Prague systems house APP Group is confident it can maintain a role as Oracle Systems Corp’s key partner in the Czech and Slovak Republics even after Oracle sets up a direct presence in the countries and takes over responsibility for licensing, according to APP chief executive Eduard Mika. APP turned over $27.2m in 1992, around 20% of which involved Oracle software and the installation of over 200 servers, and the firm is the only East European systems house to have secured significant PHARE-backed government accounts. Mika claimed that the legal relationship with Oracle would not change before 1994 at the earliest even if Oracle did establish a direct presence before that date, and claimed the company had secured a position as an Oracle reseller and solutions provider to Russia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Hungary, where it opened subsidiaries at the end of last year, APP also signed an pact giving it marketing rights to Oracle Financials earlier this month, confirming its status, Mika asserted.APP Group is now seeking to establish relationships with Western consultancy firms to spearhead its next development phase, the goal of which is to earn half its revenues from services by 1995. Mika stated that APP would definitely not support other databases in the foreseeable future. He commented: Sybase still has six support people for the whole of Europe; Informix’s strategy is to sell and forget. In Hungary, meanwhile, Oracle country manager Laszio Jobbagy claimed that a contract signed with Hungarian Police in May constituted the largest software sale in Eastern Europe ‘to the company’s knowledge’. Oracle has a signed contract known as the ‘Frame Agreement’ under which the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior and all its subsidiary organisation, such as the police, can purchase Oracle rdbms and tools at favourable rates. The Ministry is now said to be unwilling to consider any alternative database suppliers in its tenders.
