Pick Systems Africa, the vendor of the Multidimensional Database Management System (MDBMS), has announced that it will no longer provide additional user licences and support under contract for it`s R83 and Advanced Pick (AP) products after 31st December. Companies running systems on R83 and AP will be able to upgrade their systems to Pick`s latest database product, D3.
AP will reach-end of product life by the end of this year whereas R83 reached end of life on31st December 1998. However, for both products, telephonic support will be will be made available to existing users, after 31st December and all support calls will be subject to the prevailing hourly rate
"In phasing out R83 and AP, we want users to take advantage of the current technology in D3, which is far more advanced than the older versions. We have supplied and supported Advanced Pick since D3 was launched over two years now; something that most other software companies would definitely have not done," commented Adrian Oxborrow, managing director of Pick Systems Africa.
"In most cases", he added, " the hardware on which the R83 is running will not be Y2k compliant, which will render systems inoperable. However, D3 is completely compatible with earlier versions of Advanced Pick and R83 and the forward migration is very easily accomplished."
Pick`s R83 was released on the IBM PC XT in 1984 and proved popular to non-technical business practitioners. The introduction of Advanced Pick in 1988 allowed a mature database management system that could stand on its own and work across a wide range of popular operating systems.
Advanced Pick was initially targeted at the growing UNIX marketplace where it could otherwise strengthen what many perceived to be deficiencies in that operating environment.
"The introduction of D3 was the culmination of Pick`s endeavour to move away from being an operating system vendor to becoming an open, general-purpose DBMS supplier. AP and R83 where meant to harness the IBM PC and UNIX movements in order to sustain company growth when others had shortfalls. With D3, Pick is now fully positioned to exploit the contemporary Client/Server and e-commerce movements," says Oxborrow.
In D3, Pick has built a remarkably open, high-performance, nested relational MDBMS (multidimensional database management system) balancing the needs of business user for on-line transaction processing as well as OLAP and generalised decision support.
According to Oxborrow, the Datapro Information Services Group`s research conducted in 1996 has shown that the D3 data model is more flexible and "real- world" than many rival databases.
"Pick arguably offers better price/performance than most vendors on the market, offering a multidimensional database product that extends all the performance, scalability, and general-purpose features one would expect from more popular relational offerings," says Robert Anderson, managing analyst at Datapro Information Services Group.
"D3 is the foundation for an effective open-computing system having the flexibility to meet today`s ever-changing business requirements. We would urge users of earlier versions of Pick to migrate to D3 which is far more advanced," concludes Oxborrow.
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Pick Systems Africa
Pick Systems Africa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pick Systems Inc., based in Irvine, California. Pick Systems is a leading developer of multi-user, multi-value database management system (DBMS) software. A pioneer in the industry, the Company introduced its first multi-value DBMS in 1973. Pick Systems markets its database solutions worldwide through a network of more than 250 value-added resellers supporting 2,000 VAR-developed applications.
Pick Systems` primary markets, served through the Company`s network of VARs developing industry-specific vertical applications, are: manufacturing, distribution, medical, financial services and wholesale/retail.