Seagate Software is giving away 50 licenses of its Seagate Info business intelligence software, with the view that when companies upgrade or expand they will have to pay.
Seagate Software, a subsidiary of hard-drive maker Seagate Technologies, is a leader in the market for business intelligence software, which helps companies retrieve and use data from databases and servers.
Reed DeMordaunt , Seagate Software's vice-president for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said: 'We believe business intelligence should be on every desktop.' To help reach this goal, Seagate allowing companies to download from the Web or install from CD-Rom up to 50 user licences of Seagate Info 7. They also will give away copies of a new product, Seagate Analysis, a standalone tool, that incorporates Olap (on-line analytical processing) querying and reporting functions. The package would cost US$22,500.
According to Mr DeMordaunt, the aim is to allow customers to check what business intelligence can do.
He said: 'The next step is that everyone in the organisation will start to want this tool, and that is when we start to make money.
'Our number-one objective for this is market share. When we have 20 million seats, we will be the undisputed leader in business intelligence, and we want to have those 20 million seats by the end of next year.' Me DeMordaunt said he believed the initiative would be popular in Asia, where the company is planning on sending out 50,000 CD-Roms.
He also said he expected Asia to show the largest revenue growth.
