Walker Interactive Systems Inc reckons that the launch of Tamaris C/S, an enterprise-wide financial application suite, and the imminent release of WalkerClient, a common view desktop client, will give it a product family capable of scaling across the enterprise. Tamaris is, in fact, Walker’s rearchitected mainframe product that has been optimised to work with IBM Corp’s 390 CMOS machines, specifically S/390 Parallel Sysplex, and CICS and parallel DB2, and is a subset of the Walker Enterprise Series. Walker describes it as an evolutionary stage for companies seeking to migrate, slowly, to total client-server environments and offers an alternative to Unix. Tamaris is said to take advantage of parallel processing and be able to launch multiple transactions across processors. It includes a general ledger, fixed assets, project cost mangement, accounts payable, purchase order, inventory management and credit and accounts receivable.
Pretty screens
Tamaris C/S is divided into layers, a database access layer, presentation layer and transaction lager, which enables users to pull out data from different layers and put information on the desktop. It is available now. WalkerClient is made up of three pieces: WalkerClient GUI; WalkerClient Application Development Kit, which enables users to take a graphical user interface screen, generate Visual Basic commands to change functions and generate a transaction back to either Tamaris or Aptos, Walker’s open systems financial products; and WalkerClient DSS which takes data and distributes it across servers of various kinds, and by separating operational data from analytical and reporting data. Walker says it avoids concurrency problems associated with distributed systems. The latter product is out, WalkerClient GUI follows next month and WalkerClient ADK in the autumn. WalkerClient provides more than pretty screens; it can actually change function at the desktop and generate transactions. Coming up is a Visual Ba sic-enabled workflow product that is the result of a deal with FileNet Corp. And Walker plans to buy one or two companies this year, and more in 1996, to strengthen its position on the desktop, and says it is talking to about 20 organisations worldwide.
