Palo Alto Ð NeXT gained a key business partner when Big Eight accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwick announced in September that it will begin offering a wide array of NEXTSTEP services. Among other projects, the firm plans to develop reusable object libraries for use in telecommunications, financial services, and health care.
"Object-oriented development is changing the way leading systems-consulting firms will develop software for their key customers. It allows developers to build reusable applications and reusable vertical-market components. We believe that NEXTSTEP provides us with an excellent opportunity to provide our customers with the benefits of object orientation," said Roger Siboni, KPMG's national director of information and communications.
The partnership differs from other integrator relationships through its sheer size and market presence. KPMG is a $6 billion accounting and professional-services firm with 800 offices in 125 countries and has contracts with 460 of the Fortune 500 companies. Though not directly comparable, the next largest integrator that has a strategic relationship with NeXT is Systemhouse, which has sales around $700 million, according to sources.
KPMG's plans for object libraries differ from current ObjectWare providers, according to NeXT. KPMG will be among the first to focus on specialized object kits for vertical markets, rather than general application-development object sets.
NeXT and KPMG Peat Marwick will work together both to create new business and expand NEXTSTEP's presence in existing accounts.
"KMPG Peat Marwick has a strong presence in our target markets, including telecommunications and financial services. We will begin working together with them immediately on customer accounts that we have in common in these markets," said Bill Wesemann, VP of North American sales.
As the first phase of the deal, KPMG began training engineers on NEXTSTEP in September.