SparxSystems Central Europe

SparxSystems Central Europe (Sparx CE) is an Austrian SME and consortium member of the ITEA COMPACT project that aims to enable fast and efficient IoT software development by providing novel solutions for the application-specific and customer-oriented realisation of ultra-small IoT nodes. In a nutshell, this is the arena in which SparxCE operates. Peter Lieber’s SME is, in many ways, an example of Austria’s brave new IT world, as both a beneficiary of its government’s commitment to IT and a contributor to the growing impact SMEs are having in this environment.

Tooling for standards

Founded in 2004 as a retail company, Sparx CE originally operated as an independent sister of an Australian company to resell its Enterprise Architect modelling platform in Europe, Peter Lieber explains. “Being a modelling platform – like UML (Unified Modelling Language), MDA (Model-Driven Architecture), and so on – means that it can be expanded – defining a new standard, a new language, a new methodology. We currently provide 60 modelling languages out of the box and our focus is to be standard-oriented by providing support through tools. A standard is a written document governing a specific domain, but it is only helpful with tools. So, it’s this ‘tooling’ that our company provides. A fool with a tool is still a fool, but a genius without a tool is not productive.”

“And since software is everywhere, so are we. We are not bound by domains or sectors. Of course, there are some areas that are more driven than others by standards, like the automation and aviation industries where safety is critical. Which means that modelling the architecture is key. In fact, standardisation and legislation require the modelling of your ecosystem. Whether that’s a car or financial institution, you need to have an abstracted visualisation of the processes and operations of the system that you’re running.”

Modelling and architecture for everyone

“Originally we came in from the software side of things but nowadays we are additionally focused on cyber physical systems and enterprise architecture. The funny thing is that our product was called Enterprise Architect long before it became the term as it is known today. So, I guess we can claim to be a bit of a pioneer. We have over 160 partners and 750,000 users worldwide, and the top 500 companies worldwide have at least one of our licences. We maintain a very competitive pricing model because we believe that modelling or an architecture tool should be available to any user, not only the architects. We want a product with a high degree of functionality and availability in the market, with access to new features, updates, etc.”

“It stands to reason,” says Peter, “that an industry in which safety is vital will have higher priority be for the modelling tools that we supply. But we are also seeing a trend in domains like healthcare and embedded devices whereby modelling is becoming increasingly indispensable. Other branches such as banking and insurance, whose challenges and issues are completely different, are also emerging fast in this respect.”