Westboro, Massachusetts software operation Applix Inc claims to have come up with the first front end office automation product, designed to enhance customer loyalty. The 15-year-old Nasdaq traded company is this week showing off the Applix Enterprise CIS Customer Interaction Software, a thin client, pure Java offering targeted at mid-sized organizations who want to win new customers and hang on to existing ones. The product was launched in the US last summer, and according to Applix director of European marketing, Mike Smith Applix Enterprise CIS has been a roaring success. The company decided to hold off on the European launch until it had developed French and German language versions. The product enables companies using Enterprise Resource Planning systems to access a front end product that enables desktop users to access sales, marketing, service and product quality modules. Applix claims that because it is 100% Java and operates on a thin client interface, it is faster and more efficient than similar offerings on the market. Applix is traditionally a Unix company, and for the first 12 years of its life had just one product, ApplixWare an office automation product that Smith describes as what we are to Unix is what Bill Gates is to PCs. The product was targeted at the finance industry and the company managed to grab an 80% – 90% market share in Wall Street. The first product after ApplixWare was CIS, when Applix identified a flattening in the Unix market as NT emerged. Applix teamed up with Sun Microsystems Inc’s SunSoft divison, inventors of Java, along with Oracle Corp and Corel Corp, to work on the development of a Java CIS offering. Oracle is still developing its product, and Corel has withdrawn form the race altogether. The end result of Applix’s efforts was ApplixAnyWare, an office automation suite that can run on any machine or operating system. The completion of this product coincided with Sun’s launch of its network computer. A year ago the company applied CIS and Java to the helpdesk, which resulted in what it claims to be the first 100% Java help desk. Applix describes itself as a technology organization. It employs 400 staff at offices in seven countries, and has an annual revenue of around $50m. Smith said the company is happy in its current position and doesn’t want to have to be continually developing applications. Now the company wants to enable its customers to gain the loyalty of their customers, and believes the Applix Enterprise CIS has been built with integration in mind. It supports all databases and has been designed to lower the cost of ownership. But it doesn’t come cheap. The average cost is around $2000 per user.
