Software AG names UK-only distributor

XML vendor Software AG has named InterQuad as its first UK-only distributor.

XML vendor Software AG has named InterQuad as its first UK-only distributor.

Geoff Cooke, UK sales manager at Software AG, said: "For many years, we were in the mainframe data market. You can get away with dealing direct on mainframes, but there is absolutely no way that we could get onto NT platforms this way."

Although Software AG has a sales force and a UK client list of about 150 enterprises, Cooke maintained that beyond the existing client base - along with about 50 accounts in big industries that it hopes to win - Software AG would be available only to the channel.

The company will be making its XML suite of products, including the Tamino XML platform, available to UK resellers through InterQuad and European-wide distributor Magirus.

Cooke said the applications are compatible with most operating systems, including Sun's Solaris, Microsoft's Windows 2000, and SCO's Unix platform, and more are planned for the future.

Although resellers have yet to be officially announced in the UK, the vendor said there was a wide interest in the products.

Sean Fane, managing director of InterQuad, said: "Our existing base of resellers has shown quite a bit of interest. They are mostly Citrix resellers which specialise in NT and Unix. That type of reseller is probably the most appropriate general reseller group. But we are very happy to accept others."

Cooke claimed that many companies are jumping on the XML bandwagon. However, most are focused on translating databases into XML and passing the data on.

Software AG has built a native XML platform which increases not only the efficiency of XML-related activity, but also the security of digital signatures and other data.

Cooke said that with previous XML products, data was broken up into bits, saved and brought back together. This posed serious security questions for highly-sensitive data such as digital signatures.

However, Tamino saves the digital signature as a complete document, reducing the chances of fraud and tampering. "What is really important here, is that the reseller community as a whole wants XML to be the de facto language of the internet. Any company working with XML will do well," said Fane.