Tandem doubles Russian revenues
Tandem Computer Corp announced a doubling of revenues in its Russian operation in 1996. Mikle Vailbaher, president of the company’s European division, says Russian revenues rose last year to $11.9m. Vailbaher says the Russian market is now comparable in size with Denmark, Spain and Belgium. Tandem’s biggest single customer is the Central Bank of Russia. Tandem’s Himalaya servers are also installed at Mosbusinessbank, Stolichnyj Savings Bank, Promstroybank (St Petersburg), Rossijski Kredit and Baltijsky Bank. The company says it is also involved in two large projects, creating an electronic-mail system for the Central Bank of Russia and installing a card payment system in Magnitogorsk.
Tricord Russian distributor realigns business
After Tricord Systems Inc pulled out of the server market last year (CI No 3,007), its sole Russian distributor has re-aligned its business. Tricord Systems (Moscow) is now trading as Hadler International. In place of Tricord’s line of Intel based enterprise servers the company now fronts the new line of clustered NT servers from fault tolerant computer maker Stratus Inc., and Fiber Channel mass storage systems from Raidtec Corp. Hadler International will also continue to sell Tricord’s principal software product, a technology that accelerates the Windows NT NTS file system. The company says it will continue to support all Tricord systems sold in Russia.
Moscow Cellular Communications offers fixed cellular lines
Moscow’s NMT 450 cellular operator, Moscow Cellular Communications, has begun a program of offering fixed cellular lines to parts of the Moscow region with insufficient cable connections. The company says the new project will cost around $1m to implement and will create 8,000 new lines in 1997. It’s begun selling the new phone numbers.
Nienshants wins schools deal
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St Petersburg based personal computer assembly company Nienshants has won a tender to supply 100 small computer networks to state schools in the Leningradsky region from the region’s government. Each local network will consist of 12 student working places and one for the teacher.
Paragon has Russian version of Apple Newton Message Pad
Moscow based Paragon has announced the release of a localized version of the Apple Newton Message Pad for users in Russia. Paragon said it has localized version 2.0 of the Newton operating system, which is used by the MessagePad 120 and 130 models. The product is a fruit of a long term project with Moscow distributor Kami Corp. The localized Newton products will be sold exclusively by Kami and Moscow based MacCenter.
LVS and Price Waterhouse give details of new venture
LVS, one of Russia’s larger systems integrators, and management consultants Price Waterhouse have announced details of their new Russian venture. LVS and Price Waterhouse MCS are to merge their entire operations in Russia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe into a new venture called LVS /Price Waterhouse Business Solutions. LVS president Leonid Boguslavsky now becomes a Price Waterhouse Partner. He will be joint Managing Director of the new venture with Juan Carlos Acebal, also a Price Waterhouse partner. The new company will have 300 employees, is represented in seven locations in the former Soviet Union, and has a portfolio of major local Blue Chip clients. The new company expects to be generating around 65% of its revenues from information technology related activities and 35% from change integration. It has already been awarded a project to automate the planning of repair work at the fifth power generating unit at the Novovoronezhskaya Nuclear power plant. Repairs to the reactor at Novovoronezhskaya are due to take place in June when the plant will be temporarily shut down. LVS won the tender from Electricite de France. LVS offered an integrated industrial project management system using technologies from CSC Artemis, Oracle Corp, Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Compaq Computer Corp and 3Com Corp.
IBM to create data network for AO Gazprom
IBM Corp is to create a data network for Russian giant AO Gazprom, linking its various research institutes together using the Internet. The Russian Scientific-research Gas Institute, VNIIGAS, will be the hub of the new system, which connects Gazprom’s research centers and links VNIIGAS with the International Center of Information of Gas Technologies in Copenhagen through a node of IBM OpenNet in Vienna and direct satellite connection. Gasprom employs 320,000 people, controls 20% of the world’s discovered stock of gas, and had 1995 revenue of some $30bn
Central Bank of Russia in bid to legalize unlicensed software
As a means of legalizing a large amount of unlicensed software in use, the Central Bank of Russia has purchased 18,000 licenses for 15 Microsoft Corp products, 11,000 licenses for 10 Symantec Corp products and 700 licenses for 22 Novell Inc products. The software was delivered and installed at the Central Bank by Moscow based Lanit. According to the deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Nikolay Egorov, the Central Bank has an installed base of 20,000 personal computers in more than 80 regions. He estimates that around 50% of the software in use had been unlicensed. The bank also purchased licenses for some locally- developed products.
IBM replaces Kazakstan energy company mainframes
IBM Corp has been working on a big systems integration project with the Kazakstan energy company Mangistaumunaigaz, and has replaced the company’s aging Soviet-built ES mainframes with IBM S/390’s. The system also includes six local-area networks based around IBM servers, and software including Lotus Notes, AIX 4.1 Client; DB2 for OS/2; Database Connection Server for OS/2; and OS/2 Warp Connect 3.0, as well as third party software.
Moscow’s Rosiko wins municipal mobile radio deal
Moscow based Rosiko has won a contract to create a mobile municipal radio communications system in Moscow for municipal services including the city’s own taxi service and the police. The value of the project is estimated at $70m and the network will support up to 50,000 subscribers. As a first stage of the project, an $8m contract was signed with LM Ericsson Telefon AB for E-DACS equipment to support 5,000 subscribers. Earlier this year Rosiko obtained a license to provide cellular services in Moscow and St Petersburg using the DCS-1800 standard. Rosiko is part of AFK Sistema holding company which has a close relationship with Moscow City Government.
