Building on the strategic relationships it has forged with Unix manufacturers over the past year, Newbury-based Cobol supplier Micro Focus Plc has announced that it has a version of its Cobol/2 compiler for Intel 386/Unix. In addition to capturing the Unix-based small system section of the applications development market, the long-term aim behind the move, claims European marketing manager Stuart McGill, is to erode the current Ryan-McFarland RM Cobol V2.0 customer base. According to McGill a one-off mailshot to 400 key RM users in the US, showed a staggering 25% keen to move over – a figure which he believes will be reflected within the 20 to 30 top RM accounts identified by the company in the UK. The move will clearly add to floundering Austec International Pty’s woes (CI No 1,038). Austec was rapidly dismissed by McGill as an incidental provider of adequate technology, so it doesn’t sound as if the UK firm is interested in picking up the pieces. Although keen to emphasise that conversion was simple and subsequent performance gains immense – anything between 50% to 1,000% – McGill also said that the company has extended its Value Added Reseller Incentive or VIP Programme to cover Europe. Under the programme, already running in the US (CI No 1,021), resellers are invited to test Micro Focus Cobol/2 on a free one month trial basis, and are then offered various levels of on-site, follow-up, and Compatibility Hotline migration support.
