Nick Powell, formerly managing director of Relational Technology Ltd, and Rod MacGregor, founder of Insignia solutions, have together launched a new company called Business Software International Ltd, based at Windsor, near London. The new company is backed by 3i Plc, Baring Bros, the British Technology Group, and the San Francisco venture capital kings Hambrecht & Quist, which between them have invested $4m in the venture. Business Software International has been set up to produce a distributed database for the Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems marketplace. Although the product has not yet been developed, it is in its prototype stage, and will be ready to ship in about 20 months’ time. While the product is being designed and produced in the UK, it will be marketed exclusively in the US because Powell feels that many British software companies have failed by not tackling the large, concentrated US market first, before moving into the fragmented European market. Initially, there will be two versions of the database, one for Sun Unix, and another for Apple Macs. The architecture of the database is designed to enable users to draw on the collective processing power of networked desktop computers without a central server, by using the parallel processing of SQL queries. The Sun version of the database will be networked via Ethernet, while the Apple version will use Appletalk. Powell says the product will be priced competitively at the top end of the targeted market, and has already negotiated distribution in the US with companies such as SoftSel, Micro D, and Apple’s Claris – pretty good for an unseen product.
