INDUSTRY WATCH

IBM offers new gear on SEWP II I BM Corp. recently detailed its offerings on the network data server portion of NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation II procurement.

In October NASA selected nine contractors for its $1.8 billion SEWP II program the sequel to the popular SEWP contract. The contracts have since been awarded.

On SEWP II IBM will provide desktop workstations workgroup servers enterprise servers and large-scale distributed servers - all based upon its RISC Systems/6000 line. IBM values its data server pact at $100 million. The company was also the data server vendor on the original SEWP.

SEWP II has given IBM an opportunity to provide recently announced products.

New arrivals include IBM's RS/6000 Model J40 a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) server based upon the PowerPC 604 microprocessor. Additionally the company is providing its RS/6000 desktop SMP machine also based on the PowerPC 604 chip. IBM's RS/6000 products can ship with either IBM's AIX or Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT.

In software IBM's SEWP II pact features Tivoli's distributed systems management products and Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes. IBM's pact features the database offerings of Oracle Corp. Sybase Inc. and Informix as well as IBM's DB2/6000.

In terms of ordering SEWP II offers a World Wide Web-based product configuration aid. With this system a customer can select desired features for a workstation or server place the system in a "shopping basket" and have the total price of the system computed IBM officials said. The customer can then transmit an order electronically to a SEWP II procurement agent.

To browse IBM's SEWP II catalog on the Web contact ibmsewp.bet.ibm.com/.

Minolta plans direct imaging sales

Minolta Corp. has formed a new business unit to market its imaging products and plans to sell these systems directly to federal customers.

Glenn Magnell vice president and general manager of the Business Information Systems Division said the company will still market its products through resellers but will use its own sales force to handle large procurements.

The decision allows Minolta to consolidate its imaging products in one division Magnell said. "One of the things we're going to do is...offer integration services for specific projects " he added.

Minolta has sold systems to the Department of Veterans Affairs and its products are available through the National Institutes of Health's ImageWorld program from reseller National Micrographics Systems Silver Spring Md.

EDS allows purchases to be charged

Electronic Data Systems Corp. is allowing credit card purchases on its Army PC-1 contract. To promote the new arrangement PC-1 customers who use a government commercial credit card to order one of the bundled systems offered on the pact will receive a free 28.8 kilobit/sec internal modem. The modem normally sells for $125 on the contract.

EDS is also accepting credit cards for purchases on the Navy's PC LAN+ contract. Credit card purchases are limited to $2 500 but EDS said it is working to eliminate that ceiling.

Also on PC LAN+ EDS has reduced prices on servers and workstations from Compaq Computer Corp. and Micronics Computers Inc. Compaq's ProSignia 300 for example has been reduced by $395 to $2 600. A Micronics Pentium 166 with 32M of RAM Windows for Workgroups a 1.2G hard drive and a 17-inch color monitor sell for $2 299 a price reduction of almost 25 percent.

To make a credit card order call (800) 241-2143.- Compiled by John Moore and Elana Varon