Software Quarterly

The Database Customer
(No Matter Whose)
Is Always Right

By Marcy Present
So you're in the market for a new client/ server business application -- one that meets a long list of stringent requirements and takes advantage of advanced database capabilities.
Helen Tueffel, Manager of Strategic Alliances
J.D. Edwards & Co.

It should, of course, be a proven performer and reliable. Turbocharged, so it can handle high volumes. Simple to install and manage. Easy to learn and use. Tailored to your company's specific needs. And supported by experts.

Well, step this way: you've come to the right place. Where? The intersection of IBM's advanced DB2 client/server database and winning application products from the hundreds of independent software vendors (ISVs) that take advantage of the scalable DB2 family.

Strong ties between IBM and key ISVs located around the world help serve a wide range of industries. More than 1,600 ISVs have thousands of products that take advantage of the DB2 family.

"IBM is committed to delivering a true total solution to our customers, regardless of their environment" says Tim Negris, marketing vice president with IBM's Software Solutions Division. "The only way we can do that is by working hand in hand with ISVs."

Bank On Stability And Expertise

J.D. Edwards and Co., founded in 1977, is a fairly typical ISV company. A pioneer in automated software development, it now has 45 branch offices and more than 100 business partner firms worldwide.

Providing applications for the IBM AS/400, the company relies on the stability and expertise that IBM's products and services offer. Helen Tueffel, manager of strategic alliances for J.D. Edwards, explains why: "The cycle time for renewing a business system has gone from a few years to as few as 18 months. When people change that often, you need something very reliable with strong vendor support. The decision to work with DB2 today and in future client/server strategies is an outgrowth of the belief that IBM is a strong partner with a good future."

The Denver-based software developer, which specializes in financial and specialty applications across multiple industries, has focused its business on the tight integration and stability of the AS/400 platform. "DB2 is a very positive aspect of our total solution," says Tueffel, "because our customers don't always know they use a database; they just know it works." It works so well that the software vendor plans to evolve beyond the AS/400 and DB2/400 to other platforms in IBM's database family.

Another company, Walker Interactive, continues to build on its legacy as the first ISV to develop a suite of financial applications on DB2 for the MVS platform. Kevin Dobbs, director of corporate marketing, says: "Most of our customers are very large organizations. They need the horsepower -- and the flexibility and robust functionality -- that DB2 on MVS offers."

Located in San Francisco, the 25-year-old company grew out of a consulting practice, became involved with software in 1983, and has been working with DB2 since it was introduced in 1988. It now has offices around the world generating $70 million annually in software sales and services.

How To Succeed By Really Trying

Responding to customers' needs, Walker Interactive is expanding into the client/server environment through the IBM PC Server System/390. According to Dobbs, porting to the PC Server S/390 will give the company greater hardware flexibility, allowing it to address the changing needs of customers much better. The system combines a powerful S/390 processor -- to run most VM/ESA, VSE/ESA, or MVS/ESA applications without modification -- with a 90 megahertz Intel Pentium processor.

Help, I Need Somebody ...
It's getting near quitting time. Colleagues are drifting out of the office. You've got an important personal appointment in the evening. But you can't leave -- not until you fix a DB2 programming glitch. No problem. Help is only a modem away.


John Hallick
Customer Potential
Management Corporation

IBM's DB2 Developer's Assistance Program (DAP) is designed to support ISVs that are porting or developing applications and tools on the DB2 platform. This free program, open to all professional developers selling software solutions commercially, provides 24-hour support-center assistance by telephone and worldwide electronic technical support through CompuServe.

Joining the program is as easy as completing the DB2ISV FORM found in library 1 of CompuServe. As a member, you can access the forum by sending a note -- which refers to the DB2 ISV Program forum and lists your name, CompuServe ID, company name, phone number, and country -- to db2csdap@vnet.ibm.com or to 73354.761@compuserve.com.

The program allows you to:

Purchase IBM DB2 and associated software and documentation at special terms and conditions

Access telephone technical support and electronic support through the DB2 ISV Program forums

Participate in testing early code and other joint programs

Send your questions and concerns to a "vendor advocate"

Access IBM marketing programs, such as exhibitions, conferences, advertisements, and direct mailings

List your product, free of charge, in the DB2 Solutions Directory, which is distributed worldwide to customers and the IBM marketing force

Additional service and support are also available through your IBM representative, IBM consultant, IBM Education and Training classes, and the International DB2 Users Group (IDUG), an independent organization for DB2 users.

With all that help, you're bound to get out of the office on time.

The result of this unique design is a low-cost, mainframe-oriented server with the ability to work in a PC-based local area network environment.

"We know that scalability is going to be the key to our success in the future," Dobbs says. "In addition, we're eventually looking to make our solutions available through parallel processing."

PeopleSoft Inc., a relative newcomer with respect to its ISV relationship with IBM, has been one of the fastest growing companies in America for the past two years, according to Fortune magazine. Established in 1987, the firm already boasts nearly $115 million in annual revenues and a complete suite of enterprise software applications based on a multitier, client/server architecture.

Jeff Pulver, PeopleSoft's global alliance manager working with IBM, says: "We saw the demand for a new type of solution -- providing a client/server application solution that used DB2 on MVS as the database server. Now we're seeing a healthy demand for AIX and DB2 for AS/400, so we're working with IBM to port these as well.

"Our real goal," Pulver continues, "is to be the number one provider of client/server business applications. Most of this growth will come in the UNIX and AS/400 marketplace." With solutions available on a wide variety of platforms, Pulver says, "customers will have more choices. And they can use the skills they already have in MVS with other IBM platforms, such as DB2 for AIX. Basically, we want to keep our customers' options open, not dictate what they should use."

While strong relationships between IBM and ISVs have proven beneficial, true value comes directly from end users. With DB2, Pulver says, "IBM drove originally to get ISVs, and it's become the real force in the marketplace. But customers are the ones driving innovation."

European Expertise

In Europe, one of the largest independent software companies in the world is SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany. It developed the R/3 system for client/server platforms as an extension of its R/2 system for mainframes. And earlier this year, it announced the availability of R/3 for DB2 for AIX, the database offering for IBM's RISC System/6000 platform. The R/3 family is a complete suite of business applications that includes solutions for manufacturing, sales and distribution, finance/accounting, and human resources.

The combined strength of the R/3 plus DB2 solution made the difference for Komatsu American International Co., (formerly Komatsu Dresser Co.) a manufacturer of heavy-construction, mining, and earth-moving equipment. The company, whose worldwide earnings total $1.3 billion, has manufacturing sites in North America. The company wanted to integrate its manufacturing systems across the enterprise.

"We had already solidified our administrative systems with customized applications," says Dick Ford, director of MIS at Komatsu. "We defined a strategy to replace our manufacturing systems with packaged software that would provide a common solution."

And it was, the company realized after an extensive evaluation, the R/3 solution from SAP. The product provided an enterprise-level solution, and allowed Komatsu to keep its individual units autonomous by providing easy access and information flow between these units and corporate headquarters. "This structure enhances integrity and timeliness of information," says Ford.

After Komatsu selected R/3, it had to decide which platform to run it on. It evaluated both Oracle and Informix, but then turned to DB2 because of the database platform's strong performance and successful track record. In addition, says Ford, "We had a 60 to 70 percent knowledge base carryover to the DB2 solution, which was a big factor. We also felt we were getting above average support from the [development] team in Toronto."

Komatsu, which is in the process of implementing a pilot solution in its Canadian operation, is convinced it will be successful. "I believe this solution will significantly reduce inventory and improve productivity and information flow," Ford says. "Information will be immediately available to every key decision maker."

How Suite It Is

One database technology and marketing firm, in the relatively unique position of developing and providing parallel-processing software, is Customer Potential Management Corp. (CPM).

"Our customers," says John Hallick, president, "are in the top 1,000 of the banking and telecommunications industries in the world. Their primary platform is MVS, with DB2 the main database engine. We need to help customers leverage their existing systems. Fortunately, IBM's excellent product is very flexible, making it easy to tailor solutions to meet customers' specific needs."

CPM has developed an entire suite of products driven by DB2-PE and maximized by the "shared nothing architecture" of IBM's new SP2 hardware. As Hallick notes: "The marketing process hasn't changed any, but the technology has. When you have a situation like an estimated 50,000 bank branches closing in the U.S. before the year 2000, then intelligent systems must be able to drive, warehouse, and mine all of your information -- that's the solution we have."

One CPM customer is Whirlpool Financial -- a billion dollar Michigan-based firm that provides third-party financing for large retailers and national manufacturers, and inventory financing for distributors and retailers. It targets, profiles, and markets to virtually every level of the consumer trade industry. With CPM's help, Whirlpool Financial is better able to respond to the needs of its entire customer base.

"We were sold on CPM by its responsiveness and the fact that it pioneered a lot of applications," says Tony Vignali, Whirlpool Financial's vice president of strategic marketing.

A Joint Mission

By combining their efforts, these ISVs and IBM have established a customer service system that responds to customers' advancing requirements. As a result, 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and thousands of others around the world rely on DB2 database solutions to manage data on mainframes, minis, RISC workstations, and PCs.

"It's really a joint mission," says Tueffel. "We can ask customers what they need to run their businesses better. But it's our joint responsibility [with IBM] to provide the enabling technology that meets their business requirements."


Marcy Present, a marketing consultant and freelance writer, specializes in high-technology industries. She works with Technology Source Inc. in St. Louis, MO.









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