A new consultancy company calling itself The Blue World Corpora tion Ltd was unveiled in London yesterday as a training workshop for data processing managers with IBM or IBM-compatible machines who, as buyers making often substantial investments in main frames, need to assess accurately what is being offered to them by suppliers and salesmen. The company is setting out to offer DP managers a screen between themselves and the salesmen on the basis that while salespeople are dealing with buyers almost 100% of their working lives, data processing managers only spend half (or less) of their time dealing with salesmen, and are therefore at a disadvantage. Considering the importance of the investments made on behalf of companies by buyers, they need to be able to handle salespeople and to have a crystal clear idea of their company needs, Blue World believes. For UKP195 a day at their Hertford headquarters, Blue World claims to provide individually tailored packages for people whose primary business of running the computer department may have prevented them from keeping in touch with high-pressure sales techniques. The six-person team is experienced in finance, mainframe selling and engineering, but it is doubtful whether the company can supply any knowledge to people who have been operating in this field for more than two years. The real worth of Blue World would seem to be in provid ing an enthusiastic but relatively inexperienced young company with advice on market strategy because this is an area where many good technical ideas fail. One of the areas which the company offers to help purchasers is in case preparation, decision criteria, timescales and presentation techniques. Any company that has survived in industry would probably be well able to organise this area itself. Blue World claims that because of increased competition from companies such as Amdahl Corp and others IBM have been forced to tear up its price lists and buyers now have greater leverage in negotating with IBM (and related) sales forces. It is this new development which its founder and chairman Jim Hoare has identified as a market niche which he feels his company can fill. Blue World says it has some funding from a merchant bank but declined to say how much, or which bank.
