Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : IFMX - Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: investorgal who wrote (9656)	2/21/1998 6:32:00 PM
From: Robert Graham	Respond to of 14631

OK. Lets see how far I can go before our minds are no longer working in the same way. ;) Yes, I agree that focus is the key here. In other words, what is the most effective use of their existing cash flow? Where will it have the most beneficial effect which will allow them to bootstrap themselves back into the game yet remain ahead of their costs. The results of this more refined focus may not provide the "gee wiz" results that high-tech followers are accustomed to seeing, but this can keep the company in an improving situation that will eventually lead to a financial position which will allow them to pursue more aggressive strategies in the marketplace. In other words, a recovery that has a good and lasting results will take time to unfold. Also the substantial loss of existing accounts in a competitive marketplace will force the Informix into a new way of doing business in order to make this happen. I do not see Informix in its present condition able to compete head-to-head with Oracle in any area that Oracle has demonstrated strength in the market. Perhaps Informix needs to pursue a niche that it can more effectively produce results in that is currently not as accessible to Oracle. The US with its datablades capability and existing datablades will be a good tool that can be used for this purpose. So I think the US still can have an important role in the turnaround of Informix. This may help provide them the edge they need to compete effectively with Oracle in some areas without the normal costs associated with a more direct competition based on products that can be perceived to be more "plain vanilla" in its functionality. The Internet comes to mind here just as an example. This can also provide a door into a company for Informix to sell its "bread and butter" products for other non-Internet uses of their products by those companies. In order to leverage their efforts to (re)capture more business, as was mentioned before by you, they will need a very close focus on developing partnerships. Technology is sold to businesses with respect to the application level functionality they support. The CEO of the company does not say: "Gee, that database server we have is getting kind of old. Why don't we replace it with all new software and a new CPU? I always wanted to possess the latest and greatest technology that I can show off to my business associates. And I really want one of those cool object oriented database gizmos". He will more likely be sold on the idea that: "In order to aggressively sell our products to the marketplace, we need new application functionality in our order entry and order processing systems. We have outgrown our existing applications since they do not provide the functionality we need to be flexible to our customer in our efforts to be competitive for their dollar. For that matter, our existing applications are too slow, and do not provide us access to the data they contain that we need for marketing purposes in order to better identify our customer needs. We want to take advantage of the tools available out there to better equip ourselves to effectively compete in our marketplace." So any company that can provide them with the application functionality and flexibility that they need can win the contract. This market is conducive to a partnership between an application house and a database company. Since Informix does not have an application part of the business like Oracle does, Informix will need to accomplish this through partnerships that provide applications that do run on Informix products. The more that Informix can help their partners provide solutions to their clients, the more successful Informix will be in this area. IMO this will be an essential part of the turnaround of Informix and the company's future. I also see both consulting services and network products design to promote the interoperability with existing systems that will facilitate this type of approach with their business partners who have their applications to sell. Some of the issues an OEM needs to deal with in selling to the customer is performance, flexability, access to the data outside of the provided application, scalability, and interoperation with existing data and systems. So I think Informix can provide this in the form of consulting services and tools that will allow interoperability between existing systems and the new system that runs on a Informix database product. This can be both in the areas of the conversion and restructuring of data to the new system which can mainly involve consulting services, and also that which provides bridges between the new system and the old system which is both custom software provided through consulting services and off-of-the-shelf type of network software components that Informix can develop. The US can have a role in this too in facilitating new application level functionality involving which the OEM can provide to their customer. Just some ideas. Bob Graham