UK database, services and consultancy group Main Co of Wokingham, Berkshire, has set up a new company to focus specifically on delivering commoditised front-end systems for corporate database users. Called Soft Toolrack Ltd, the division will supply graphical user interfaces, executive information systems and decision support systems for Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, Teradata, IBM DB2, Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS database users. Former Oracle staffer Rick Marengo, managing director of Main Co, will be going after customers with a team of staff that combines sales and technical support experience. It’s a strategy similar to that employed by the financial industries, Marengo believes, where insurance sales people, for example, are trained and qualified to both demonstrate and talk in detail about the technical aspects of the products they offer, as well as handling the business end of the transactions. Soft Tool rack has a Top 40 list of products that it will carry, and reckons that around 70% of its business will be on Unix systems. An eight-hour support contract will be available for 15% of the purchase price, on-line support will cost a few thousand.
