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

To: investorgal who wrote (9884)	3/9/1998 8:54:00 PM
From: akidron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14631

this is a question... if it is not the right question I'm sorry... but I hold a few ifmx options with May expiration, and did very well with the last report... Why if what u say is true, don't ifmx and sybase combine... wouldn't it in fact make both stronger... or am I missing something...

To: investorgal who wrote (9884)	3/9/1998 11:36:00 PM
From: MJ	Respond to of 14631

Investorgal, > In the ERP world, SAP does not push the DB. It is a commodity and > since IFMX has a small % of that, there is no reason for SAP to > show favoritism to IFMX. The same is true of the other ERP > vendors. In fact there are strong reasons why SAP (& Other ERP vendors) should show favoritism to Informix: 1. Every sale to Oracle gives their (main?) competitor an entry into their account. This could result in loss of control in the account. 2. Every $ to Oracle helps Oracle fund development of their competitive product. 3. Informix is willing to assist solve problems at customer sites- Oracle is more than happy to have a bad SAP site where they can slip in through their database sale. Unfortunately, I agree that for most SAP reps, the long term disadvantage is outweighed by the short-term 'ease of sale'. It's typically not worth the SAP reps trouble to push database related issues- particularly in Oracle accounts. Where there is no database in the account (eg. mainframe migration) the SAP rep is more likely to work with Informix. With respect to SQLServer, the Informix differentiators are scalability and support. > I've been told by IFMX people that Peoplesoft doesn't seem to > want to work with IFMX, possibly due to high level conflicts. That's interesting info. I was aware of some technical issues with Informix/Psft(which have recently been resolved) but not high-level issues. > There is actually alot of Sybase out there, especially in the > financial services area.. Sure is. > I also saw a CIS (or SFA) vendor presentation a couple of weeks > ago that said IFMX had the absolute smallest % of their business, > based on installed accounts. I don't think IFMX focussed on this market early enough. Vantive and Point have only recently completed ports to Informix, but they too realise that Oracle is a major competitor- you may see them push more business to IFMX this year? Brock ('Firstwave') and Siebel I believe have had ports for a while. Brock has a large number of sites on Informix I believe > Additionally, IFMX got rid of most of their partner relation > people last year in the layoffs. It will take a while for IFMX > to get where the other folks are to rebuild it. Bob F has quickly recognised the importance of partners to Informix. It has been an area of focus to improve the agreements to result in better business for Informix. (As an aside, Sybase CEO has recently said that Sybase missed the mark with their strategy...i.e. focus on tools and connectivity and not worry about major apps vendors- "the market is not buying database now- they are buying applications" Hello!) Agree with your comments otherwise! Cheers, MJ (Thanks Mark F for gathering the references to SAP.)