- JAC, developers of jBASE, are undergoing a name change. With effect
from 1st May 1998, the company will be known as jBASE Software Limited. Address,
telephone and fax numbers remain unchanged, but their website can now be found
at http://www.jbase.co.uk.
- The theme of Pick Systems International VAR Conference, held in Costa
Mesa, California in March, was "Come Home to Pick". Ted Ellison,
vice president of marketing, stressed Pick Systems' commitment to the success
of its VARs and to working with them to "bridge the gap"between
open systems client/server and legacy applications.
Ellison told the VARs: "Your biggest asset is your knowledge of your
vertical markets. Pick Systems' greatest asset is you, our VARs." The
Coming Home theme continues in the UK with VARs Beauchamp, Delta Computing,
Ramdata, and Pace all recently signing as D3 VARs.
- MDIS Group Plc has reported net profits for the year to December
31 1997 up £322,000 from losses last time of £49.2m on revenue
that fell 3.1% to £113.4m. An overall profit before interest of £1.3m
was achieved in 1997.
Ian Hay Davison, MDIS' Chairman, said: "These 1997 results indicate
that the turnaround is under way and the Board expects that further progress
can be achieved in 1998."
- Pick Systems introduces FlashConnect. FlashConnect enables application
developers familiar with Pick Systems' FlashBASIC programming language to
quickly and easily build dynamic database-driven Web sites and Web-enabled
Intranet databases without extensive modification to existing applications.
Electronic commerce and e-business are increasingly essential sales tools
and the incorporation of FlashConnect into D3 provides VARs with
the tools to add these and other capabilities to their existing applications.
- General Automation has partnered with JES & Associates
to offer customised training services to GA's VARs and their customers. The
agreement combines the growing customer base of GA with the strength of JES,
a recognised leader in providing targeted MultiValue education.
- Ardent Software, product of the union between Vmark, Unidata and
O2, has unveiled its strategy for the future and revealed that
it plans to target the object database and data warehousing markets. Currently
the Universe and Unidata RDBMS account for around 70% of the company's revenues,
but Ardent expects this to fall to 60% by next year and just above 50% the
year after.
Ardent is poised to sign a number of new contracts in the near future,
but has already concluded separate deals with Sybase Inc and DEC, who will
both sell the DataStage data warehousing product as their own.
- Exel Logistics has invested £100,000 in a new vehicle workshop and
parts management system for its car processing business, based on the rapid
application development tool PRO-IV. Exel Logistics is a long-time
PRO-IV user, having begun with version 1.5 in the late 1980s.
- The success of D3 has meant an increase in revenue of 34% for
Pick Systems during 1997. Their VARs are reaping the benefits of that
success.
Sanderson Cotswold customer Hill House Hammond has added another 200 D3
200 users to bring it up to a 2000+ seat operation. Ramdata has successfully
migrated its 70 user customer Central Autos from Unidata on AIX to D3
on AIX and Data Matters have taken their customer Helphire (a rapidly
expanding contract hire company with 200 users operating over a WAN) from
AP via D3SCO to D3 on NT without even a recompilation.
- Flintshire County Council, or in Welsh Cynor Sir y Fflint, have migrated
their 160-user MDIS Reality-based applications to jBASE on AIX.
- Sanderson has secured £3m in new software and services orders
from local government, including an investment of £447,000 from North
Lanarkshire Council in a 150-user integrated council tax and benefits system.
Recently-formed Moray Council is investing £182,000 in Sanderson's integrated
local government management software, and Purbeck District Council has placed
an order valued at £240,000 for council tax, benefits, rents and debtors
systems. London Borough of Redbridge has also awarded Sanderson the tender
for PC supply and installation, a deal expected to be worth £2m over
five years.
- In the USA, jBASE VAR Columbia Ultimate Business Systems (CUBS)
has recently secured a 2,000-user NT installation due to roll out in May 1998.
This should interest the NT-watchers out there who feel NT is only suitable
for 50-user sites!
- Liberty Integration Software has announced its latest advancement
in the quest for full integration of desktop tools with operational databases.
Liberty Administrator/32, with the Liberty Mapping Wizard, enhances mapping
MultiValue data structures to ODBC with convenience, performance and a Windows-consistent
interface.
The re-engineered client and server components deliver stunning performance,
and the whole utility radically reduces the resources, time and cost required
to publish databases for use in data warehousing and decision support applications.
- Wolsey plc, long-time British clothing manufacturer and supplier
to the Royal household, has migrated its Reality applications to a jBASE NT
server. Wolsey's migration will be featured as a case study in the next issue
of MultiValue News.
- Sanderson has secured another PICS sale to the aerospace industry:
Cheltenham-based Douglas Schopf, leading manufacturer of airline tractors
for towing aeroplanes. The system will help the company control its entire
manufacturing process, from sales order processing through to material issuing
and vehicle despatch.
Douglas Schopf, whose clients include British Airways, SAS and JAL, has
purchased the full PICS suite at a cost of about £150,000, to serve
some 60 users. Robert Jackson, financial director at Douglas Schopf, said:
"We will have a single company database, which will improve communication
and the efficiency of processes throughout the company. The manufacturing
modules will assist in improving stock control and production processes,
bettering our product turnaround time.
"In essence, by investing in Sanderson's PICS, we will have the IT
support that we need to ensure we maintain our position as market leaders."
- General Automation has notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission
that as a result of the company's internal audit income and results of operations
may have been overstated during prior periods, due to a computer processing
glitch. Internal audit results have caused management to question the balance
of the company's deferred revenue account. Financial statements filed in these
prior periods may therefore have to be restated.
When contacted by MultiValue News, GA stressed that there was no evidence
of any "accounting irregularities" and that the error was attributable
to the way certain data entry procedures had been set up. The company has
now passed the results of its internal audit to its independent auditors,
and awaits their findings. At present no decision has been taken on whether
restatement is going to be necessary. Should GA restate for prior periods,
the restatement will affect financial reporting and would have no cash impact
on the company.