PRESS - GATES/ARROW TEAMS WITH INFORMIX SOFTWARE AND DIGITAL TO LAUNCH VAR DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM, AGGRESSIVE BUSINESS GENERATION PROGRAM
Digital made this announcement today. GATES/ARROW TEAMS WITH INFORMIX SOFTWARE AND DIGITAL TO LAUNCH VAR DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM, AGGRESSIVE BUSINESS GENERATION PROGRAM January 17, 1995 -- Menlo Park, CA -- Gates/Arrow, in partnership with Informix Software and Digital Equipment Corporation, today announced an aggressive and innovative business development program to support existing and new Informix VARs. The companies have teamed to provide VARs unprecedented assistance in recruiting customers and selling Informix solutions based on the Digital 64-bit Alpha platform. The program includes an attractively priced development package, including all software required for VARs to port applications to Alpha systems running the Informix database. VARs in the program will receive free porting support through the Digital porting center and free customer support. In addition, VARs who sign up for the program before April 1, 1995 will receive demand generation incentives and support from Digital's New Business Development teams. "We're excited about this cooperative program using two of our premier vendors -- Digital and Informix," stated Jerry Lumpkin, vice president of marketing, Gates/Arrow. "This program marks the launching of Digital's high-performance Alpha client/server systems through Gates Arrow." "Informix is pleased to work with Digital and Gates/Arrow in a partnership that combines the three companies' technologies and services," said Steve Sommer, vice president of marketing at Informix. "This demonstrates Informix's commitment to its value-added resellers as it delivers the program to new and existing VARs." "This announcement illustrates Digital's strategy of partnering with industry leaders where the ultimate benefits rest with the customer," added Kent St. Vrain, Digital's manager, U.S. Distribution Sales. "The combination of Digital's industry leading Alpha systems and INFORMIX-SE Version 7.1, delivered to VARs through Gates/Arrow, will offer peak performance and price/performance for VAR applications." Powerful Development Platform, Attractive Price ------------------------------------------------ The new VAR program centers around current flagship technology from Informix and Digital -- INFORMIX-SE Version 7.1 and the AlphaServer 1000 4/200 running the DEC OSF/1 operating system (Digital's UNIX). The development package offers VARs the industry's best price/performance server in its class with the newest feature-rich Informix database. Total package price for VARs is under $11,000, and will be available through June 30, 1995. Purchase price includes one year of support for software (DEC OSF/1 and Informix) and a standard three-year, on-site warranty on AlphaServer 1000 4/200 hardware. The package includes Digital's AlphaServer 1000 4/200 with an upgradeable 200 MHz Alpha processor; DEC OSF/1 operating system; 64 MB ECC memory; 2 MB ECC cache; 2 GB disk; PCI I/O; a complete developer's package for DEC OSF/1; INFORMIX-SE V7.1 and ESQL/C; and Microsoft's Visual C++. Targeted industries for the program include manufacturing, retail, hospitality, telecommunications, financial services; target applications include Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), mobile and wireless, and video-on-demand. VAR Support - Development, Customer and Demand Generation --------------------------------------------------------- VARs in the program receive free porting support from Digital and Gates/Arrow, one of Informix's largest resellers, provided on-site at Digital's Database Competency Center in Palo Alto, California. In addition, Digital and Gates/Arrow will provide the VAR free support for their first five customer installations that close before June 30, 1995. Demand generation assistance includes sales incentives from Digital and local support for seminars, direct mail, advertising, and other marketing functions agreed upon by the companies. Support is provided by Digital's New Business Development teams, who are in place to develop new business for Digital exclusively with partners through local, industry focused demand-generation activities. For more information about the program, VARs should contact Gates/Arrow at 800-332-2222; for more complex solutions VARs should call Gates/Arrow at 800-447-5270. Informix Software is the leading supplier of high performance, parallel processing database technology for open systems. The company's database servers are the number one choice of computer hardware manufacturers for publishing Transaction Processing Council (TPC) benchmarks for UNIX-based systems. Informix products also include application development tools for creating client/server production applications, decision support systems, and ad-hoc query interfaces, and connectivity software that allows information to be shared transparently from PCs to mainframes within the cororate computing environment. Informix's corporate headquarters is based in Menlo Park, California. Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems. Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace. Gates/Arrow Distributing is an independently managed operating group of Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW), the world's largest distributor of electronic components and computer products. Gates/Arrow is a leading provider of high-quality networking, DOS and UNIX based computer solutions to resellers in the United States and Canada. #### Note to editors: DEC and AlphaServer are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. OSF/1 is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation. Informix is a trademark of Informix Software. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% William Daul Advanced Support INFORMIX SOFTWARE INC. 4100 Bohannon Dr. (415) 926-6488 - wk Menlo Park, CA. 94025 uunet!infmx!billd or billd@informix.com