Redwood City Ð If you are a NEXTSTEP developer, you will have to reregister with NeXT to qualify for a new, expanded slate of support services. And if you are a NEXTSTEP consultant, you could become a member of NeXT's new support group.
"We want to increase services to developers who are making a substantial commitment to today's NEXTSTEP. We could only do that by paring companies no longer involved in today's market from an outdated list of developers that was started over six years ago," said Julie Saffren, NeXT's manager of developer relations.
Companies and consultants will be required to pay $250 to join the new programs. Companies shipping a product will gain automatic entry to the program upon filing a basic application. Developers without a shipping product, and consultants, must pay $250 and file details about their business.
The new registered-consultant program highlights the importance of aftermarket professional services in the NEXTSTEP environment. "NeXT realizes that customers rely on a strong pool of consultants and other partners to maximize their productivity gain with NEXTSTEP, so we opened a new pipeline to deliver technical information to this community," said Saffren. NeXT also plans a new consultants directory.
Benefits of the program include discounts on NEXTSTEP software, support, and education products, all of which must be purchased separately; subscriptions to three technical-support products at no additional cost; and direct-marketing and comarketing opportunities to reach the NEXTSTEP customer base for an additional fee.
"We think it's appropriate to focus on producing apps that ship and marketing programs that have beneficial impact, like the third-party CD-ROM," said Dan Tortorici, director of sales and marketing for Pinnacle Research.