Stevenage, Hertfordshire-based Intuitive Systems Ltd has launched Financial Advisors Workbench, a software package for banks, building societies, and insurance companies. The menu-driven point-of-sale and office administration system runs under OS/2 with Presentation Manager, or MS-DOS 3 with Windows 3.0, on PS/2 or compatible 80286 or 80386-based personal computers. Intuitive developed Workbench with its own one-year-old IBM Systems Application Architecture-compliant application development environment, IS/2 – a forms-based application development tool, with drawing tools, database, and C++ object-oriented language. The internal database provides a subset of SQL functionality through high-level file management functions, but SQL can be fully implemented, and OS/2 Database Manager can be used, if the runtime environment is changed, directing all file commands to the database server, without changing the script code. The IS/2 development environment is offered to customers of Workbench, and IBM’s three-year old FINeSSe (Financial & Insurance Networking & Software Services) division is promoting its company-wide networking services alongside Intuitive’s software package. IBM has been involved with Intuitive Systems since 1986, when it took on the company’s Intuitive-Solution – the predecessor of IS/2 – and marketed it as its Teamwork Application Builder. Intuitive Systems is a privately-held company which set up in 1984, with the help of a government grant and venture capital, to develop graphics-oriented application development tools. A year ago, Intuitive was approached by Pegasus, which wanted a fourth generation development language that was portable across different operating systems, and offered financial support for the development of IS/2. Other customers of IS/2 include Reuters, British Gas, British Airways, Marks & Spencer, and various insurance and pension companies that wanted to develop their own applications. The Financial Advisor’s Workbench costs UKP200,000 for a turnkey system; UKP100,000 if the company takes the Workbench framework and develops its own software in-house; and the IS/2 development environment costs UKP9,500. End-user licences cost $200 per user, although this figure is volume-related.
