IBM has by no means reached the bottom of the purse it charged up a couple of years ago for buying the allegiance of small specialist companies, and in its latest move, it has bought into Utility Graphics Consultants Inc, Englewood, Colorado to further its interest in the emerging speciality of geographic information systems. At the same time, IBM made a statement of direction saying that it intends to offer geographic applications that it develops on the RS/6000 under AIX. It says that the applications will run independently on the workstation, and will include workstation emulation of IBM’s existing host geographic applications through a host connection. The company also committed to using and enhancing its geoManager relational database system as the core for enterprise geographic information system database support. As for Utility – which plans to trade as UGC Consulting, under the agreement with IBM, it will seek to provide executive and technical management consulting, offering IBM’s customers assistance in defining strategic information needs, develop-ing implementation strategies, providing overall project management support and offering geographic information system implementation management expertise. IBM’s stake in Utility was not disclosed. In October 1989, IBM acquired a stake in Geographic Systems Corp, Green Bay, Wisconsin (CI No 1,279) and wherever appropriate, that company will be joining the party as well.
