Washington Technology Online Channel News

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ViON: LET'S DO THE TIME WARP

Washington-based ViON Corp. is introducing to federal government customers a new line of high-speed processors and year 2000 compatibility-related products from Hitachi Data Systems of Santa Clara, Calif.

ViON is Hitachi's exclusive representative to federal government customers. Among the new products being introduced are Time Machine and Time Warp products on Hitachi's Skyline and Pilot processors to address potential year 2000 problems. The products assist customers in identifying problem codes and increasing the effectiveness of testing the changes.

Also available will be nine new Hitachi models for its Skyline Series mainframe processors. Six of those models feature faster engines, which will increase capacity by as much as 25 percent, company officials say.

UNISYS OFFERS DIMENSION OF PRODUCTS

McLean, Va.-based Unisys Federal Systems Division recently agreed to become the exclusive reseller of the year 2000 solution line put out by Data Dimensions, based in Bellevue, Wash.

The product, called Ardes 2K, is a CD-ROM and Internet solution that provides step-by-step procedures to identify and fix computer-related year 2000 problems. It addresses the question of how many employees may be needed to fix the problem, as well as what steps should be taken to make systems compatible at the turn of the century.

Unisys Federal Systems Division and Data Dimensions have also teamed on a recently awarded year 2000 program with the state of Virginia. Other year 2000 customers for Unisys include the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Department of Housing and Urban Development and the General Services Administration.

ENTEX GETS ITS MOTOROLA RUNNING

A network systems division of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. is teaming with Springfield, Va.-based Entex Information Services Inc. to provide Motorola's high-speed modems, frame-relay equipment and other information systems products through the U.S. General Services Administration schedule system.

With more than $2.1 billion in annual revenues, Entex has been rated the No. 1 PC network integrator by LAN Magazine. Motorola is looking to establish an information systems presence among federal and state buyers through the schedule arrangement. With $28 billion in sales, Motorola is among the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors and advanced electronic systems.

TECH DATA GETS IN NETGEAR

Clearwater, Fla.-based Tech Data Corp. announced that it will distribute Netgear networking products for small business and home office markets.

Founded in 1996 as a business unit of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Bay Networks, Netgear serves these markets with an economical "plug and play'' family of connectivity products such as hubs, switches and adapter cards. The agreement with Tech Data Corp. is expected to expand Netgear's channel support and provide greater availability to resellers and retailers throughout the country.

XPERT VIES FOR STERLING QUALITIES

Sterling Software and Xpert Corp. are hooking up to market Xpert's project planning system under Sterling's information management division's Vision brand name.

Dallas-based Sterling and Newport Beach, Calif.-based Xpert announced the distribution agreement at the International Database Users Group conference last month in Chicago. The product, called Vision: Expert, provides information technology professionals with a project planning system.

It also provides a set of tools for quickly creating customized data warehouse project plans. It includes MapXpert, which gives guidelines such as checklists and data warehouse tools references.

OPTIKA EXPANDS PARTNER IMAGE

Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Optika Imaging Systems Inc. announced the signing of a dozen new business solution partners to add to its worldwide distribution strength of 240 partners. The new partners include General Networks Corp. of Glendale, Calif.; Integrated Computer Management Inc. of Roseland, N.J.; and Open Technologies Inc. of Tempe, Ariz.

The new partnerships are targeted to health care, retail, financial and government markets. Open Technologies, for example, serves law enforcement and health care markets with respect to automated data collection. Optika provides client/server integrated imaging systems and development tools, with more than 1,200 installations.

- Dennis McCafferty