Systems Software Ltd, Dublin-based developer and distributor of software systems for the retail sector, has been taken into receivership. The company, which was an IBM agent, operated in Ireland, Dallas, and the UK. It reported turnover of UKPIr647,000 in 1987, and saw that rise to UKPIr2.5m in 1988 but stuck there in 1989. UKPIr546,000 profits in 1988 turned to a UKPIr706,000 loss in 1989. The company says that the amount of revenue generated by the London-based Systems Software International Ltd, established in 1986, didn’t come in quickly enough to cover overheads. This was compounded by lack of proper control from the Irish headquarters, and both companies are now in receivership. Dallasbased SSIL Inc was formed in July 1989. Unlike the UK subsidiary, it was not wholly owned and continues to trade. Systems Software product portfolio comprises Merchant/400, Storeman, and Merchant/SDC. Merchant/400 runs on the AS/400, and the other two run on MS-DOS machines. The first is a modular system for multiple retailers. It interfaces with the relational database to control information from order through to point of sale. Initially developed in collaboration with an Irish supermarket, it has since been targeted at a number of fashion, automative, and hardware stores in the UK, and is also available under OS/2 or AIX. Storeman is a branch computing system that functions as a subset of Merchant/400. It runs on PS/2 machines and can be used at both branch and head office level. Merchant/SDC facilitates communications between remote sites and head office. It runs either as a standalone system based on PS/2 architecture, or on a local area network using Novell’s NetWare. Coopers & Lybrand as receiver has received a firm offer for the firm. The bank has still to agree in principle, but the receivers expect the sale to be finalised by the end of January.
