An allegedly truly open, second generation Unix product range has been announced by new Unix applications software distributor, Agility Business Software Ltd. The Bristol-based company enjoys a value-added reseller kind of relationship with Baan International NV of Ade in the Netherlands. Baan has 400 employees, offices in 15 countries and a turnover of $60m. Clients include Sony Corp and food manufacturer, Van Melle Nederland BV. Agility is offering integrated financial, manufacturing and contract servicing application software as well as a fourth generation toolset for in-house application development. Consisting of modular packages, the product range is claimed to be completely open to any specific version of Unix and any hardware or database running on open systems. This is apparently achieved via the Baan-shell and toolset at the heart of the system. The B-shell contains in-built drivers that trigger the chip technology and run the independant relational database. The drivers also act as an interface between hardware and software. Agility maintains that customers need only specify their hardware and the right drivers will be provided. Any Windows technology and graphical user interface of the customer’s choice can be built into the system. Agility also claims the ability to implement its software for any box within five days. Its products are aimed at companies wanting to move from a mainframe environment to mid-range open systems networks. Although the co-founders, Phil Edwards and Dave Jordan, both come from Dun & Bradstreet Corp, they will be focusing on attracting a new customer base rather than wooing an old one. Operating solely in the UK and Ireland, Agility was set up in April, 1992. It has six current employees, but is hoping to increase this number to 16 by June 1993. All of its products are available now and an average contract value is estimated at UKP150,000.
