Kettering, UK-based Pegasus Group Plc believes it has a bargain in its recent purchase of the source code which will form the basis of its new suite of modular Windows-based products. Pegasus is working on a replacement for its DOS-based Opera range of business accounting applications (CI No 3,239), and bought the source code from a small, as yet unnamed, Danish Software house at the beginning of July, retaining all three members of the original Danish development team. The UK company wouldn’t reveal the cost of the deal, although sales and marketing director, Chris Leak, said there were no class disclosures to investors adding: there wasn’t a huge amount of money involved. The new software, codenamed Visual Product, is scheduled for release in June 1998. Pegasus claims the product is almost complete, but is adding legislative features for UK value-added tax as well as customizable forms at the client level, so that resellers can customize the product. Pegasus says Visual Product will be a serial release and will not initially have the full functionality of its existing Opera offering. It does not envisage customers switching over straight away and concedes that it could have a slightly detrimental effect on Opera sales. Pegasus says it has no plans to phase out Opera and will maintain its commitment to the product whilst resellers and customers demand that it be enhanced and maintained. It also confirmed that pricing for its new Visual Product would be comparable to existing pricing for Opera but added that the client-server version would cost substantially more because of the support implications. A phase two release is scheduled for a year after the initial launch, and will include integration of manufacturing, e-commerce and retail functions already associated with Opera and new code to make it more EMU compliant. Beta versions should begin to appear in January.
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