Speaking to The Financial Express, Informix's new managing director for South Asia, N Muralitharan, said that, "we will bring various changes to the organistion. A more analytical approach will be applied towards data, which could solve business problems and bring in better revenues."

The new thrust areas -- internet-related business and e-commerce -- make sense since Informix is a database company. "We can convert the data transacted through the Net into useful, intelligent data. This will enable us to process data faster for corporates," he said.

Informix has launched two new products, ireach and isell, which manage transactions on the web. The most significant aspect of theseproducts is that the costs include implementation charges, said Muralitharan. "We have some plans for these segments and also products and strategies. We want to communicate to people what we do as we are changing worldover as a company," he said.

Database companies are seeing a world of change with the introduction of new technologies as corporates can no longer afford to wait for informative data. In India, Informix wants to act fast and claim a large portion of the business that may come up in its traditional area of business.

"India is a key market for us. We will aggressively target companies in telecom business, manufacturers, financial institutions, insurance and banks. We already offer datamarts and datawarehousing to these sectors, which will be further extended," said Muralitharan.

The company plans to undergo a change in its approach towards other companies. "Our approach to the market will be one of partner-centric. In fact, we are meeting our existing and potential partners to discuss thegameplans. We will provide technology and support to our partners, who will be resourceful in turn. We expect good sales growth this year and will put in place an aggressive sales force," he explained.

Informix registered a turnover of Rs 14 crore in India last year. But, Muralitharan thinks that this is a period of consolidation for good growth.Another key area will be education. Informix plans to set up authorised education centres, where software developers will be trained in Informix technologies. It has seen a reasonably good demand for Informix education programme and hence, creation of more centres are on the anvil.