Borland details enterprise strategy

The company today announced a new corporate name, Inprise, along with plans for a new line of application server software targeted at large corporations. CEO Del Yocam also said the company will jump into the lucrative services market with a new services arm and through alliances with systems integrators and consultants.

All three moves are intended to make Borland a player in the multibillion-dollar corporate information technology market. The company had cut its teeth in the computing world as a provider of tools to the individual developer, which created a fierce loyalty among coders. Inprise will continue to sell development tools under the Borland brand name.

Now, company executives see their future in the much more profitable systems integration and software services area. That's a path many software providers are following, as an increasing number of corporate applications are outsourced.

Yocam said the name change was prompted by the company's acquisition of Visigenic Software in February and its desire to appeal to corporate buyers.

The new server software in development, to be called the Inprise Application Server, will combine new and existing technologies. Shipment is expected by year's end, through the release of individual components and added support to the company's development tools.

Specifically, Inprise will use object request broker software, picked up through its Visigenic acquisition, to link client development and management tools to server-based data and applications.

Application Server will also include management tools, Web integration, security services, transaction management, and integration with enterprise data and applications via CORBA and Microsoft's COM framework.

Selling application server software is turning into big business. The software can simplify the task of linking incompatible systems and systems located in disparate locations. Yocam trotted out an International Data Corporation study that pegs the current market as a $400-million-per-year business. By 2001, total application server sales are expected to reach more than $1 billion.

Inprise's new service organization will roll out this year, according to the company. Additional partnerships with consultants including Arthur Andersen, Cambridge Technology Partners, and Ernst & Young, among others, are expected to appeal to corporate customers.

Yocam expects services to eventually compose 20 percent of Inprise's overall revenue.

The company has been riding the waves of a comeback after near extinction only 18 months ago. The company has posted five consecutive quarters of growth and profits in four of the last five quarters. Last week, Borland reported an increase in revenues to $46.5 million for the first quarter, up from $43.4 million a year ago.

Borland will also change its Nasdaq ticker symbol to "INPR."