Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector Comshare Company Details Name: Comshare Sector: Time-Sharing Description Comshare was founded in February, 1966 in Ann Arbor, MI by Richard (Rick) Crandall and Bob Guise to commercialize the time-sharing operating system technology for SDS computers being developed at U.C. Berkeley. Guise undertook the responsibility of running the company while Crandall went to California to work with Tymshare, SDS, and U.C. Berkeley on a joint project to develop the time- sharing operating system, a copy of which was then given to each of the four partner organizations in August, 1966. In November 1968, Comshare became one of the first software/services companies to go public. In August 1970, Guise exited the company and Crandall was appointed CEO. Comshare successfully further developed and marketed time-sharing services well into the 1980s. However, in the late 1970s, as computing power became less expensive, many of Comshare’s customers wanted to be able to run the applications they were buying as a service from Comshare on their own in-house computers. Anticipating the decline of the time-sharing market, Crandall undertook the process of changing Comshare’s business model from time-sharing services to software products enabling another growth spurt for Comshare which continued to successfully market software products until its sale to GEAC in 2003. Facilitators Luanne Johnson Statistics Contributors (0), Events (21), Stories (0), Documents (9), References (2), Discussions (0 threads, 0 posts) Entered By: Luanne Johnson August 29, 2009 Contributors There are no contributors for this company in the collection Timeline 1966 Milestones Comshare founded by Rick Crandall and Bob Guise (February Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector 1966) Rick Crandall and Bob Guise founded Comshare in February 1966 in Ann Arbor MI to commercialize the time-sharing operating system Technology for SDS computers being developed at U.C. Berkeley. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Joint project to develop a time-sharing operating system (1966) Guise took on the responsibility for running the company and Crandall went to Palo Alto to work on a joint project to develop a time-sharing operating system for the SDS 940 with Tymshare, UC Berkeley, and SDS (Scientific Data Systems). At the conclusion of the development project, each of the four partners went its own way with a copy of the system they had all developed. Related References Recollections of the beginning of the time-sharing industry Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Financial Data SDS provided free computer rental for six months (1966) In support of the efforts of Comshare and Tymshare to commercialize the time-sharing operating systems, SDS gave them six months of free rental for the SDS 940 computers they were using, a value equal to $35,000 per month, the rental cost of these computers. Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1967 Financial Data Comshare received an investment of more than $1 million (1967) Comshare received an investment of more than $1 million from the Weyerhauser family. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Technology Comshare developed a store-and-forward device to circumvent telecom regulations (1967) Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector Telecommunications regulations prohibited attaching a multiplexer to telephone lines but did not prohibit attaching a computer. Comshare circumvented this regulation by replacing multiplexers, devices that divide a line into multiple pieces, with a device that stored bits as they came in and then pulled them right back out again and sent them on. Since this met the technical definition of a computer, the Bell system was forced to allow Comshare to connect it to their lines. Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1968 Milestones Comshare went public (November 1968) Comshare went public in November 1968. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Financial Data Comshare opened offices around the country overextending itself (1968) Comshare began to open offices around the country, overextending itself financially and exhausting the cash received from the public offering. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Marketing and Competition Comshare had 3% of the time-sharing services market (1968) A survey by Auerbach Corporation showed that Comshare had 3% of the time-sharing services market in 1968. Related Documents Computer Time Sharing Grows Up 1969 Industry Relations Comshare joined ADAPSO (1969) Comshare, which had been a founding member of the Computer Timesharing Services Association, became a member of ADAPSO when Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector that association merged with ADAPSO. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1970 Milestones Crandall took over as CEO (August 1970) Crandall took over as CEO after Guise was forced out by the financial backers. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1971 Financial Data Comshare turned the corner to profitability (March 1971) Comshare turned the corner to profitability by March 1971 through a combination of better operating discipline, some cost reductions, and instituting a more process-oriented sales effort under new sales management. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1977 Industry Relations Crandall became Chair of ADAPSO's Long-Range Planning Committee (1977) In 1977, Crandall became the Chair of the ADAPSO Long-Range Planning Committee, which he was instrumental in forming. He continued to serve in this position until 1990. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography 1978 Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector Milestones Crandall visited Xerox PARC and saw a demo of graphical user interfaces (1978) Crandall visited Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, saw a display of graphical user interfaces such as a mouse and icons, and decided that Comshare needs to provide this level of usability to its executive customers. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Advent of Graphical Executive Information Systems [Memo on Crandall visit to Xerox PARC] Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Industry Relations Crandall was elected President of ADAPSO (1978) Crandall was elected President of ADAPSO. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents 25 Years, ADAPSO Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1979 Milestones Comshare decided to switch its business model to software (1979) In 1979, on a management canoe trip in Ohio, Comshare management decided to change its business model from selling time-sharing services to selling software products which incorporate graphical user interfaces that will appeal to executive and professional customers using decision support systems. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Advent of Graphical Executive Information Systems Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Industry Relations Crandall became Chair of ADAPSO's Image committee (1979) From 1979 until 1981, Crandall served as Chair of ADAPSO's Image Committee working with John Imlay, CEO of MSA, to improve the industry's image, especially in the financial community. Report to the Computer History Museum on the Information Technology Corporate Histories Project Time‐Sharing Sector Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography 1982 Milestones System W, Comshare's first software product, was launched (1982) In 1982, Comshare launched its first software product, System W, a decision support system which ran on IBM computers. It was available to customers either on Comshare's time-sharing service or as a software product to be installed on their own computers. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Advent of Graphical Executive Information Systems Oral history interview with Richard Crandall 1984 Milestones Comshare signed a joint marketing agreement with IBM (January 1984) In 1984, Comshare signed an agreement with IBM to jointly market Commander EIS, a graphical user interface-based executive information system. This agreement, the first one entered into by IBM following its 1982 announcement of an initiative to partner with software companies, generated considerable publicity for Comshare and firmly established it as a software company. Related References Richard L. (Rick) Crandall Biography Related Documents Advent of Graphical Executive Information Systems Oral history interview with Richard Crandall Products and Services Comshare launched Commander EIS (1984) In 1984, Comshare