Hardware - UK can Whistle for IBM Interjet

The UK will have to wait until the end of the year for IBM's small-business Internet appliance, the Whistle Interjet.

The UK will have to wait until the end of the year for IBM's small-business Internet appliance, the Whistle Interjet.

Although IBM made a point of promoting the product to resellers at PartnerWorld last week, John Butler, vice-president of global sales at Whistle, which was acquired by IBM last year, said the complexity of setting up connectivity arrangements in the UK will delay availability.

Interjet is a small Unix box with an ISDN router that delivers shared Internet access, email, file sharing and a firewall to up to 100 users.

The product is designed to plug and play after a wizard-based set-up process.

Finding a UK service provider partner to arrange the technology behind this has delayed its launch, Butler said.

IBM said selling the Interjet will provide resellers with an opportunity to sell complementary products on the LAN, but to date in Europe, the Interjet is sold by telecoms companies.

Butler said negotiations with a UK service provider broke down after the company's acquisition, and IBM was in favour of using its resellers as a route to market for the Interjet because of the potential to sell more products and services around it.

The product has been incorporated into IBM's Small Business WebConnections service, which includes products such as Home Page Creator. Butler said it is not certain how long the Whistle brand will survive.

PRODUCT LEASING SHAKE-UP

IBM has widened the scope of its product-leasing programme for its business partners.

Members of systems integrator, Web integrator and solutions specialist business partner programmes can now take two-year leases on products at one per cent of list price a month, for use in software development, demonstration and training.

IBM Global Financing has also announced Total Financing for e-business, a scheme that allows VARs to bundle third-party products and their own services in a single credit agreement. Promotional rates of one per cent below base rate are available on some S/390s, all AS/400s and RS/6000 high-availability and storage systems.