July 2000 has yielded some impressive, and no doubt, promising business realities for Zen Computing. The company merged with Cogent Interface Architecture (Pty) Ltd, a sister company, and secured an investment from the IDC (Industrial Development Corporation). Both companies operate from Viking Investments & Asset Management`s incubator (www.viam.co.za)
With the amalgamation of Zen`s sought after Internet software development and e-commerce enablement skills, and Cogent`s expertise in interface architecture, the company caught the attention of some of South Africa`s prominent investment corporations.
The IDC won Zen`s favour, as they brought much more than just money to the table. Of course, one should never negate the possibilities money unlocks. The investment will allow Zen to release version 2.0 of its flagship product InSite, an XML-based Content Management System, as early as end of August this year.
InSite 2.0 is a flexible and powerful product, and runs on multiple operating systems and database platforms. The product allows clients to manage content across a wide variety of delivery formats such as HTML and WML. The market can expect various feature enhancements, additional modules, and a deployment period of approximately two weeks. The release of InSite 2.0 will include a plethora of much needed, user-friendly documentation that will assist users and developers too install and operate the system.
In addition to ensuring that InSite becomes the premier Content Management System locally, the company will introduce its product to the European market through a distribution partnership with Informix UK (www.informix.com) and LinuxIT (www.linuxit.com).
Those added benefits previously alluded to, which made the IDC such an attractive partner, includes assistance with business development, and sales and marketing. Furthermore, it would allow Zen to penetrate, as yet untapped business opportunities such as those created by international alliances.
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