Indisy Software Inc, majority-owned by Novell Inc, is to make its OfficeWare multi-vendor mainframe-local area network messaging system available in the UK. Indisy, Los Angeles, California, says OfficeWare enables users to send messages across different computer systems in different formats and receive these messages in the format used by the machine of the recipient; it also incorporates value-added features such as electronic mail. IBM mainframe standards and systems such as SNA, Profs, and OfficeVision are supported, as is DEC All-In-1 and relevant local area network protocols; thus, Microsoft Word and Lotus 1-2-3 files can be packaged together over a local area network and sent to a user on a mainframe, after being translated into the word processing format of that user. Indisy bought the rights to OfficeWare from Crowntek Inc for $10m in 1988, and now has 15 installations in the US. Average cost of a system is $200,000, and customers include Merrill Lynch & Co and various US government agencies. The UK operation is headed up by ex-Novell Europe product manager Rocco Angelo, who will be working from Novell UK offices in Bracknell. Angelo says he made the conscious decision not to market the package through Novell dealers, whose experience is not chiefly in the area of mainframes, and is currently looking for six to eight large resellers, typically systems integrators with mainframe installation and support experience, to distribute the UK version of OfficeWare, which has been modified to support the X400 and X500 message and directory standards. These resellers will be responsible for what Angelo calls first-level support, that of responding to the general queries and problems that occur in the first three to four months after installation. After that, on-site and remote support will also be provided by Indisy’s own system engineers and those of Novell. Some of the reseller agreements are expected to be wrapped up by September, and the price will only be finalised after reseller input; Indisy founder Al Frank suggested that the UK pricing would be comparable with that in the US.
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