|
Spring 1997
|
Pixel Innovations develop and market TERMiTE, the PC to host connectivity tool. From origins in the Pick emulation arena, TERMiTE is now a fully fledged "any emulation, any network" emulator. Also providing leading edge GUI facilities and file transfer, TERMiTE is well respected within the Pick arena and growing rapidly in other markets.
Pixel Innovations has chosen the Web as one of the methods of promotion for TERMiTE. The Pixel site has now been running for over two 2 years. They developed the page with their sister company, Network Innovations. Since the beginning of the site, Pixel claim to have had “many thousands of accesses and many satisfied customers.”
Pixel view their site as having: “the thing people are looking for - information. It's a 24 hour a day salesman with a support and marketing person thrown in for luck.”
The Pixel Web site is well-organised and thorough. It includes:
Product information: including specifications and screenshot examples
of the GUI toolkit.
Trial copies: allows their customers to obtain a fully functional copy
of TERMiTE and their Pick host programs.
Support page: This has recently been updated and the support pages now
contain over 40 instant tips for TERMiTE customers. It gives details of how
to get around some of the tricky problems as well as what's new and fixed in
the product.
Upgrades: This was a pleasure to discover! The Web is known for its freebies
and it’s nice to see Pixel offer this! TERMiTE 6 customers can obtain the
latest upgrade on-line completely free of charge and obviously without the wait!
Partners: Again quite a recent addition. This gives links to companies
with whom they have partnerships e.g. Vmark who distribute TERMiTE; Reed who
have bought TERMiTE on an OEM basis for their BBS type recruitment application
(I’m not prejudiced, I even mentioned another agency <grin>).
Company Information: Pixel: who and what they are about. This also includes
a photo of all staff - worth a visit to see who is photogenic!
Light relief: Another Web tradition, a page of fun links and interesting
places to visit.
The gospel according to Pixel: The advertising bit. Steve Day, Pixel's
Product & Marketing Manager says: "By putting our product on-line for
the world to see demonstrates our faith in both the product and our company.
We are up-front and open to everyone. Not everyone can say that!" He adds:
"We grew up in the Pick market and although our product is now very much
in the open systems arena, we have not forgotten our roots. We will continue
to support our long established and loyal base.” Nicely put Steve - no
comments necessary!
Pixel also operate an FTP server which provides additional files available for download. This is excellent and I now copy word for word the tuition I received on this matter.
Some customers may not have access to the World-wide Web so as an alternative, they may login to the server located at ftp.pixel.co.uk. Using the userid anonymous and the password guest customers can download a variety of upgrades, information documents and other TERMiTE-related materials. The pixel/product/upgrade directory for example contains the latest TERMiTE upgrade disks. These disks when downloaded and applied to the customer’s master disks provide additional features and functionality added to the product since it was released. They may also be useful for curing bugs.
The product/eval directory contains copies of the "Disk Eval" which provides potential customers with the opportunity to try before they buy. Currently if a customer needs to obtain the full product, Pixel ship a full set of documentation including the Pick host utilities and the Wollongong TCP/IP stack.
For those customers who do not have FTP access, Pixel also run a TERMiTE forum in CompuServe. All they need to do is to enter GO TERMITE and select the TERMITE forum for access to similar data to that located on their FTP server and WWW pages.
If all of the above fails, Pixel are pleased to take e-mail, faxes and calls
to either their support dept or sales departments.
Conclusion: I believe Pixel have achieved a site of considerable interest
to the Pick community and that the Pick community should be extremely proud
to have a site like this representing them on the Web. Anyone still waiting
to get their web site up and running or wishing to redevelop it might wish to
contact Steve Day or their sister company for advice and assistance!
Elkie Holland
Last Updated: 30 June 1999