Software engineering tools developer Delta Software International Ltd, which was acquired by Lyon, France-based Groupe IBSI SA about 18 months ago, has relaunched itself as IBSI (UK) Ltd to herald the introduction of a new integrated product set in March. Despite being taken over, the Uxbridge, Middlesex-based firm has, up till now, been left to run virtually unchanged because IBSI was previously more keen to exploit its sales and support channels in the UK than interfere directly. Delta has traditionally generated approximately 70% of its turnover from the ICL Plc VME market via its Delta/ADS application development environment, which executes and runs under a range of environments from personal computers to mainframes. IBSI, conversely, is a software and systems integration house, with its own Conceptor development environment for Unix, which runs under MS-DOS – it is 40%-owned by France Telecom, employs 1,500 staff and generates annual revenues of approximately 100m. But on March 2, the two firms will launch an integrated set of development tools that run and execute across heterogeneous environments. Although elements of both tools mentioned above are incorporated into the new architecture, the new offering is said to be a complete rewrite. It uses an IRDS repository, and comprises different engines that generate different dialects of Cobol. This code can then be compiled to run on the developer’s target environment. The new product also takes an object-oriented approach to procedural techniques, which means users also have the option of developing either traditional or object applications. More object features will be added in future releases as this market matures, and a C version will also follow if demand warrants it. In the UK alone, IBSI expects to generate 2m from the product by year-end.
