The inadequacy of existing distribution channels to handle Unix applications is bringing a new set of players into the marketplace. The latest entrant is a start up called the Qualix Group of San Mateo, California, chartered to sell Unix-only products. Qualix is carrying established brands like Lotus and dBase, emerging products like Clarity and Asterix, and publishing new applications like Synchronize, a group meetings scheduler from Crosswinds Inc, and Common Link, a utility that enables Sparc machines to read MS-DOS and Macintosh floppies. Co-founder and president Rick Thau, a former vice-president with Micro MRP Inc and an old alumnus of TimeShare, says the only way to move the product is to sell it – and the only way to sell it is to go direct since there’s no pull-through. Right now he’s ferreting out concentrations of workstations, mostly in engineering and software development enclaves, and adding his office automation wares to their primary software engineering or CAD/CAM applications. With under a dozen people currently on board, a figure expected to expand to 30 by year’s end, he says he’s already selling nationwide by phone or by travelling to the site. He claims the terrain is fertile ground, untrod by other peddlers. Qualix, he adds, is not a bootstrap operation. In November it got some $2m from venture capital firms 3i Plc, Advent Ventures Inc and Quest Ventures Inc, apparently on the expectation that it could be doing between $50m and $100m of business.
