Dell Computer UK Ltd and Lotus Development in the UK have joined forces to attack the small business market for bundled accountancy packages. In what really amounts to an OEM ag reement, Dell is licensing Lotus’s Bank and Cash Manager software for the novice accountant, to be bundled with its 80286-based 210 system, and the 80386SX-based Dell 316SX and 320SX. Lotus’s small business programmes manager Liz Wallace, who has been researching the needs of the small business user (this defines a business with up to 50 employees according to Inteco which rec kons 98% of UK companies fall into this category), says it was actually Lotus that approached Dell, since Dell was felt to be on the brink of the market Lotus is targeting. This is Dell’s first OEM agreement for applications software and Lotus Solutions Bank and Cash Manager which was actually designed by Irish account ancy software company Chartered Software is only the first in a range of products to be procured from Lotus and to be bundled for the small business user. Dell will sell the packages consisting of Dell hardware, the Lotus application, Lotus 123, MSDOS and an Epson 24pin matrix printer, training, software support and one year’s on-site warranty – for UKP1,650, though the software runs in other hardware environments. An optional word processing module is also available, for an additional UKP150 – this is not yet available as an add-on, and must be bought with the total package.
