Reston, Virginia-based James Martin & Co says it will develop a version of its methodology for Larkspur, California-based Synon Corp’s Obsydian development tool sets. James Martin plans an enhanced version of its The Client-Server Methodology that will be an interactive methodology designed to give practical help to developers building enterprise-wide client-server systems for distributed networks. James Martin’s decision is good news for Synon for which Obsydian is a crucially important product as it marks the start of a significant shift out of Synon’s traditional market, AS/400 users. Obsydian has taken up $4m in research and development funds and will take up more and more of the firm’s resources as Synon pushes into the Unix market. Obsydian for AS/400 has just started shipping and the Unix version will be out at beta sites in January when the Unix generator is made available. In preparation, Synon in the UK, the company’s original home, has taken on Steve Broughton, formerly of Informix UK Ltd, to develop a value-added reseller channel among Unix dealers, although he has yet to approach any. He has, however, been courting AS/400 resellers and says there has been considerable interest, which is not surprising as Synon is not the only company with an AS/400 legacy looking to break into client-server to prevent its revenues dwindling. We want to grow, maybe not in 1995 as that’s a year of transition, but in 1996 we will want to grow and we see that we have to be in new markets, Broughton said. And as a small firm – turnover is $68m, it needs resellers to handle its products. Broughton said Unix resellers should prepare for overtures when the Unix generator is ready.
