IBM Corp has been pushed to top up its investment in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear-based Quality Software Products Ltd to protect its 10% interest in the company, following the news that venture capitalist 3i Plc has put up UKP3m in a second round of expansion financing. The new funds, which add to an initial injection of UKP1m from 3i, are on being supplied on an equity-cum-loan basis to support the international marketing of its multi-environment Universal OLAS financial software. In its original form, the 10-year-old OLAS product was designed for IBM mainframes. The new open version, launched last year, will be available under IBM’s DB2 relational database this time next year. Recent customers of Universal OLAS include British Gas Plc, Texas Oil, PowerGen, Qantas Airlines, W H Smith, and Allied Dunbar and, says 3i director David Williams, over 50% of existing customers have upgraded to the open system. Quality Software turned in profits of UKP1m in 1990 on sales of UKP7.5m, and the company says it is banking on a significant growth in profits and revenues of over UKP12m for the current year.
