not generate code. Users can see at all stages whether a new system is going to meet their needs. It can easily be changed if it does not. Although not necessarily desirable, it possible to change an ERROS application, even including changes to database structures, whilst it is in use and without affecting the response times of users.

These claims may seem extravagant or even unbelievable, but they have been fully verified.

To see how a simple application is created, authorised and tested, click here

ERROS applications, such as the hospital system, are created in two simple steps -

  • The people, companies, products, services, and processes, etc. of your business, and the relationships between them, are defined as a business model, using your own business terminology, in the ERROS Connectionist Database. Detailed physical database design and normalisation of data are not necessary.
  • Applications, with menus and procedures, are then defined in the Connectionist Database (rather than in programs) to control access to those parts of the business model and user data (also stored in the Connectionist Database) appropriate for the required function or process (e.g. sales order entry) and also to control the actions (e.g. read, add, delete, copy, print, etc.) that can be performed by each operator on each part of the user data.

Using ERROS -

  • ERROS has a short learning curve for developers and the applications developed are easy to use.
  • Development is done incrementally, in simple steps, without a detailed written specification.
  • The scaleable applications typically perform 10 times or more faster than traditionally created ones.
  • ERROS automatically generates DHTML, with HTML and Javascript, on the fly, so that ERROS applications work immediately over the Internet.
  • ERROS systems can evolve dynamically, on demand, as the business adapts to the ever changing real-world.
  • ERROS can be be used to create major, very complex, web sites.
  • ERROS can be used to create advanced Internet enabled transaction processing systems.
  • All ERROS applications have very sophisticated security. This can be at the field level.
  • All ERROS applications are high availability allowing remote duplicate databases to be maintained concurrently with the prime system.
  • All ERROS applications created on the same system are automatically integrated, without redundant data.
  • The ERROS multi-dimensional, intelligent, contextual Connectionist Database, possibly the most advanced database in the world, overcomes the functional limitations of relational databases. Hierachical, network and relational structures are totally integrated.
  • The ERROS Audit Trail covers all changes to the data dictionary, to application definitions and to user data.
  • No programs are generated (this is not a "Case" tool), and many complex applications can be developed without the creation of any new programs.
  • An application with, say, 20 entity types, each with a relationship to at least one of the other entity types, can be defined, created, authorised, tested and put into production in under three hours.

Too good to be true?

To look at some ERROS browser rendered screens, download this PDF file.

To learn more about ERROS and to try it, click on one of the links to the left.