Kerfuffle over Gen-i software tools

Borland is strongly back in the frame

IBM confidence last year that it had won a major software tools contract at Gen-i with its Rational toolset seems to be premature.

Executives at the 50th anniversary celebrations late in November thought they had the deal but it seems there has been a review of the situation. Now, Borland is strongly back in the frame.

The deal, which also includes process optimisation, is thought to be worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A Gen-i spokesperson says a request for information won’t be acted on until March. But industry sources are confident a decision has already been made.

If Borland were to win the contract, it would complete a notable hat-trick for the company in New Zealand.

Earlier last year, Hewlett-Packard New Zealand committed to a company-wide roll-out of Borland’s tools. Like Gen-i, the company isn’t commenting. Nor will Borland’s New Zealand country manager; Chris Gray.

Borland scored a major coup late in 2004 when EDS dumped Rational for Borland’s application lifecycle management solution as its global standard. The deal was done from New Zealand.

A spokesperson for EDS New Zealand says the company has begun to deploy Borland tools and will continue on a site-by-site basis through 2006. “We are in the early stages of deployment,'' she says.