Digital Equipment Corp is seeking to increase its role in developing and marketing application software, by increasing its own research work and securing deals with third-party vendors. This could involve buying new technology outright or funding developments through equity investment. DEC’s intention is to establish its departmental and small enterprise and global business groups as distribution channels for new and current applications, offering customers a ready-configured package of hardware, software and networking. In its efforts to expand its range of third party software, it has set up a systems engineering unit to test compatibility of certain applications on its machines. The company’s global information systems unit will be looking to market applications in combination with its hardware also. The forthcoming CMOS version of the VAX 9000 mainframe, for example, is likely to be introduced with pay-roll and general ledger packages. More direct involvement in selling applications with hardware, working with software vendors, is in the plan.
