ICL’s new Open Systems Portfolio for retailers, launched last Wednesday (CI No 1,355) and available from the second quarter, was accompanied by the launch of the Federation of Retail Technology Suppliers. The Federation is an association of supp-liers and systems houses working with ICL to develop applications for the Portfolio family. ICL is a BS5750 registered company, and says that it is encouraging the other members of the Federation to adopt the standard. If partners don’t achieve registration within a mutually agreed period, ICL is adopting a rather draconian approach, and expelling the recalcitrant members from the federation. Membership currently stands at 15 and includes Pennine Computer Services, Peterborough Software UK Ltd, and Radius Computer Services Ltd. Apart from development and co-operation on the Open Systems Portfolio family, the Federation will develop applications that enable System 25 users to migrate. The installed base of System 25 machines currently stands at 6,500, of which 3,800 are in the retail sector. ICL says that the base is not contracting, and will grow by 650 in the coming year. ICL ranks itself beside Nixdorf and NCR, but unlike latter, the company doesn’t supply front-end banking systems. However, it forecasts that development work in France will see its banking activities rank alongside retail within the next five years. The banking equivalent to Datachecker would probably assist that process, but ICL maintains that an established presence is a prerequisite to any future acquisition. ICL sources its 9518/200 terminals from Fujitsu (CI No 1,307), and it acknowledges that Fujitsu’s entry into the US retail market with the OS/2-based Atrium 9000 (CI No 1,236), may lead to competition at some point in the distant future. Nonetheless, ICL also acknowledges that success in the retail sector would have been much more difficult without Fujitsu’s contribution to research and development.
