News briefs

Vantage Point distributor for Acer

Acer Computer Australia has signed a national distribution agreement with Vantage Point Technology.

While Acer will continue to directly support the larger national resellers, Vantage Point will distribute Acer products, from notebooks to desktop and minitower PCs, through a nationwide network of small and medium-sized resellers.

Vantage Point will also provide a help-line to assist resellers with technical queries.

Data General appoints channels managers

Data General Australia has appointed two managers to newly created positions - national channels manager and NSW channels manager.

New national channels manager Mike Bazely will be responsible for expanding and maintaining the company’s channels throughout Australia.

Mr Bazely has 15 years’ experience in the IT industry and has held several senior management roles in marketing and business development.

Michael Glynn, responsible for expanding the company’s channels in NSW, has worked with Data General for the past two years in corporate and imaging sales, and prior to joining DG, Mr Glynn spent 10 years in the channels division of Digital, assisting with large telco opportunities.

Claris appoints new managing director

Claris International has appointed Steve McManus as managing director of Australia and New Zealand, replacing former director Patrick Maloney, who soon returns to Canada.

Mr McManus will be responsible for all Claris operations in Australia and New Zealand, including marketing, distribution, sales, support, training and the identification of sales opportunities in Australia and New Zealand.

"1997 is going to be an exciting year for Claris in Australia and New Zealand, with the release of several new products as we penetrate the unlimited potential growth of the Windows and the Internet marketplaces, and continue to grow in our foundation Macintosh business," said Mr McManus.

IHS Australia and ACEL Info merge

IHS acquired ACEL Information last December, heralding a major expansion of its activities in Australia and New Zealand.

IHS Australia is a part of the IHS Group based in Colorado, US, one of the world’s largest publisher’s and distributors of technical information. The IHS range of databases and information services cover the electronics, defence and aerospace, engineering and technology industries, and worldwide standards.

ACEL Information is the one of the largest publisher of Australian content technical information databases. Its strengths lie in engineering, OHS, electronics and building industries which will complement IHS Australia’s existing product lines.

The organisation will be managed by Steve Austin, previously GM of Global Engineering Documents and VP of IHS Engineering Products Division.

Unisys expands direct sales channel

Unisys plans to expand its Unisys Direct sales channel for software, peripherals, PC and networking products by developing its end user business.

Under the plans Unisys Direct will consolidate sales to its existing client base and attract new clients through direct marketing campaigns.

The decision to expand Unisys Direct coincides with plans to close the Unimagic division and move away from wholesale distribution of software products.

Fuji Xerox appoints Victorian distributor

Fuji Xerox has appointed Alloys International as sole Victorian distributor of a range of Xerox monochrome and colour network laser printers. The appointment is part of a move by Fuji Xerox to take market share in the printer workgroup market.

Alloys will supply the new range of XPrint Plus three page per minute colour laser printers, the monochrome 17 page per minute Xerox 4517 laser printers and a new range of soon to be released workgroup printers.

ACA distributor for Or Technology

Or Technology has selected ACA Pacific to distribute the a:drive, a 120MB floppy disk drive able to read and write legacy (720KB and 1.44MB) floppy diskettes while offering 80 times the storage capacity and higher transfer rates.

The a:drive is targeted at the millions of floppy disk users who want greater storage capacity, and faster transfer rates and yet still need access to the data on their existing floppy diskettes.

The a:drive is an LS-120 floppy disk drive which can store up to 120MB of data using LS-120 media while being able to read and write 720MB and 1.44MB floppy diskettes.

Rasterex in Australia

Norway-based software developer, Rasterex International, has opened an Australian outlet.

Specialising in EDM, hybrid drawing editing and distribution of information on CD, the Rasterex product range features a set of independent software modules for managing CAD, scanned images, pictures and documents. The modules which are available for several platforms can be used separately or linked in the system.

The company policy is to be in close contact with end-users, allowing Rasterex to identify market trends at an early stage.

Rasterex is distributing Rasterex software through the created national network of VARs.