Enterprise resource planning outfit Baan Co NV has announced that it is offering customers using its Baan IV application suite with its own proprietary Tribase database an upgrade path to Informix Software Inc’s or Oracle Corp’s relational database technologies. The company will continue to support Tribase customers who hold support contracts until the year 2000. Baan, with joint headquarters in Ede, Netherlands and Menlo Park, California, says it will embed Informix’s OnLine Workgroup Server and Online Dynamic Server in Baan IV for the Unix market, as well as offering Oracle’s Universal Server as an upgrade from Tribase. According to Baan it chose to embed Informix’s relational database technology rather than Oracle’s on the back of its long- standing relationship with the company – it first partnered with Informix back in 1994 – and was apparently further convinced by the success of Informix 7.2, and the recent Universal Server and DataBlade launches (CI No 3,056), though there is no word on exactly when the respective object-relational Universal Servers from either Informix or Oracle will be supported. All Baan IV Unix customers will automatically receive the OnLine Workgroup Server as an embedded application component; but Baan says customers with complex data requirements, like a multi-site, multi-national business, will have to pay a fee to upgrade to the Informix technology. The fee depends on the system configuration. Baan IV for Windows NT, announced last July (CI No 2,961), remains in beta testing until March. Baan and Informix will jointly offer a Baan Migration service package to help current Tribase users move to Informix, and as promised in August last year (CI No 2,985) Informix is launching a new Baan business unit, with a Fast Start for Baan consulting program. Meanwhile Oracle will develop migration packages, and offer consulting services of its own to ease the transition from the phased-out Tribase to Oracle’s Universal Server. According to Oracle, 70% of Baan customers currently rely on Oracle databases – if that’s true the company will no doubt be a little peeved that Baan is embedding Informix’s technology rather than its own.
Content from our partners
