1. The Chameleon Development Environment The Chameleon™ Development Environment Application delivery using Microsoft Excel®

2. The Chameleon Development Environment Overview What is Chameleon? Why Excel? The trouble with spreadsheets Chameleon - a new approach Capabilities What does it look like? Summary

3. The Chameleon Development Environment What is Chameleon? Trading Technology Australia’s proprietary development toolkit. Allows creation of Excel add-ins, (XLL files) Integrates directly into Excel Allows conversion of spreadsheets to applications Preserves the look and feel of spreadsheets Applications can be created by you or us

4. The Chameleon Development Environment Why Excel? Microsoft Excel is one of the worlds most widely used products because: Flexibility & power Familiarity Ability to read real-time data Close integration with the Microsoft suite Low cost

5. The Chameleon Development Environment The trouble with spreadsheets… While spreadsheets are great – they have a darker side: Application complexity increases as more functionality added Performance decreases as more functionality added Risk of the ‘author’ leaving (rarely documented) Typically maintained by business, not technology (i.e. no support) Low cost to create translates to high cost of ownership in the long run

6. The Chameleon Development Environment A new approach Keep the flexibility and power of Excel Keep the application complexity under control Increase performance Retain rapid development Provide technical support Switch to maintainable and documented methods Free up business people to do business Save costs in the long term

7. The Chameleon Development Environment A new approach (cont.) You get to keep the flexibility and power of Excel because: Chameleon applications run within Excel – you gain new features and keep the old ones Proprietary functionality can be integrated into the add-in or left in the workbook.

8. The Chameleon Development Environment A new approach (cont.) We can maintain high-performance because: We bypass the Excel calculation engine which has been designed to do all possible tasks, not to do one task well. The applications are written using a low-level programming language. Chameleon itself has been designed for performance and extensively profiled. Chameleon uses low-level operating system API calls for communications.

9. The Chameleon Development Environment A new approach (cont.) Rapid application development is still possible because: Chameleon is a high-level application that deals in conceptual concepts There is extensive functionality available within the existing Chameleon toolkit Since 1996, TTA has been delivering applications to trading floors – time to delivery is always a priority

10. The Chameleon Development Environment A new approach (cont.) We can provide technical support and training meaning: Experienced staff are on call Applications are maintained and new features documented Support from business hours right up to 24*7 Frees up business people from support issues

11. The Chameleon Development Environment Capabilities Chameleon offers the following Excel functionality: Virtual ‘forms’ in workbooks Custom dialog boxes Menu functionality Automatic chart creation

12. The Chameleon Development Environment Capabilities (cont.) In addition to Excel-based functionality, Chameleon also offers: An interface into any ODBC database An interface to TCP/IP communication Automatic log files and configuration files An interface to Microsoft COM / OLE Automatic e-mail from applications Date and calendar functionality An interface to the Microsoft Windows API

13. The Chameleon Development Environment What does it look like? A location for each field is specified on the form, from then, we just use the form name to reference it. A virtual, ‘static’ form Useful for input forms, pricing tools etc. Colour coding is used to show input and output fields, and which fields have recently changed The form is treated as a single entity but with individually referenced ‘fields’

14. The Chameleon Development Environment What does it look like? A virtual ‘dynamic’ form Useful for reports from databases, publishing tools, trading tools etc. Columns and rows can come from a database query Can be rigidly controlled, 100% data driven, or anything in between.

15. The Chameleon Development Environment What does it look like? A hybrid form A mix of fixed fields and data-driven fields. Useful for advanced reports with query options, reports with totals, etc. Columns and rows can come from a database query Fixed fields can be used to add query constraints and totals

16. The Chameleon Development Environment In Summary Excel is popular but spreadsheets have disadvantages Chameleon offers a new approach, not spreadsheets but Excel applications All spreadsheet functionality is retained TTA can develop, support and maintain solutions if required