Kertzman Forbids Abuse of Informix

Sybase CEO Mitchell Kertzman has ordered his staff to act in a professional manner and not to abuse arch-rival Informix?s situation, after being on the receiving end of such behaviour himself.

Informix revealed last week that it would report substantial losses for its first quarter, ended 30 March. It has admitted that it spent too much time promoting its object relational software at the expense of its traditional market (PC Dealer, 9 April).

But despite the fact that Informix has ousted Sybase as the number two database vendor, Kertzman said that he does not intend to aggravate the situation.

Speaking at the Sybase International User Group conference in Orlando last week, he said: ?We will compete and try to gain an advantage. But we have been in a similar position and know what it?s like.?

Losses resulting from the collapse of large parts of Sybase?s technology strategy prompted rivals ? including Informix ? to dismiss its chances of becoming a force in the industry last year.

Kertzman added that based on his experience with Sybase, Informix CEO Phil White was finding out that the company?s problems were more widespread than just a misdirected sales focus.

?When a company breaks, it breaks in more than one place. We thought that if we fixed System 10 then we would fix our problems. But we needed to fix sales and support and marketing as well,? he said.

Kertzman said Informix ran into problems when it ?stopped talking about OLTP, where it was strong, and started talking about digital cameras. It also made the mistake we did and focused far too much on Oracle.?