25 years ViCon – ViCon grows up ...

A quarter of a century is long, but goes by amazingly fast. In December, ViCon celebrates its anniversary and at this point we would like to look back on "25 years of ViCon" with a five-part series.

In the third part we illuminate the "middle" years from 2009–2013:

25 years ViCon – ViCon grows up ...

Our ViCon with its 10 years was not really young anymore and slowly we all approached adulthood together.

Admittedly, we were proud of ViFlow, which had become a well-established name in the industry. It grew, prospered and had conquered a considerable market share – so it should continue and we programmed diligently. Thanks to the support of customers and partners, who kept us on course with praise and criticism, ViFlow was carefully developed further – evolution instead of revolution was the motto.

In 2010, ViFlow 4.5 was released, which, in retrospect, would have deserved not half a number, but a whole number. Perhaps someone still remembers the operation and program interface?

Whereas it was previously only possible to display either graphics or properties, in ViFlow 4.5 the latter could be edited while the graphics were open. Freely after Neill A.: A (not so) small step for us but a big leap for the users.

In 2012, towards the end of today's time window, ViFlow 5, a completely improved version, saw the light of day.

Something else from the history and for the fans of long names:

The WebModel Search Connector appeared in 2012 and enabled full-text search in WebModel.

The same year also saw the start of the ViFlow in Dialog series, a regional meeting of users and partners where a lively and constructive exchange takes place around process management and ViFlow.

Three years before, in 2009, our channel viflow.tv was launched and is therefore much older than we ourselves would have thought.

ViCon on the big stage

And what else was there? Twice in our "middle years" we made it to the Niedersachsenstadion in Hannover, the venue of the still first-class local sports club at that time.

A small tour, the ViFlow Roadshow, took us there in 2011. Not to the big oval in front of fifty thousand cheering spectators, but to a well-attended event about ViFlow in the hallowed halls of the stadium, where there were many satisfied faces.

This was not the case one and a half years earlier, when we visited the stadium for the first time. The idea to start the Christmas party with a visit to a soccer match was not the best in the company's history.

For more than two hours there was a lot of shivering – not because of the game, which was lost, of course – but more because of the weather situation, which gave us the coldest December day in modern times with minus 18 degrees. The good thing was that the cold drinks didn't spill. Warm drinks? Sold out even before kickoff. So many of us were in the stadium twice that day, for the first and last time.

It was exciting, it remained exciting and so it went on.

In the next part, we'll visit the drama school and re-dress. Stay tuned …

(to be continued)