Informix Corp has launched Smartware II version 1.5, which offers the the integrated suite of modules that SmartWare users know and love with added facilities such as high quality business graphics that borrow more than a little from the Informix Wingz code. As with Wingz, an SQL database link datalink – is offered so that data can be pulled down from Informix and manipulated via SmartWare. Version 1.5 also offers 16Mb of extended memory enabling users to run very large applications, since in protected mode Smart reads itself into extended memory. The software can support more than 200 printers but as well as this, it offers a descriptor editor, which creates a file to drive Smart with unsupported printers. SmartWare II is available now, and costs UKP700, for existing SmartWare II users, the upgrade costs UKP100, while for users of earlier versions the upgrade price is UKP200. Worldwide product management and support is now with the UK company as the majority of sales are now in Europe and the largest installed base is in the UK. Plans for a Unix product have been shelved and SmartWare is being emphasised as an MS-DOS product. Research and development is currently under way to offer a Windows 3.0 version of SmartWare but this is unlikely to come to market for the next 18 months. Along with this announcement, Informix also unveiled a new software support strategy for SmartWare II, which basically means users get better support but at a price, whereas before support was low-level but free. Third-party software houses and resellers will continue to get free support, otherwise users are asked to contact four authorised support centres at a cost of UKP170 per individual user or at a cost of UKP2,000 for basic – UKP3,000 for extended – support for large corporate users. Cynics might wonder whether the shelving of research and development projects and charging for software support is in any way connected with that nasty year-end loss of $46.4m that Informix announced recently. UK managing director Malcolm Padina accepts that there is some substance to such cynicism. He points out that where support is concerned for personal computer products investment costs are increasing as margins are decreasing, but companies need revenues to provide quality support. As for research and development, Padina says that reductions in research and development were minimal and that a number of partners are coming in to help on various projects, such as Hewlett-Packard, Sequent, Unisys and Fujitsu. Informix is also currently negotiating with major OEM customers in Europe for funding for database research. Padina refuted the idea that moving responsibility for SmartWare to the UK implied that this product set was out of favour with the US headquarters. He argued that via the development connection with the Wingz development team in the US, SmartWare would not lose out in terms of the corporate decision to spend and will retain its own identity away from the US company which sees itself as far more of a database company. As for that year-end loss and the restated figures for last year to comply with more conservative revenue recognition as recommended in the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Informix made a loss of around $4m per quarter, taking an additional $23m hit in losses carried forward from the previous three years, and a one-time charge of $6m for restructuring. Padina says the company expects to break even in the first quarter of this year, to return to profitability in the second quarter and stay in the black thereafter. After taking restructuring into consideration, Informix still has around $9m in cash reserves.
