>>What is the name of this consulting group?
>
>GARTNER GROUP, INC.
>Their response to my customer's inquiry has been written by :
> Brent C. Williams, Research Director
> Application Development & management Strategies (ADM)
> Gartner Group, Inc.
>
>>Is this consulting group a competitor of Microsoft related to
>>a database package?
>
>I wish I had that knowledge ! A proven relation of this kind
>would put an end to this nonsense.


Many corporations base their purchasing decisions on Gartner Groups reccommendations. I worked for one of those corps. at one time. Gartner Group wines and dines its subscribers at seminars around the U.S. in major cities, making it an escape for the "Dilbert's management" <g> if you will. You may also have noticed that in the conclusion to almost every Gartner Group article is a probability factor. This represents Gartner Group's prediction, as carefully extruded in their article (so it seems), will come to fruition. I have heard by many that their probability factors have a price...if you know what I mean...