Technology

PFXplus & POWERflex Migration
for businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

PFXplus is a DataFlex-compatible 4GL built in Australia by POWERflex Corporation. We have worked on a production system running release 2.50, dated October 1993. If you are running one, you are probably the only person you know who is.

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  • Independent No licence commission, no reseller agenda
  • 18+ yrs Building business software
  • Fixed Price scopes, no surprises
  • AU NZ UK US Perth-based, working remotely
Where we fit

A 1993 release, still running a business today

PFXplus came out of POWERflex Corporation as a DataFlex-compatible development system, and it was a sensible choice for Australian business software in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Programs compile to .PTC files, includes carry .PFI and .PFE extensions, and the data sits in DataFlex-format .DAT files with field names in a paired .TAG file and indexes numbered .K1 through .K9. Btrieve was available as an alternative data engine.

These systems tend to run stock control, order entry and job costing for manufacturers and distributors. They were written by one person who understood the business completely, and they have run for thirty years. Nothing forces a decision until that person retires or the DOS environment finally will not start.

How it runs

Your PFXplus project, end to end

Three stages. Scoped and fixed-price before anything starts, delivered by the founder, and your existing system stays running until cutover.

  1. Week 0

    Read the system as it is

    We go through the existing application and record what it actually does, including the parts nobody documented. You get a written inventory and a fixed price before any build starts.

  2. Weeks 1-N

    Rebuild and run in parallel

    The replacement runs beside the original until the numbers reconcile. The old system stays untouched and switched on the whole time.

  3. Cutover

    Go live and hand over

    Cutover on a date you choose, then thirty days of support. Source code, documentation and credentials are handed to you, in your name.

Founder profile

Kasun Wijayamanna

Founder · Perth, WA · Started HELLO PEOPLE in 2008

18+ Years running HELLO PEOPLE

Founded in 2008. Two decades of technology-driven business transformation across Australia.

100+ Projects delivered

Startups to government agencies across mining, healthcare, legal, education and more.

HDR Researcher · Curtin University

Postgraduate research in Artificial Intelligence and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

MBA Oil & Gas

Deep technical expertise combined with strong business and financial acumen.

Perth Based in WA

Serving businesses across Western Australia and nationally.

AU+TH International experience

Professional background in Bangkok, Thailand before migrating to Perth.

PHF Paul Harris Fellow · Rotary

Former President of Rotary Club of Booragoon. Over a decade of community service.

Read the full bio, research, career, community involvement and how HELLO PEOPLE runs projects.

See full founder page

What the work actually is

The data structure is documented, so the extraction is solvable

The DataFlex-compatible file format is the reason this is tractable. The .FD definitions describe the records, the .TAG files carry the field names, and the .DAT files hold the data. We extract and reconcile that first, then deal with the application.

What you have now

  • .PTC compiled programs
  • .DAT data with .TAG and .K1-.K9 indexes
  • .FD file definitions and .PFI includes
  • A DOS or OS/2 environment under emulation
What we build

The data structure is documented, so the extraction is solvable

The DataFlex-compatible file format is the reason this is tractable. The .FD definitions describe the records, the .TAG files carry the field names, and the .DAT files hold the data. We extract and reconcile that first, then deal with the application.

See how a project runs

What you end up with

  • Every .DAT file extracted and reconciled into SQL Server or PostgreSQL
  • The business rules documented from the source, in writing, for the first time
  • A web application your staff recognise, or a clean database to build on
What we do

The 5 pieces of PFXplus work we are asked for

Most engagements are some combination of these, and most start with the first.

  1. Read the file definitions

    The .FD definitions and .TAG files describe every record and field name, which makes a complete, verifiable extraction possible rather than a guess at the layout.

  2. Extract and reconcile the data

    Every .DAT file read with its .K1 to .K9 indexes, then row counts and control totals matched against the original before anything is trusted.

  3. Recover the business rules

    From the source where it survived, and from the compiled .PTC programs and your long-serving staff where it did not.

  4. Rebuild the application

    A web application that follows the same workflow and the same key sequences, because the people who have used this for twenty years are very fast on it.

  5. Retire the DOS environment

    Once the replacement reconciles, the emulator or virtual machine that everyone has been afraid to restart can finally be switched off.

Where you are now

It works, and nobody will touch it

  • A 1993 release with no vendor support and no upgrade path
  • Runs under DOS or OS/2 emulation on a machine nobody restarts
  • One person understands it, and retirement is the real deadline
  • Every firm you have approached has never heard of PFXplus

After

Supported, documented and yours

  • Data in a current database, backed up and reportable with normal tools
  • Business rules written down instead of held in one person’s memory
  • An application that runs in a browser on current hardware
  • A readable archive of thirty years of records

Scoped and quoted before you commit. You own the code, the documentation and the credentials at the end of it.

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Common questions

PFXplus questions

Nobody has heard of PFXplus. Have you actually seen it?

Yes. We have worked on a production PFXplus system, including the .PTC programs, the .PFI includes and the DataFlex-format data files. That is the whole reason this page exists rather than a generic legacy page.

Is PFXplus the same as DataFlex?

They are separate products that share a file format. PFXplus was built to be DataFlex-compatible, so the .DAT, .TAG and .K1 to .K9 data structures are the same family. That compatibility is what makes the data extraction well understood.

We only have the compiled programs, not the source. Can the data still come out?

Yes. The data extraction depends on the .FD definitions and the .TAG field names, not on the program source. Losing the source makes rebuilding the logic harder, it does not block getting the records out.

It only runs under DOS emulation. Is that a problem?

It is the normal situation and a good reason to start now. We work from a copy of the data files, so we do not need to keep that environment alive to do the extraction.

Could we keep it running instead?

For a while, yes, and we will say so if that is the sensible answer this year. The risk is not that the software fails, it is that the one person who understands it stops being available and the choice gets made for you.

Tell us what you are running

What the system does, roughly how old it is, and what is forcing the question. We will come back with a straight answer and a fixed-price scope, even if the answer is to leave it alone.

Prefer a quick chat? Call 0425 531 127. We answer the phone in Perth.