Prime Computer Inc, Natick, Massachusetts, has broken new ground with its first value-added reseller agreement on a Unix system. The beneficiary is Copley Systems Corp of Needham, Massachusetts, and the agreement is intended to get Prime’s new 80386- and Unix based small multi-user EXL 316 system off the ground. Copley is now a Prime Master Value-Added Reseller, and it is mandated to deal with all small resellers for the Unix product range on the grounds that it has the facilities to give them the attention they need whereas Prime cannot. Once these smaller resellers have reached sufficient volume they will then be able to buy direct from Prime. Prime intends to sign up other Master Value Added Resellers throughout 1988 but details of where and how many are not available. Prime has not figured prominently in the Unix world so far, but if its hostile takeover bid for Computervision Corp, Bedford, Massachusetts, is crowned with success, Unix is expected to grow loom much larger in Prime’s legend, as it is the most significant unifying factor in the two companies’ disparate product lines. Separately, Copley also expects to become part of AT&T’s proposed authorised distributor programme which will replace its Value Added Systems Distributor programme, and was introduced at the end of last month. Until Data General disbanded its distributor scheme late last year, 10-year-old Copley acted as a Data General distributor and now hopes that the Prime Computer and AT&T contracts will fill the hole.
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