At its annual user conference in Washington DC last week, Dun & Bradstreet Software Inc attempted to allay concerns over its move into the world of client-server and open systems by promising users a more customer-oriented business strategy. Hank Holland, president and chief executive, said the firm would continue to support its E and M mainframe series software for another seven to 10 years, but would start to reduce research and development expenditure in favour of client-server environments over the next three years. Dun currently spends 57% of research and development funds on host-based systems. Other user concerns included the high price of maintenance and product quality. Recent research carried out by the company shows that 92% of its existing 12,000 customers worldwide are reluctant to rush to open systems for the sake of fashion. Holland says We’re in the process of creating a new company and the plan is to make the transition to client-server as relevant to our customer as possible. If that means doing it more slowly than others then that’s how it’ll be. Over the next three years Dun & Bradstreet says its business will evolve into three different areas. It expects the number of mainframe customers to decrease by 44% – they’ll be interested in value added software to their current mainframe solutions. More than 38% users will have re-engineered their information technology business strategies in favour of client-server environments and 18% of users are expected to downsize operations to mid-range Unix systems for price-performance reasons. Dun hopes its support for Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT via SmartStream will pull in large corporate personal computer users looking to upsize operations.
By Alison Hawkings
Dun & Bradstreet is also developing a range of migration tools. Key to D&B’s shift to client-server strategy is SmartStream, its Windows-based decision support and transaction processing environment with add-on finance and accounting modules for Unix and Windows NT systems. According to Holland, SmartStream will provide users with greater productivity gains, better decision support than current offerings and improved information access to other Dun & Bradsteet credit databases and external databases, such as Microsoft Access and Sybase Inc’s SQL Server. To support distributed computing environments, Dun & Bradstreet says SmartStream will include support for the Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing and Management Environments. The firm is also committed to integrating object technology to improve workflow automation, systems management and decision support functionality. Dun & Bradstreet is currently developing a skeleton object-based framework and is in negotiations with several object software vendors to license technology. SmartStream supports a variety of Unix systems including HP-UX, DG/UX and Digital Equipment Corp Ultrix. The NT version is currently in beta test and will be available by the end of the year. SmartStream’s biggest drawback is its lack of support for IBM Corp mid-range AS/400 and RS/6000 systems. D&B seems to have forgotten that IBM is its largest mainframe customer base and says there are no plans to convert to these systems for another year or so. Dun & Bradstreet Software Inc has hired Fred Newall, former vice-president of NCR Europe, to head-up its European operations as vice-president following the departure of Pierre Donaldson. The European operation reached only 80% of its profit target although UK profits were up 25% in 1992 on sales that rose 17% to UKP32.4m. Newall will report direct to Hank Holland, who is successor to the retiring Management Science America founder John Imlay.
