(PR.co.nz) “WinGate 7 is an enormous step forwards, with a multitude of ground-breaking features you won’t see in any other internet gateway product.” says Adrien de Croy, founder of Qbik and inventor of WinGate in 1995.
Qbik started work in earnest on a successor to the popular WinGate 6 back in 2006. Various announcements about imminent release of a new product were made but never fulfilled. “We know people have been waiting a very long time for WinGate 7, and we are grateful for their patience, which we hope they feel has been rewarded.” says de Croy “we wanted to do things right, so pretty much everything in WinGate has been re-thought and re-worked. This is a huge amount of work, and testament to the dedication of the team here at Qbik, beta and other testers, and customers who have been so helpful to us.”
Apart from all the changes that are obvious once you open up the new WinGate, there are many behind the scenes. For instance the componentisation of WinGate 7, evident if you look at the modules panel, shows a glimpse of the potential for extension this product now has. Extensions to the product are very tightly integrated. “It’s basically impossible to see where WinGate finishes and an add-on starts, so there’s no need for 3rd party add-on developers to compromise on user experience.” says de Croy.
De Croy says one of the biggest changes with the development of WinGate 7 was a change in attitude at Qbik. ” Early in the restructuring of WinGate 7, we started adopting a different approach toward usability.” he said. “We realised that we hadn’t been particularly kind to customers in terms of usability. Partly this was due to technology, and newer computers made some sorts of changes so much quicker to make that we could go through more iterations at core levels of the product without spending all day sitting around waiting for the compiler.”. This has lead to the appearance of usability features in the management application designed to ease learning, and administrative burden.
Coupled with a cutting-edge user interface framework from CodeJock Software Solutions, customized dashboards with gauges and buttons, active flow-chart for policy, activity timeline and many other new features, WinGate 7 makes a very strong visual impact, and a strong statement on usability design.
“We are all extremely proud of WinGate 7, and very excited for its future.” said Adrien de Croy.
Media Release 14 December 2011.