Tokai Create, developer and vendor of some of Japan’s top software packages such as the Swing database, and distributor for Adam Osborne’s Paperback Software, is abandoning all its contract software development work to concentrate on building software products, and development and sales of packaged software: with annual sales of $34m, Tokai says contract software development can never be expected to bring a big return, but the move is regarded as a brave one in a market where most software houses generate at least 95% of their business from body-shopping; its current project involves the Japanisation of SIR/DBMS from InterSystems of Washington and implementation on a complete range of equipment from mainframes to workstations – and to this end it just upgraded to a Fujitsu M760 from its M360.
