Dominique Goupil joined FileMaker Corporation (then Claris) in 1994, becoming president of the company in 1997. He has brought FileMaker into the forefront of the Apple software world making it a successful Apple subsidiary.
On the 20th of May 2002, A.P.P.L.E. had the pleasure of sitting down with Dominique Goupil, the president of FileMaker Corporation and talking with him about the company. Dominique has been the driving force behind the incredible rise in stature the company has enjoyed over the last several years.
With a background in business and Aerospace, Dominique brings his European upbringing with the Asian perspectives to FileMaker.
A.P.P.L.E.: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. To start things off, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background and why you choose the field you did?
Dominique: Well, the first thing you might hear in the name is that I am originally from France. I got a degree in France and then attended school here in the Bay area. At this point I have been in the U.S. for well over 20 years.
My father was a test pilot for the French Navy and this influenced my pursuit of the Aerospace industry. While this was my initial interest, my interests turned to business and I have been in other businesses prior to coming to Claris.
A.P.P.L.E. How did you happen to get involved in the computer industry?
Dominique: I got my start primarily on the hardware side. I was working with Radius, which was already in the Macintosh market. It was my desire to learn more about the software side of the industry and Claris was the premier company in the software business at the time.
“The purpose of FileMaker is to meet the needs of “Knowledge Workers.” This can be done even when the IT department’s people are too busy to help out a user. “
Dominique Goupil on Knowledge Workers
I was working in Japan with Radius and continued working in Japan at the time that I joined Claris. I was first hired as the vice-president of Asia Pacific. In 1997, I became the president of FileMaker Corporation
A.P.P.L.E.: How did the change at Claris turn into what has become FileMaker Corporation?
Dominique: When I came to Claris, we had several packages including AppleWorks, ClarisWorks and FileMaker. When we evaluated the packages to decide which direction to take the company, we found that FileMaker was a package that we could build the company around. Where ClarisWorks primary focus was education, the focus for FileMaker has been workgroups, from entire small businesses to departments and teams within corporations, and within education and government institutions.
A.P.P.L.E.: Your work with the mobile platforms has figured prominently into the packages lately. Can you explain a bit more about this?
Dominique: The purpose of FileMaker is to meet the needs of “Knowledge Workers.” This can be done even when the IT department’s people are too busy to help out a user. While we are doing this, we also wanted to make people’s data more portable and accessible from anywhere.
Our work with the Palm and NTT Docomo in the Japan market has helped us to realize this goal. While there are many PDA platforms, we are making the data available to the two main PDA platforms, Palm OS and PocketPC, as well as to the Smart Phone platform as in the case of Japan. We definitely would like to make user’s data available on many platforms but our focus is currently NTT due to the fact that this alone is 30-million units.
A.P.P.L.E.: Will you be developing a platform for other PDA’s such as the Pocket PC?
Dominique: We have announced plans for a new package for the Pocket PC and will be pursuing this further in the coming months.
A.P.P.L.E.: How does the Internet figure into your product focus?
Dominique: In the old days, when people wanted to share data, they would have to go over to the printer to retrieve an output of the data. Our goal is to reduce the obstacles to data sharing and to make it accessible to all users that need access to it. One of the features that is now incorporated into all of our software packages is the FileMaker Web Server which although it is not intended to be a corporate file server, it is sufficient to allow for the publishing of workgroup data.
We have attempted to first reduce the complexity of the software while making the data accessible.
A.P.P.L.E.: What kind of problems has OS X presented and how have you handled them?
Dominique: All of our packages run on the OS X platform. In some instances our software performs certain tasks better on OS X and in some cases only on OS X. For example, you can store PDF documents in a container file. This feature is not available on the other platforms.
A.P.P.L.E.: With the introduction of Xserve, how do you see your position in the corporate world?
Dominique: Workgroups in many large corporations today use FileMaker software. NASA uses the software for controlling the maintenance tasks associated with the Space Shuttle. United uses FileMaker as do Volvo. These companies primarily use the software for functions that are not mission critical.
What FileMaker does for these companies is that it allows them to cut costs and cut development time due to the fact that any of their staff can use FileMaker to rapidly develop solutions.
FileMaker is not intended to go head to head with the enterprise solutions such as Oracle or Sybase. It is intended more for the one to 200 user environment, which needs to have a viable database solution.
“What I wouldn’t give to be able to see into the future and know exactly what was going to happen. However, in sight of the fact that we can’t see, what we will continue to do is to look for the opportunities presented by the market and to pursue them. “
Dominique Goupil on the opportunities the current market presents
A.P.P.L.E.: What goals have you set for the upcoming FileMaker Developers conference?
Dominique: We have had these conferences every year for the past six years now. While many companies appreciate not having to hire a specialist to program in FileMaker, they do however appreciate being able to have access to solutions produced by professional FileMaker developers and other third party programmers.
In order to fulfill the need by these programmers for more advanced information about the product; we conduct the FileMaker Developer’s Conference. In 2001, we had over 1300 people attend the conference.
In the conference, we cover topics such as high-end integration, XML, Web integration, SQL, and other solutions associated with the product.
To give a better perspective of what this is about, last year we shipped 1.2 million packages of our product. At the same time, we shipped over 40,000 units of the developer version of FileMaker. This makes it one of the most important aspects of our business.
A.P.P.L.E.: What do you see as the opportunities presented by OS X and Unix based environment?
Dominique: You will have to ask our colleagues over at Apple Computer, Inc. about the server itself. However, we think the Unix environment definitely allows our users to have a very powerful tool that can be used in the scientific community among others. FileMaker also allows them to develop their data solutions easily while maintaining the ease of sharing data and portability. This gives these scientists and other high-end users a tool that they can count on.
A.P.P.L.E.: What do you see as being the most important development in the coming years?
Dominique: What I wouldn’t give to be able to see into the future and know exactly what was going to happen. However, in sight of the fact that we can’t see, what we will continue to do is to look for the opportunities presented by the market and to pursue them. This includes reducing complexity of tasks that need to be performed as well as concentrating on areas such as instant web publishing. We intend to provide the user a productive and creative experience consistent across all of our products.
A.P.P.L.E.: You have now been running the corporation for 5 years. What have you set as your goals for the coming 5 years?
Dominique: We have definitely had a good run over the past 5 years turning the company into a very valuable, successful one. Our pursuit of ease of use has been at the forefront of this effort while continuing to give the users the increasing power and connectivity they need.
In the coming 5 years, we would definitely be looking at the continued growth and profitability of the corporation. While doing this, we want to reduce the learning required by the end user to accomplish their missions. This is foremost on our minds anytime we roll out a new product.
A.P.P.L.E.: Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule for this interview.
Dominique: Our pleasure. We appreciate the opportunity to speak to you about the company and the products.
Company Information
Filemaker
5201 Patrick Henry Drive
Santa Clara, Ca. 95054
Tel: (408) 987-7000
Web: www.filemaker.com
