Subsidiary to widen sales base

By RICHARD WOOD

IT services company Gen-i is creating a subsidiary to market packaged software - starting with four products it has already developed.

Chief executive Garth Biggs said they were byproducts of work Gen-i had done for particular clients and which had broader applications.

The products were the property of Gen-i.

Biggs said software developed for customers for their own competitive advantage belonged to them, and there was a clear line between the two sides of the business.

He said the move to set up a separate company recognised a weakness in Gen-i.

"We are very good at solving problems for a group of customers.

"We are not good at taking a product and selling it to a larger number of customers."

Software being licensed through the new company includes Client Monitor, Realm, EasiArchive and an unnamed package for managing IT infrastructures.

Client Monitor details the inventory of hardware and software at each desktop computer.

Realm is a Jade-based web content management package that has been sold to six sites.

EasiArchive is an automated online archiving system.

Gen-i is applying for an international patent for EasiArchive, which works by compressing old files, moving them to a secondary storage facility, and giving access with a shortcut icon.