Forte Software Inc finally introduced its client-server application development environment last week. Steve Brenman, the company’s UK managing director, claimed it was exactly where it said it would be in terms of making the software generally available, despite the fact that most of the rest of the industry has been waiting for the release since June. Brenman said that Forte’s first customers have been using the product since August of this year, putting the company on track with its original schedule established last autumn when it promised the goods by this summer. However, some of Forte’s new partners were also confused about the release date. Digital Equipment Corp, which has worldwide distribution rights to the software, was trumpeting Forte as part of its client-server initiative from as far back as March this year.
Nice backlog
But the delay has not deterred others from wanting to sign up for OEM deals, with Mitsubishi Electric Corp selling the software in the Far East, and Sequent Computer Systems Inc, Data General Corp, IBM Corp and Apple Computer Inc all on Forte’s card. But has Forte used the time-lag arising from the delay to build up a nice backlog of orders? The company says there are six users in the US with deployed production applications and adds that there may be more from the DEC channel. In the UK so far the roll call is nil, but Brenman says that interest is high and the company expects to be able to talk about some users by the end of the year. The next major release of the software, Version 2, will be out in a year’s time, and will have enhanced support for the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment as well as two-phase commit and other features. Meanwhile, expect a point release in six month’s time that will add support for Microsoft Corp Windows NT to the existing list of systems, which include AViiON, DEC OpenVMS on VAX and Alpha, IBM’s RS/6000 AIX, Sequent Dynix, and Sun Microsystems Inc.
