FileMaker is now Called the Claris Platform with Claris Studio

“FileMaker” is no longer. Welcome to the newly renamed Claris Platform.

Technology is one of the major ways that companies differentiate themselves from their competitors, and the new Claris Platform enables that. Claris, an Apple company, was created with a mission to help businesses build, test, and iterate custom software.

At a public webinar Claris announced changes Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 that include major platform updates, evolution of the Claris brand, and their plan to make Claris products more available to the world. This includes a wide range of new technologies, a new licensing program, and partner options to make it even easier to create better business solutions with Claris.

We’ve summarized this news at a recent FileMaker User Group Meeting.

The following Claris employees were active in announcing the changes:

• Gianine Campbell – Marketing Manager, Community Relations
• Brad Freitag – CEO
• Peter Nelson – VP of Engineering
• Andrew LeCates – Director of platform Evangelism
• Giuliano Iacobelli – Director of Product Management
• Julie Sigfrinius – Director of Global Partners
• Eric Fraser – Senior Project Manager, Marketing
• Rosemary Tietge – Community Engagement Manager

The webinar spoke to all the problem solvers in the Claris ecosystem:

• IT
• Staff
• Partners
• Developers
• Owner Operators

Here’s a summary of the Claris announcements from yesterday’s event.

Claris Pro (formerly FileMaker Pro)

First off, FileMaker Pro is being renamed Claris Pro, and the server will be called Claris Server. There will be new releases of Claris Pro/Server to come with the following features…

Version 19.5

• Improved performance and scalability
• Support for Ubuntu 20.04 as well as Ngnix
• Live text and QR code support for iOS/Mac
• Parallel backups
• 400 bug fixes

Version 19.6

• Script transactions
• Sign in with Apple
• User group management for OAuth
• Server scalability to 1,000 concurrent users

Claris Studio

Claris Studio is the name for the new technology scheduled for release in September 2022 that complements and enhances Claris Pro. Here are some of the features:

• User Views called Hubs that are collections of forms that work together to create a workflow. For example, this might include a form for a new purchase request, a master/detail view for approval, and finally a dashboard to see the budget overview.
• The ability to have anonymous (unnamed) users so that the forms can be used to capture and see data by anyone on the internet without a login.
• Dashboards and publishing with FileMaker (Claris Pro) through a single login and shared data pipe.

The Claris Studio developer preview is also coming soon. The first version will be cloud hosted only with a future planned on premise version.

North Stars

North stars are measurements that are predictive of long-term success. They reflect customer value. The following are the key implementation priorities for the new Claris platform enhancements:

• No friction for new adopters – A freemium version of Pro and free access to Studio for a single user.
• One identity across all properties – Central management and support for organizations
• Data available everywhere – Integrated across the platform
• Honor the power of developers today – Don’t break existing deployments

Changes

There will be one license for the entire platform. Today, different Claris products require separate licensing that is both complex and sometimes costly. This will be simplified to provide easier access to all the tools:

• Claris Pro (formerly FileMaker Pro)
• Claris Go (Formerly FileMaker Go)
• Claris Studio (New product and Claris Connect)
• Claris Server

The freemium license allows you to download Claris Pro and build solutions in single user mode. Paid licenses will mark organizations as deployable and includes licenses to Pro, Server, Connect, and optional Cloud as well as the ability to create users with full sharing capabilities. For existing licensed users, everything works as it does today. Access to Claris Studio requires signing up for a Claris Platform subscription.

All tools are free for everyone to use as single users with Claris Pro. This is an unlimited trial that never expires, but doesn’t have the ability to share or deploy in production. Charges will be made only upon deployment with the ability to add users and access all data in Claris Studio and Claris Pro.

The Claris Platform encompasses Claris Pro (formerly FileMaker) and Claris Connect combined to bring power to the problem solvers:

• Data sharing
• Platform extensibility
• Practical innovations
• Trust
• Custom apps
• Powerful scripting
• Future proof
• Open system
• Cloud architecture
• Pro low code

Claris Studio has the following characteristics:

• Web environment
• Manage users and the organization
• One data pipe
• Works with existing tools
• Easy to start
• Fast development
• Assign permissions
• Anonymous consumption
• Flexible
• Modern architecture

The new Claris Studio backend has the following characteristics:

• Born in a WAN (wide area network)
• Efficient multi-tenant
• Open
• Modern
• Fast
• Runs in cloud and on-prem
• NoSQL native
• ESS+ is used to share data between Claris Pro and Claris Studio.

Since Claris Pro and Claris Go are now available to everyone even without a license, the distribution of Claris products will be made available through the Apple App store as well as download from the Claris website.

Claris Problem Solvers Circle

Continuous improvement and workplace innovation are most successful when businesses have a technology partner driving the approach.

Claris Problem Solvers Circle is a new program for companies who want to grow their technology usage and provide value using the entire suite of Claris tools over the next two years at a 30% increase from their current licensing costs. It’s limited to 500 companies who will work with a Claris Partner directly to move their solution forward quickly.

Conclusion

FileMaker was the only product… then they added Claris Connect. Now the combined and enhanced Claris Platform is where the value, growth, and innovation will start to lead.

One of the favorite answers that was given during the Q&A that followed the presentation was given by VP of Engineering Peter Nelson. His response to a great question was: “We will solve that.” Identifying problems as solvable and making it happen in an iterative approach is a key to success for the future of Claris.

We see this new plan as one that will grow the Claris platform significantly over the next two years by allowing new users to discover the power of the toolset easily and become champions in their businesses.

The tools that we depend upon today will remain and evolve while giving us access to other options like Claris Connect and Claris Studio to expand our options.

If you’re looking for more information about any of these new announcements we can provide details. Just connect…