Rocket Business Connect (RBC): Simplifying MultiValue Product Management

Rocket Business Connect (RBC) is an online administrative system designed to assist existing MultiValue partners and customers in acquiring new products and managing their existing licensed products. This MultiValue app offers a range of functionalities to streamline product management, including:

• Upgrading orders and downloading new licenses
• Requesting information on monthly license reports
• Modifying existing license configurations or adding additional seats
• Reviewing and finalizing upcoming maintenance renewals
• Downloading invoices, querying data, resending email confirmations, and more

A Brief History

The development of the MultiValue app began in 2002 and was rolled out over the following year to MultiValue partners and customers. It has since provided self-service capabilities while evolving to meet the needs of the MultiValue software business.

Modernization Without Disruption and Integration Specifics

RBC runs on Rocket UniData, leveraging the power of the Rocket MultiValue Integration Server (MVIS), SystemBuilder and U2 Web DE. This self-service application is user-friendly, eliminating the need for partners and customers to remember part numbers. It handles the complex business rules associated with a software business involving partners, partner end users, and direct end users. The MultiValue data structure (UniData) provides partners and customers with access to a complete history of their licenses and maintenance.

“For development, we use MV BASIC for VS.Code and the Basic Developer Toolkit, an extensible admin tool for UniData. MVIS allows us to leverage existing code which allows us to greatly reduce development time for REST services ” says Mark Sapp, Rocket Software Senior Application Developer. “We use MVIS quite a bit for our data integrations to other systems. For example, RBC does the Order-to-PO and then sends the data to our ERP system to invoice the customer. We also integrate data with Salesforce and several data repositories that power dashboards, used by corporate management.”

Mark continues, “On the corporate IT side, we are using an Extract, Transfer, and Load (ETL) software, Boomi, to call and consume our RESTful services created by MVIS.”

Key Achievements and Updates

• RBC supports a multi-million-dollar business with a team of only three people, highlighting UniData's ease of administration and low operating costs.
• In 2015, following the acquisition of D3 and mvBASE from Tiger Logic, we integrated data regarding these partners, customers, and their licenses and maintenance information into RBC.
• In 2017, the Upgrade Resources section was introduced, featuring the "It’s Time to Upgrade" box with information on features/benefits by major release, release schedules, product lifecycle announcements, and more.
• Following the acquisition of products from Zumasys in 2021, we integrated data regarding these partners, customers, and their licenses and maintenance information into RBC.

Future Plans

Currently, RBC is transitioning to the AWS Cloud to ensure 24/7 access for customers worldwide. This move will minimize downtime and ensure quick recovery from any issues, enhancing the overall user experience.

Rocket Business Connect continues to evolve, providing valuable tools and resources to MultiValue partners and customers, driving efficiency and ease of use in managing licensed products.

For more information on RBC, from ordering non chargeable products to upgrading, take a look at our handy “How To” documents.