Re-emerging mainframe financial software supplier Walker Interactive Systems Inc, based in the City by the Bay, San Francisco, says that it has now received recognition in IBM’s Authorised Application Specialist Programme for all its DB2-based products. The range includes Management Budgeting and Accounting, MBA, Accounts Payable Management, Purchase Order Management, General Ledger, and Productivity Tools. Hailing IBM’s DB2 as the new standard for database management, Walker president David Brownlee claimed that all the company’s financial products could be migrated to DB2 from any of today’s DBMS or VSAM with a minimum of disruption. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will market the applications through its US national offices. The announcement comes in the wake of Walker’s December decision to raise an additional $11m in equity funding. Walker says that the move provided it with more working capital than any other privately held application software supplier worldwide. It now claims a cash balance of over $12m, 13 consecutive profitable quarters, and no bank debt. It will undoubtedly take additional comfort from recent Focus Research findings, which suggest that IBM’s DB2 has taken over 40% of new database sales in the past two years.