Geac Computer Corporation Limited has announced the acquisition of Advanced Libraries and Information, Inc. (ALII), based in Honolulu, Hawaii. ALII is a provider of integrated library automation systems. ALII's products, ALOHA, and the microcomputer-based ADVANCE, operate in the Pick and Pick/unix environments on a wide range of hardware platforms. Currently installed at some 20 sites including the University of Hawaii, Baker & Taylor, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the ALII systems will allow Geac to be more competitive in those segments of the market which require small and mid-size systems.
Bruce Park, formerly President of ALII, is now Senior Vice President of Geac and is relocating to Toronto. Joe Matthews, most recently an executive with INLEX and before that President of Joseph R. Matthews and Associates, Grass Valley, California, is now General Manager for ALII operations in Honolulu.
The Geac Library Information System (GLIS 9000) has been most successfully marketed to large institutions which require more than 150 terminals, and those with sophisticated cataloging requirements. ALOHA and ADVANCE initially will be offered to market segments that GLIS 9000 does not address, and will also provide an alternative upgrade path to users of the less extensive GLIS 8000 systems. The company intends, in the future, to make ALOHA available on its primary hardware platform, the Series 9000 transaction processor.
Geac appears now to be in a sound financial position. Its fourth quarter report of April 30, 1988, showed revenues of $21.9 Canadian, as against $18.3 Canadian in the previous year. There was a $200,000 Canadian net income from operations, as against a $2.4 million loss in the previous year. Debt was also substantially reduced. However, sales during the past year have consisted almost entirely of upgrades for existing customers, primarily upgrades from the 8000 to the 9000. So called "new name" sales eluded the company despite several months of aggressive pricing. Obviously, the upgrade market is finite and small. It is the editors' view that the poor sales to new accounts can be attributed to Geac's proprietary hardware, operating system, and programming language. While the product is functionally very attractive, customers are wholly dependent on the future viability of the vendor. The logical step was to begin to move away from the proprietary environment.
Geac has recently acknowledged that its 8000 product has reached the end of its market life. It claims that "the series 9000 and its extensions will remain its primary hardware vehicle into the l990s." However, the company will "be introducing certain 'off-the-shelf' hardware into [the] product line as a vehicle for ALOHA where appropriate" [and] "yes, we intend to take advantage of its portability to make ALOHA available on the 9000."
Geac says that it "will carry the GLIS 9000 development program to completion, and sell and support the product into the 1990s." It appears that completion of software development may be achieved in as little as a year because Geac has quietly dropped its "Information Utility" development program.
Reading between the lines, we conclude that Geac will continue to bid the 9000--hardware and software--whenever it thinks the product will be well received. This will include Europe--where the 9000 has been particularly popular--and the top end of the North American market, but the vast majority of its bids will offer ALII's ALOHA. We believe that a single product will evolve from the two, and that the standard environment in which ALOHA is built will be the basis for the new product. En our opinion, libraries which require large systems should seriously investigate ALOHA because there is no functional or technical reason why the product can't serve any size library.
Geac has taken a significant step: it has taken one foot out of the morass of proprietary products and placed it firmly on the ground of standard open systems. It follows CLSI in doing so. The critical test will be success in selling to "new names." Geac needs 20 to 30 sales of ALOHA over the next year to reestablish its market share. Prospects are very good that they will succeed. If they do, look for the two products to converge by the beginning of the 1990s.
