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RECE,l SEP . ~ SVlOPS LIBRARY The AM Jacquard 121 entry level computer a choice of two letter -quality printers. systerrl does two things for your office. Word and The AM Jacquard J121 is designed to boost (lata processing. your office's productivity and profitability. No one, And it does a whole lot more. It interfaces to but no one, offers so much versatil ity and flexibility AM Varityper phototypesetters, can easily com­ for the money. And we know what we're talking rllunicate with mainframes, and can handle elec­ about. Our parent company, AM International, Inc., tronic mail and a multitude of tasks that other sys­ has been designing products to modernize terTIS can't. And all for about $13,500 per screen. offices for more than 90 years. This efficient office automation system can If you want to know more-and you should­ (~HOVIj with your business, too. Buy it now with about our Datapro award-winning J121, contact only two workstations and add more, for under AM Jacquard Systems, the Informationlsts. a $5,000 per screen, as you need them. The J121 division of AM International, Inc., Dept. 777, ofters ease ot operation, expandable on-line 3340 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405. storage, high speed throughput, and comes with (213) 450-1242, Ext. 777.

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Making it work harder Monitor response times in realtime! • level of customer service is unique in the Now you can look at IMS response times software industry. online with our unique Response Time Boole & Babbage is a world leader in Option (RTO). Available as an Asynchro­ IS ours. the development of software designed to nous Services feature to our CONTROLI formance evaluation, planning, forecasting, make your systems work harder, with IMS REALTIME product, RTO is the first and and financial management based on actual products for information management, only software tool that lets you instantly transaction values, instead of averaged capacity management, and productivity and continuously monitor response times values. And you get vast improvements on enhancements. for any transaction, class, region or user in the quality of information - information To find out more about CONTROL/IMS, your costly IMS environment. RTO is the that shows the actual CPU, data base, CONTROL/IMS REALTIME, Response latest development in Boole & Babbage's terminal, program, and system resource Time Option or any other Boole & Babbage efforts to control and manage IBM's utilization in management oriented report product, call TOLL FREE 800-538-1893 resource-hungry IMS universe. It's one of formats. Our easy to understand CONTROLI (In California call 408-735-9550) or many ways our software makes your IBM IMS cost accounting routines help you return the coupon to 510 Oakmead system work harder and puts the results to identify excessive IMS users as well as Parkway, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. on your bottom-line. providing accurate user charge-backs at the SEE US AT SOFTWARE INFO '81. BOOTH ~550 transaction level. Pinpoint IMS problems online CONTROL/IMS REALTIME gives you CONTROL/IMS will help you run your an immediate look into major problem IMS system better without changing areas in IMS operations through interactive one line of IBM code Boole~ diagnosis and bottleneck isolation tech­ CONTROL/IMS and CONTROL/IMS niques. Detect excessive IMS DB/DC REALTIME are the management software activity at the master terminal with the tools that give the big picture of your Babbage Asynchronous Service's automatic monitor­ IMS system. Plus, they give you more ing of 70 key performance indicators and detailed information than you ever thought more than 20 operational displays such possible, including advanced failsoft Harder Working Software as DL/1 calls and IMS pool information. The techniques, all without changing a single r------, operator is automatically warned when line of IBM's code. With CONTROL/IMS Tell me more about predetermined thresholds are exceeded, and CONTROL/IMS REALTIME products, The Harder Working Software! so the MTO or system programmer can fix you'll finally be able to make your data center problems before they drastically degrade run as smoothly and as in control as Name ______Title ______user service levels. you'd like. Company______

The only IMS products that give Get the full story from a Address ______you total control CONTROL/IMS or REALTIME user IBM's Information Management System Over 25% of the largest IMS DB/DC City______State __ Zip ___ lets you process great volumes of work, users in the United States already have a Phone ______yet its complexity makes it very difficult to CONTROL/IMS product in place. These control. As a result, performance tuning, Fortune 1000 companies know that we set Send me more information about: problem solving and financial analysis are the highest standards for product quality _ CONTROL/IMS exceedingly difficult to achieve without and customer support before, during and _ CONTROLlIMS REALTIME the powerful Boole & Babbage software after installation. With a nationwide team of I - Response Time Option tools, CONTROLlIMS and CONTROL/IMS software engineers and experienced cus­ REALTIME. tomer service representatives only a tele­ : _ All Boole & Babbage products OnlyCONTROL/lMS provides per- phone call away, Boole & Babbage's high L ______CIRCLE 5 ON READER CARD DATAMATIElN~ AUGUST 25, 1981/$4.00 U.S.A. VOLUME 27 NUMBER 9 This issue, 166,700 copies

PERSPECTIVE IN THE NEWS 7 53 MAGIC MOMENTS IN SOFTWARE WALL STREET Deborah Sojka and Philip H. Dorn WED TO SOFTWARE From Lovelace to VisiCalc, here are John W. Verity some of software's brightest stars Software companies are being court­ and their magic moments in history. ed and wooed like never befor'e. COMMENTARY 56 WANTED: SOFTWARE 17 FOR MICROS BOOM TIMES FOR Edith Myers SOFTWARE AND SERVICES The success or failure of software John L. Kirkley companies in this decade will be de­ It's obvious that the industry is mov­ termined by software. 80 ing into high gear. SOFTWARE FOR 60 THE VERTICALS FEATURES Edith Myers PAIN AND PLEASURE Microdata sees applications software IN GOING PUBLIC as a means of zeroing in on 20 Ralph Emmett specific markets. MILLIONAIRE MACHINE? The hot topic in the computer ser­ Alfred R. Berkeley vices community is: which company Once the crying stepchild of the ma­ will go public next? 82 tured hardware industry, the comput­ IMPORTING SOFTWARE TALENT er services industry is now attracting 65 . John W. Verity attention and money. Big money. International recruiting has become AN EXCEPTION TO THE NORM one way to solve the chronic Ralph Emmett shortage of programmers. While the services industry as a whole strives to eke out a mere 10% pretax profit on sales, Cullinane 86 continues to more than double ITS NAME IS ITS BUSINESS that margin. Willie Schatz The young National Commission on Software Issues in the '80s already 66 represents more associations than FEDS FIND SOFTWARE any other industry body. THE PROBLEM' Willie Schatz Two-thirds of all federal dp spending 88 is for software and related services­ NETWORKS NEED FINE TUNING but seldom is it money well spent. Ronald A. Frank Rapid fire rate hikes have sent tele­ 70 com managers scrambling for BODY SHOPPING ways to cut back on network costs. IS BIG' BUSINESS Edward K. Yasaki 92 Troubled by a shortage of program­ THE FLOPPY IS HERE mers, users are turning more and Edith Myers more to professional services compa­ If the floppy disk lives up to expecta­ nies. tions, Media Systems Technology 40 expects its business to boom. SOFTWARE TRENDS IN 74 WESTERN EUROPE UNIONIZATION OF 94 Murray Disman DP DEPARTMENTS UNDOING THE PAST Sales of software products in Europe Jan Johnson Jan Johnson are less than one-half those in the Like it or not, a number of dp depart­ Along with the proliferation of termi­ U.S., but they're growing at a re­ ments are being forced to become nals has come a dramatic change in markable rate. dues-paying union members. the way dp departments operate.

SPECIAL REPORT 3 CRTRMRTICN

Editor John L. Kirkley Articles Editor Wendy Reid Crisp News Editor Becky Barna International Editor Linda Runyan ·Q'II Managing Editor, Europe Andrew Lloyd Computer Products Editor Bill Musgrave Copy Editor Florence Lazar Power Associate Editor Kenneth Klee Systems Assistant Editor Deborah Sojka Editorial Assistant Lauren D'Attilo Bureau Managers San Francisco Edward K. Yasaki SILENCED Los Angeles Edith D. Myers 50Hz 60Hz Boston Ralph Emmett & 400Hz New York John W. Verity Technology Editor, Europe Fred Lamond II FREQUENCY Correspondents Washington Willie Schatz CONVERTERS London Malcolm Peltu Sydney, Australia Norman Kemp II NO-BREAK UNINTERRUPTIBLE Telecommunications Editor Ronald Frank Editorial Advisor Robert L. Patrick POWER SYSTEMS Technical Advisor Lowell Amdahl Contributing Editors Ralph G. Berglund, Howard Bromberg, Philip H. Dorn, David II MAINS NETWORK STABILIZERS Hebditch, John Imlay, Angeline Pantages, Russell Pipe, Carl Reynolds, F. G. Withington. FOR COMPUTER ROOM INSTALLATION WITH COMPUTERS AND OTHER CRITICAL LOAD EDITORIAL OFFICES Headquarters: 666 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10103. Phone EQUIPMENT REQUIRING HIGH STABILITY POWER (212) 489-2588. New England: 1 Chaucer St., RFD 2, Sandwich, MA02563, (617) 888-6312. Western: 1801 S. La MPL COMPUTER POWER SYSTEMS U.S.A. DISTRIBUTOR Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035, (213) 559-5111; Manufacturing Processes Limited POWER SYSTEMS & CONTROLS 2680 Bayshore Frontage Rd., Suite 401, Mountain View, CA 1730 Kelly Road Belvedere Works, Bilton Way, Richmond. Virginia 23261 94043, (415) 965-8222. International: 6605 Burlington PI., Hayes, Middlesex, England Tel. (804) 355-2803 Springfield, VA 22152, (703) 569-3383. Foreign: 221 Blvd. Mr M. Tabb Tel: 01-8489871 Telex: 934110 Raspail, 75014 Paris, France, (331) 322-7956. New York, N.Y. TELEX 64D-229. CIRCLE 6 ON READER CARD Art Director Kenneth Surabian Assistant Art Director Susan M. Rasco Production Manager Robert Gaydos Asst. Production Mgr_ Kathleen Monaghan CIRCULATION 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103 Circulation Manager Joseph J. Zaccaria Director of Mktg. Deborah Dwelley Gamber Business Manager Charles J. Johnsmeyer Publisher James M. Morris

Technical pubhshlng

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DATAMATION (ISSN 0011-6963) Magazine is issued monthly on or about the first day of every month, with the exception of August, which is semimonthly. Published by Technical Publishing, a company of the Dun and Bradstreet Corp., 1301 South Grove Ave .. Barrington, IL60010; James B. Tafel, Chairman; John K. Abely, President. Executive, advertising, editorial offices, and subscription department, 666 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10103. Published at East Greenville, Pa. Subscription rates: $36 (U.S. and Posses­ sions), $45 (Canadian). Reduced rate for qualified U.S. students: $18. Foreign subscription,s: £43. Additional charge for airmail: £40. Japan, Australia and New Zealand: £47 (air-shipped). Sole agent for all subscriptions outside the U.S.A. and Canada is J. B. Tratsart, Ltd. 154 A Green­ ford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA13QT, England, (01)422- 8295 or 422-2456. No subscription agency is authorized by us to solicit or take orders for subscriptions. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY 10001 and at additional mailing office. Copyright 1981 by Technical Publishing Company, a Division of Dun-Donnelley Publishing Corpora­ tion. All rights reserved. "Datamation" registered trademark of Technical Publishing Company. Microfilm copies of DA­ TAMATION may be obtained from University Microfilms, A Xerox Company, 300 No. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Printed by Brown Printing Co., Inc. POSTMASTER: Form 3579 to be sent to Technical Publishing Company Circulation Office: 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103. Single copy: $4.00 in U.S.A.

CIRCLE 7 ON READER CARD SPECIAL REPORT 4 It's software that brings life to the party. SYSTEM 2000NSE DBMS, teamed with the 4300, allows you to maximize your valuable human resources by providing them with tools that make their jobs easier.

Programmers applaud Intel's versatile programming language extensions, which greatly facilitate thei r design efforts and free them to develop new applications as well as to update old. End users appreciate the free-form, English-like language that allows them to create, update and retrieve data bases without programmer assis­ tance. Both enjoy Report Writer's com­ prehensive facilities which make re­ porting a routine and worry-free task. No programming is required.

And because SYSTEM 2000NSE is dictionary-driven, you need never be apprehensive about changing your data base. The Integrated Data Dic­ tionary (100) ensures that adjustments will not throw off the rest of the system in a "ripple effect."

Haven't had a good celebration for a long while? Call Intel's Market Informa­ tion Office at 512/258-5171 , or clip the coupon below. For you, the celebra­ tion has just begun. 4300 plug-com­ patible guests are also invited.

Please tell me more about SYSTEM 2000NSE DBMS in 4300 Cause for Celebration ... (compatible) environments. your new 4300 with Name ______Intel's DBMS Company ______Mailing address ______Your OP staff is out celebrating a long-sought City ______State _ Zip ______solution: hardware and software which work for them. Telephone ______Return to: Intel Market Information Office It feels good to be right. You've mands, while keeping budget and DP PO. Box 9968 chosen Intel's SYSTEM 2000®NSE staffing on an even keel. Towards this Austin, Texas 78766 data base management system to go end, you expect your software to re­ with your 4300. It's a match that cer­ lieve you of two fundamental con­ tainly calls for celebration. cerns: people productivity and low maintenance. Europe: Intel Corporation SA Commercial Systems Division SYSTEM 2000®NSE DBMS: Rue du Moulin a Papier 51, Boite 1 Made for the 4300. Intel answers these people-intensive B-1160 Brussels, Belgium 32-2-660-3010 TLX: 846-24814 Intel's DBMS is specially tailored to the needs by providing: IBM 4300 line and you, the user. Intel • powerful productivity tools for Canada: Intel Semiconductor of Canada, Ltd. knows you have a diversity of applica­ programmers; Willowdale, On'tario tion requirements and an urgent need • simplified interfaces for end users; CIRCLE 8 ON READER CARD to develop and maintain application • extensive prototyping facilities for software. You face a two-pronged application development; and ~ ICteliv~rs challenge: to clear out backlogs and • flexibility to respond to modifications -nt respond to increasing growth de- and change. I 1"eI solutions ow, Rae al-Va die has invisible dual and triple modems.

Model 787

Model 785

They're packaged inside TEXAS INSTRUMENTS' Silent 700* 780 Series Data Terminals.

n the beginning ..• Today ••• When Texas Instruments Texas Instruments' Model A truly universal modem packaged designed the 780 Series of 120 785 Portable Data Terminal in­ on a single PC board. character-per-second data termin­ cludes a micro-processor controlled als, Racal-Vadic was asked to . DUAL originate-only, acoustically We did it for TI, and we can do solve a difficult engineering and coupled modem that operates at it for you. Call or write us today. packaging problem. 1200 & 300 bps full duplex, and The requirement was for is compatible with Racal-Vadic's modems on a PC card that would VA3400 & Bell's 103. operate full duplex at both 1200 The modem for the TI Model Racal-Vadic Member IDCMA & 300 bps; be compatible with 787 Portable Communications Racal-Vadic's VA3400 and Bell Data Terminal presented an even 222 Caspian Drive IIFtJ{§JtJl1: The Electronics Group 212A & 103 type modems; operate tougher challenge. The result is a Sunnyvale, CA 94086 as a direct-connect modem or as full originate! answer TRIPLE Tel: (408) 744-0810. TWX: 910-339-9297 an acoustic coupler; yet be small modem that is direct-connect to PHONE: (800) 543-3000, OPERATOR 507 enough to fit inside TI's portable the switched network (with an . Racal-Vadic Regional Offices: West: (408) 744-0810 East: (301) 459-7430. Central: (312) 932-9268 data terminals. An incredibly acoustic coupler option), and is Northeast: (617) 245-8790. Southwest: (817) 277-2246 tough problem. But Racal-Vadic compatible with Bell's 212A, 103, solved it. and Racal-Vadic's 3400 Series. ·Trademark of Texas Instruments CIRCLE 9 ON READER CARD MAGIC MOMENTS IN SOFTWARE From Lovelace to VisiCalc, here are some of software's brightest stars and their magic moments.

by Deborah Sojka and Philip H. Dorn In the beginning there was only one program­ mer, Augusta Ada Byron, later Countess of Lovelace. Born in 1815, a frail, slim beauty with a mathematical mind quite unlike that of her father, the great English poet, Lord By­ ron, she left us an inheritance that only now is beginning to be appreciated. In a brief lifespan (she was dead of cancer at 36), Lady Lovelace managed to document the remarkable invention of Charles Babbage-the differential engine. In passing, she wrote a program for computing Bernoulli numbers that had to wait over 100 years for final debugging. This is somewhat longer than the time required by most of to­ Captain Grace M. Hopper day's programmers. Over 90 years later, a young math­ out. " There really is no exact date, just the ematician was assigned by the U. S. Navy to week or month when the program began to work for Howard Aiken at Harvard. When Lt. run reasonably well, the number of fixes in­ (J.G.) Grace M. Hopper began her work in stalled overtook the number of errors detect­ computing, the modern history of software ed, and the users stopped grumbling about the began. lack of reliability. In less than 40 years, the industry has The events listed were chosen solely moved from employing a single programmer by the authors and consequently reflect their to employing hundr~ds of thousands, the biases. It would be completely possible for number of lines of code in existence has other authors to establish sharply different reached well into the multiple billions, and lists. For convenience, the dates are separated the investment in software has become nearly by decades, although in reality events simply incalculable. flow across time, and the division into groups During the same period, there have is done to make the reading easier rather than been hundreds of languages invented, scores to suggest a sharp demarcation. of operating systems created, programs built to do everything from running a microwave THE '405 AND '50S: THE DAWN oven to calculating the orbit for the space 1946-Konrad Zuse, unable to build hard­ shuttle, and more than a few personal fortunes ware, thinks about the programming problem made. and creates Plankalkul, a language that em­ Through it all, however, a few events beds some unusual constructs including the stand out like beacons on a dark night, events idea of variables representing very large and that were so important they changed the very small numbers. It may have been the first course of the industry. Curiously enough, algorithmic language. 8 many of the happenings were known to be 6 important at the time or within a few short 1949-Francis (Betty) Holberton comes up ~ months. Unlike other technologies, program­ with the idea that a program can generate a: ming is a world where major changes receive another program, which she uses to generate ~ nearly immediate acceptance by the commu­ sort/merge routines. &5 nity at large. >- For a business that is so new, It IS 1949-F. Fortesque Fingerhut, while trying ~ curious to note how many exact dates have to debug his first program on the ACEcomput­ B already been forgotten. People know that er at the National Physical Laboratory, cannot ~ something happened in 1956, but with rare find the problem. He cracks under the strain, g: exceptions nobody knows the precise date. disappears, and is not seen until 1981 when he ~ Perhaps the reason for this can be found in an reemerges as the net court judge at Wimble­ ;j old programming truth: "It is 90% checked don.

SPECIAL REPORT 7 PERS PECT I VE

1951-Dr. Alec Glennie gets his Autocode 1955-0n August 9, the late Fletcher Jones, compiler for the Ferranti Mark I to operate, later a founder of csc, writes a letter describ­ one of the first compilers to receive any sort of ing a meeting of potential Los Angeles area general usage. 704 users, suggesting that since IBM does not Dr. Grace Hopper finds the original appear to know much about the software, "bug," a moth, and carefully pastes it into perhaps the buyers should get together and the Univac I logbook. The term sticks and help each other. SHARE is born later that another Grace Hopper invention goes into the month at a meeting in the basement of the record books. RAND Corp. With the organization comes the idea of standard operating systems, compil­ 1951-Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill come up ers, assemblers, plug boards, and utility sub­ with the idea of subroutines at about the same routines. time that Grace Hopper independently makes the same discovery. That same year, Wilkes 1956-IBM having accepted the idea of comes up with the idea of using what today SHARE, sets out to create GUIDE, a similar would be called microcomputer controls or organization for commercial users, and there­ microprocessing to build a machine. The idea by forces a split that exists even today. sits idle for many years until IBM, in develop­ ing the System/360, needs a way to make J957-0n April 20, a Friday afternoon, the machines built in different parts of the world first live, user-written, meaningful FORTRAN by different designers look the same to the program is run at Westinghouse-Bettis Labo­ user programmer. ratory. Herb Bright, Ollie Swift, and Lew Ondis watch carefully as the compiler, on the 1952-Grace Hopper's A-O compiler goes first try, kills the run for a missing right paren­ live. thesis. This raised a question still unan­ On election night, November 4, 1952, swered: "If the compiler knew what was the Univac I goes out on a limb at 8:30 p.m. wrong, why didn't it fix the problem?" Late Howard Bromberg With only 7% of the votes counted, it predicts in the afternoon, the program runs, and the an Eisenhower landslide. Horrified, CBS and FORTRAN era begins. nym for Automatically Programmed Tools, is Univac officials turn chicken, and reduce the first demonstrated. The APT language will be­ computer's estimate from odds of 100: 1 to 1958-SAGE, an air defense system, goes come the recognized international standard 8:7. A triumph for sound statistical analysis operational at its first live sites. The software for progamming numerically controlled ma­ and good programming is taken away from includes such goodies as interactive graphic chine tools. Doug Ro'ss carefully sets up the the developers. display support, programmatic recovery from demonstration to do something useful; he dropped or picked bits, data communications, mills ashtrays for the assembled onlookers. 1954-John Backus has an idea that an algo­ and an environment simulator. Environment rithmic language might be useful on the IBM simulation permits a programmer to test only THE '60S: SOFTWARE EXPLODES 704. His boss, Cuthburt Hurd, agrees. a single module within the context of a large 1960-In a Paris meeting in January, ALGOL system. (Early SAGE programmers are still is firmly defined, and a terse, tightly integrat­ waiting for this special concept to reappear in ed report is issued that to this day serves as a the commercial world.) soc is short of pro­ model for a language definition document. grammers to maintain the system and begins But aside from use by European academics, to train its own, a process that eventually will ALGOL remains little used. produce 20 new programmers every two In February, MAD, the Michigan Al­ weeks for over seven years. gorithmic Decoder, goes live. Based on AL­ A group of academics, dissatisfied GOL 58, it is the product of a three-man with some of the arbitrary, machine-oriented team-Bruce Arden, Bob Graham, and Ber­ restrictions in FORTRAN, decide that a new nie Galler. MAD includes a special construct language is necessary. In a series of meetings, permitting the programmer to define new they create the International Algebraic Lan­ source statements with a minimum of fuss. guage, later known as ALGOL, which is tightly Later the same year, JOVIAL, Jules' designed, block structured, powerful for (Schwartz) Own Version of the International mathematical manipulation, and omits input/ Algebraic Language, goes live at soc. For the output. hundreds of programmers working on mili­ tary command and control applications, it is 1959-The Department of Defense decides the first intimation that assembly languages that FORTRAN will not be acceptable for its will eventually disappear even from their commercial work and that IBM'S Commercial world. Translator cannot be implemented on multi­ On December 6 and 7, the same co­ ple machines because it will give IBM too BOL program runs on a Univac II and an RCA much of an edge. A set of committees go to 501 producing the same results from a single work to create another language, with Grace program. Charlie Phillips, Howard Brom­ Hopper carefully guiding the effort from berg, and Grace Hopper are delighted. All the backstage. hardware manufacturers promptly set out to John Backus On February 25 at MIT, APT, an acro- extend in unilateral ways their versions of

8 DATAMATION

PERS PECT I VE

grown database management, user lan­ two programs competing for the same re­ guages, coordination of multiple processors, source will both stop dead. The work leads to pointer-based virtual storage for data, and the a number oflater solutions, tasking and sema-· ability to produce hardcopy from the graphic phore systems being the more commonplace terminal in a few seconds. Since GM is more solutions, but the understanding of the prob­ interested in making money than in receiving lem doesn't really exist until Dijkstra pub­ academic credit, nobody is told of the work. lishes his papers. He will later produce T.H.E., And the buyers of 1965 Cadillacs never know an operating system that deals excellently the history of their trunk lids. with the competition for resources. General Electric release IDS, Integrat­ ed Data Store, the first commercially available 1966-Some 2,000 attendees at a SHARE database management system, for users of the meeting walk around sporting mysterious GE225. Since their numbers are small, it takes buttons reading "Q 10." IBM'S president a long time before the world hears about IDS. Watson asks its meaning and his own people Many new IDS versions are released before won't tell him. The users cheerfully admit people realize what Charlie Bachman has that it refers to the 10th question in an IBM done. A direct forerunner of the present DBMS Western Region sales promotion piece: systems, IDS was originally developed for only "Why os/360?" Within four hours, all the a single customer. Hardly ~nybody realized cards in the promotion kit disappear except the widespread applicability. for one set, which today resides in the SHARE archives. 1964-At Dartmouth College, John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz release BASIC, a language 1968-The first of two NATo-sponsored soft­ destined to spread far beyond the green hills ware conferences is held on October 7-11 in of Hanover. All they wanted· to do was to Garmisch, Germany. Attended by most of the make it easy for users who were not computer world's software heavyweights including Kenneth E. Iverson science majors to have access to the comput­ Dijkstra, Perlis, Galler, Paul, Naur, Barton, er. Few at the time are impressed. Almost Gill, Gries, Graham, Kinslow, Bemer, Ko­ COBOL so that this demonstration can never nobody believes that BASIC really has an AL­ lence, McClure, McIlroy, Opler, and Ross, again take place. Software lock-in begins. GOL underpinning. In its earliest versions, the the conference probes software from every A small team at Burroughs (nee Elec­ entire language definition and user manual direction, including such nonacademic sub­ trodata Corp.), led by Bob Barton, begins t~ could be printed on a 3" x 5" card. jects as pricing. Unfortunately, the proceed­ see daylight with their ALGOL-based hard­ In April IBM announces System/360, ings are not made available in hardback form ware, which will eventually become the B- which turns out to be a full employment act until 1976. The text, however, is still excel­ 5500. Barton has been promoting the strange for programmers. Later, T.J. Watson will lent reading and a fair reflection of the best of idea that one ought to design a machine to fit admit that IBM spent over $50 million per year current thinking. the software. They will structure the stack­ and 5,000 man-years of effort getting os/360 Professor Edsger Dijkstra writes a let- oriented instruction set to simplify the compi­ to run. lation and execution tasks. Few believed him In December, IBM releases a docu­ at that time, and, with some notable excep­ ment describing NPL. As there is considerable tions, few believe him now. noise from the National Physical Laboratory, its name is changed to pUI. This language 1961-Maurice Halstead, working at the was one of the last major design. efforts in University of California in Berkeley, releases which the users had the upper hand. IBM took Neliac, another ALGOL-based compiler. Ne­ control of the language and shoved the liac has the interesting property of being writ­ SHARE-sponsored 3 x 3 development com­ ten in Neliac. It is generally regarded as the mittee into the background. Bruce Rosen­ first production compiler written in its own blatt, of SOCAL, Hans Burg of Lockheed, and language. . Jim Cox of Union Carbide had spent a year of their lives on the project. They are less than 1962-John McCarthy releases LISP, the re­ overwhelmed by IBM's so-called "improve­ sult of six years of effort, as a language for ments. " dealing with artificial intelligence and symbol manipulation problems. Among other impor­ 1965-Larry Breed and Adin Falkoffbegin to tant breakthroughs is the concept of garbage implement Ken Iverson's APL. Developed collection, a process of regaining unused stor­ originally with Fred Brooks as far back as age. Today, with the advances in giant-sized 1956, APL was created as a tool for describing systems, garbage collection is probably no and defining various machine functions. The longer necessary. implementation will take four years, but the end product-a sparse, powerful, rigidly de­ 1963-0n November 18, General Motors fined language with more power for less ef­ Research Laboratories sees a culmination of fort than any other language to date-will be six years of effort with the production of the worth the effort. first automobile part designed at an on-line Dutch professor Edsger W. Dijkstra terminal. The system, DAC-I, includes home- begins to attac~ the deadlock process in which Edsger W. Dijkstra

10 DATAMATION CIRCLE 31 ON READER CARD ~ -.---.... ----..., , -"""'.I \ 1'- : '.) _', i \ !

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I!F·\iHt{~j;j lfl'l·,:t;,"H~ l'i~r'l~I~\ I, ,:~I,q~~'I' !:\1J!j~I~H4: ((hl\<{chll!I' '\\,Ji;l~~! t1' i~'l i}:! ~H ~t,.tJ ;,t i '. ~., 1.:J ~j/:i\:~ (~·I'tii,Olii!:j4!·h, l~:t.~\\.'A,t-i·,jdJh(~):'~:,f~~H, lJj.m~~.tj j"'l:.!'!;'~(~h}t~ji\t ::'f.l!1 J:l:, {~i H!l;4il:jt' .l\-:\,,·(~,l 1.~ii,:)!'H:·l:' .. \~~1.p,·I~I:(~F.lrt~I~;i~~·~)!n:' \\H(~i jHiiogf,r~I'i,."lfrn;l lli.iJ·~1 ':j~(.I:~' i, '1~)I1-~ (·{~II. ,r~) i,\·nli,\·,H4~i \~t~i,j,H~{·;; (h,t.:Hh~{··I'I' !:It)~r,,\ll:.J~~; 1.:J.hG\ f~)!i~\.·;i .. t~l:. i:.i 1!~,tl'{+.q:JI ('I~~~l·li \~itiV '<~"~'I.!! \',(0)'1 1"~j:Jil {:,Iet!l (tE"nit~r~ H~pH"f iih.:«~~\ 'II/mil \'i~ntH;,r,' (~HltJnt~i~iJ~1 q~m~jlt:i;;.!!:{@I~,\\i{~H.: 1~01' 'i'Xe).·;; \.Gl~~.tdr, opyright© 1981, Tektronlx,lnc. NI rights reserved OEM quotations available on request. 973 ,

1 Ol~; fp~n r~' n:{(ft-cl ~ 1-1 (~} T~) '~ro ),~~-~, Xpl :';1'0 fo\ p n~o'i PJtr~fr' C01.Y ;lJ~f~~\1 As your plotting needs change, the 4662 keeps changing automatically!

Present 4662 owners can keep their plotters and still keep current, because the a-pen turret is easily retrofitted in the field. Adding just a few lines of code is all it takes to implement the conve­ nience of automatic The new a-pen pen changes to existing turret option: one programs! more reason why the That's typical of Tektronix 4662 is one Tektronix, where equip­ small plotter you won't ment is designed to outgrow. With the 4662, be dependably perma­ you automatically start nent. That's why both off with more choices of RS-232-C and GPIB inter­ plotting styles than on any faces are standard on other B-size (11 " x 17"; the 4662-so you can 279mm x 432mm) change processors with­ plotter: Choose paper, out extra expense. And Mylar® or overhead pro­ why we've already made Tektronix, Inc. jector film. Select from additional memory Information Display nine colors and three available to 4662 owners. Division pen types, including hard­ If you're in the P.O. Box 4828 nib, fiber-tip, and fine-line market for a practical Portland, OR 97208 wet-ink pens for drawing plotter, make it a Tektronix multiple plots on a single permanent plotter. International, Inc. page. That makes it a Tektronix European Marketing Add the new Option 31 plotter, automatically! Centre turret, and you can pre­ For more information on Post Box 827 load all the pens you the 4662 Option 31, call 1180 AV Amstelveen need for the most color­ 1-800-547-6711 (in Ore­ The Netherlands ful or complex plot. The gon, 1-800-452-6773), 4662 picks whatever you or contact your local THE GRAPHICS choose. Automatically. Tektronix Sales Engineer. STANDARD

>­ D z: 2 ::( COMMITTED TO EXCEUENCE l: f) :::> ..J CIRCLE 32 ON READER CARD :::! PERS PECT I VE

ter to Communications of the ACM in which about APT, noted that he had over 70 feet of he casually observes that "the quality of pro­ shelf documentation to plow through. grammers is a decreasing function of the den­ sity of GOTO statements in the programs they 1979-VisiCalc reaches popular conscious­ produce. More recently I discovered why the ness and the microcomputer world explodes. use of the GOTO statement has such disastrous Conceptually a simple enough idea, VisiCalc effects, and I became convinced that the GOTO permits the businessman to set up budgets and statement should be abolished from all 'high­ do projections in a comparatively easy way er-level' programming languages (i.e., ev­ without having to learn programming. As erything except, perhaps, plain machine such, it helps sell machines in a way that no code)." In one stroke, Dijkstra starts the en­ program ever has before. Originally designed tire movement to structured programming. to run on the Apple, VisiCalc has now spread to all sorts of other microcomputers. VisiCalc 1969-0n June 23, IBM announces that may well be the most important program to henceforth, software will be unbundled and have appeared since FORTRAN because it sells you will have to pay for it. While the policy otherwise unapproachable computers to peo­ has little immediate impact on user budgets, a ple without any technical training. decade later software rental costs begin to appear as significant line items. A $3 billion THE '80S: PROMISES TO KEEP business is born on this date. Unfortunately 1980-IBM releases System/38, the first com­ for the many independents who rush in, IBM puter system that includes a built-in relational still remains the largest software house. database management system. The idea goes Later the same year, MUL TICS, the back to the work of Ted Codd over a decade MIT-developed timesharing system built on earlier, but the first implementation in a full­ General Electric hardware, goes operational. scale system is being watched carefully. Replacing its limited predecessor, the Com­ What most programmers can't figure is how patible Time Sharing System (crss) on the Robert S. Barton to convert their multibillion record IMS files to IBM 7094, MULTICS trains a generation of MIT a relational system. students. What makes the system unique are England on the ATLAS in 1958 and by Bur­ the unilevel file structure and the language in roughs on the B-5500 in 1961. 1981-lntel announces the 432 microproces­ which it is written, pL/l. sor, a 32-bit system programmed in ADA. SHARE and GUIDE vote not to merge, 1975-Fred Brooks, long ago a co-developer Software AG announces that it will thereby continuing their almost meaningless of APL and the manager of os/360, issues The now deliver its DBMS in an independently separation. The COBOL and FORTRAN adher­ Mythical Man-Month. The book dissects the manufactured hardware box that you can at­ ents toss rocks at each other across the slightly traditional programming philosophies based tach to your existing system. moldy Atlantic City territory, where the upon what J. L. Ogdin called the Mongolian In one short, frenzied spring period, meeting is held in October. hordes. Brooks points out that the more peo­ several major software houses, including ple you put on a lagging project, the further MSA, Pansophic, and Software AG, all go pub­ THE '70S: SOFTWARE RULES behind you fall, and that a small team can beat lic. 1970-American National Standard COBOL is an army any time. It becomes the second book * released to the user community, which really of compulsory reading for all programmers. Software is a business. Money is be- doesn't care. Each installation continues to The Department of Defense starts to ing made, and lost, producing and marketing use its vendor's versions. Few can see any think about programming for its thousands of programs. The variety of programs available advantage in a national standard that isn't computers embedded within various weapons for sale is staggering: operating systems; completely and carefully observed. The same systems. DOD will go through numerous cute­ compilers; applications, both industry-specif­ flap will occur again in 1981 when a new ANS ly named gyration s-Strawman , lronman, ic and cross-industry; and utilities. Some are draft of a standard is released. Steelman, etc.-before it finally issues a con­ sold directly by salespeople using all the stan­ tract for the design of a new language. The dard paraphernalia of hardware selling. Oth­ 1971 -The first edition of Gerry Weinberg's competition is won by Honeywell-Bull, ers are sold in retail stores, like razor blades, The Psychology of Computer Programming based on a design produced by Jean Ichbiah. or over the telephone. appears. Weinberg opts for structured pro­ Since one person is in complete charge, the What was once a business for a single gramming, higher level languages, and pro­ eventual result, ADA, is a coherent and inte­ individual or a small team has become a grammer teams, all of which the average pro­ grated language rather than merely a set of planned project with all the overhead that grammer dislikes immensely. Nevertheless, interesting features having little relationship corporate structure can attach. Interestingly, the book is so good at explaining program­ to each other. the two greatest success stories, FORTRAN and ming problems that it is read for the next 10 VisiCalc, reverse the trend. The 1954to 1957 years as the handbook for computer program­ 1978-The Sigplan group within ACM spon­ FORTRAN effort was done by a 13-person ming. sors a major conference on the history of team, while VisiCalc was a two-person job. IBM announces it has invented virtual programming languages held in Los Angeles, Perhaps this indicates that the really good storage, which is going to free programmers June 1-3. A set of apparently definitive papers software of the '80s will come from miniature from the burden of optimizing their use of on how various languages were created, what companies with microcomputer target mar­ memory and using overlays. To get this fea­ ideas were included, and what objectives kets. ture, most installations discover that they will were being sought were presented. By their Where are the pioneers of yesterday, be required to buy more memory. Later on, own admission, some of the contributors had the names that dot the history of program­ they find outthat the idea was implemented in forgotten all the details. Ross, when talking ming? Some are dead. Stanley Gill, Fletcher

14 DATAMATION It's like multiplying your CICS programming staff by ten. TRANS IV lets you increase programming productivity TRANS IV is one more way Implementation Systems from ten times or more - without adding CICS programmers. Informatics help you manage human energy problems. This solution-oriented application development system Call or fill out the coupon for more information. Or attach performs CICSNS functions automatically. your business card to the coupon. With it, programmers can write on-line application programs interactively, without referring to CICS macros or internals. Implementation Systems Product Management DSE881 • Features For Productivity. With TRANS IV, you can 21050 Vanowen Street, Canoga Park,. ••• define files and display formats in real time - also procedures Califomia91304 (213)887-9121 Informatics Inc. unique to your applications (like edit and range checks). Telex: 69-8715 Cable: INFORMATICS • TRANS IV gives you on-line error correction and test/debug o Send me more information about TRANS IV. ® capabilities - without cards, batch processing, or programming. o Send me a salesman with an order form. TRANS IV operates under all releases of CICS/VS. Name ______Title ______With our Informatics classes and learning aids, programmers COmpany------are fully productive with TRANS IV within a week. Address ______The Problem Solver. If you've got a scarcity of CICS expertise and a growing demand for on-line applications, find City ______,State ______~Zip,------out the details of TRANS IV. Telephonet:..:(L----'------It's an impressive system that can help you go a long way toward maximizing your CICS investment. In a very short time. L~~~ ______OJ:~~~~~~e~ ______TRANS IV for DOS/VSE by Informatics: The Information Management Company. CIRCLE 33 ON READER CARD PERS PECT I VE

Jones, Howard Aiken, Maurice Halstead, John Mauchly, and Asher Opler have passed away. Many others, however, are right where Buxton, Naur,{andRandeIl,eds., Software NPL ,. Technical Report, mM Corporation Engineering--Concepts and Techniques they always have been-working and creat­ Document 320·0908, December 1964. ing. Grace Hopper, well past a normal retire­ (Transcripts of the two NATO software con­ ment age, is busy educating yet another gen­ ferences), Petrocelli/Charter; ·1976. Bemard'A. Galler, editor in chief, The An­ eration of programmers. John Backus is still nals of the History of Computing; AAPS GeraldM.W~Jnberg,ThePsychology of Press;, Washington, D.C. This quarterly with IBM. Doug Ross is still trying to auto­ Computer Programming, Van Nostrand publication" begun in July 1979. is dedi­ mate design efforts. Iverson, Falkoff, and Reinhold, 1971. ' Breed are still working with APL. Herb Bright cated todp history. Highly recommended FrederickP. Brooks, · Jr _", The Mythical is working on cryptographic software. John for anybody at all interested in how.wegot Man-Month, Addison-Wes1ey,1975. ' Kemeny has just retired as president of Dart­ this way. mouth. Rosenblatt is still at SOCAL, Galler at Maurice H: Halste l1d,Machine Independent Erik Bruhn, editor and publisher,DATA the University of Michigan. Most of the oth­ C omputer

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CIRCLE 340N READER CARD 16 DATAMATION by John L. I(irlcley "Like sharks at a feeding frenzy" was the not so flattering image one observer used to describe the security analysts milling about at ADAP­ so's annual meeting in New York. "Times have changed," said another, as he watched the over 200 analysts converge on the various software and services company brass who were also at the meeting. "Used to be we could hold this shindig in a hotel suite. " It's obvious that Wall Street, just like the general press, has discovered that the software industry has entered its boom phase. As Al Berkeley comments in the lead article in this special issue, "The investment community has taken an extraordinary interest in computer services for several reasons. The industry is growing at about 20% per year and Input (a west coast research firm) estimates that some parts of

SPECIAL REPORT 17 COM MEN TAR Y

66E

Tt Users who are saddled the industry are growing faster than 30%, while individual niches and T( with a system that fails to some companies are showing growth faster than 50% per year. Fast Ef growth is coupled with the potential of enormous size. The industry, Te meet their expectations, sc and perhaps does dam­ earning just over $14 billion today, is clearly going to be one of the CL age to their business, are largest industries in the country by the end of the decade. ' , or very likely to sue. Berkeley, who also chaired the ADAPSO analysts' meeting, told at the attendees that the industry is moving from the entrepreneurial to the Fe professional management stage and is now reaching the international cll tic marketplace. U.S. software and services companies will do about $200 in million in export business by the end of this year, a growth rate of 85% ad in foreign sales. fo As the articles in this issue indicate, the opportunities are many a 1'1 and extraordinarily diverse. Of course, with opportunities come prob­ TC U' lems. For example, microcomputer technology has made inexpensive Sl raw computing power available to myriads of first-time users and Ar opened up a large market for microcomputer software. But unless the LC software and hardware vendors are willing to do a great deal of hand­ SI holding, or the software is so "friendly" that the first-time user has no trouble understanding it, these initiates to the world of computing could get into a lot of trouble. And these days, users saddled with a system that fails to meet their expectations, and perhaps does damage to their business, are very likely to sue. But caveats aside, it's obvious that the industry is moving into high gear. Our candidates for the five hottest areas of software development are: 1. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing 4 (including computer graphics). (J 2. Standard software products for mainframes. This segment of the industry is growing at 35% a year; its vigor is indicated by the number of firms going pUblic: among them Pansophic, Management Science America, and Software AG. 3. Turnkey or industry specific systems. Companies like'l'riact, Reynolds, and HBO are making hay in specialized, vertical market­ places. 4. Microcomputer software for business applications. Personal

Software, Peachtree (recently acquired by MSA), and MicroSoft are 6 examples here. (~ 5. Microsoftware publishing. An interesting and as yet ill­ defined opportunity where the programmer submits his program (or manuscript) to a publisher who provides the same kind of financial, editorial, and marketing services that a book publisher might. Instead of winding up in the front windows ofB. Dalton or Barnes & Noble, the lucky author may find his offering housed in a blister pack and hanging from a rack in every department store and retail outlet that peddles computers. Obviously there are other candidates for this list, but at this point in the computer software and services industry's existence, it doesn't make much difference. Almost every area is one of rapid growth. From all indications it looks like the next several years should be quite fascinating as this portion of the computer industry takes off like a rocket. No wonder a meeting like the ADAPSO session draws a crowd of financial analysts, jaws agape, salivating expectantly. ~

18 DATAMATION You should know too that any 50 Series sys­ tem can be networked with any other. They can also communicate directly with main­ frames. And all Prime systems support a broad band of industry-standard languages. The economy of compatibility. The Prime 50 Series is designed around a single operating system, which makes all systems compatible with each other. So you can easily and economically move up to a larger sys­ tem, or expand to any number of small, Prime. remote systems. And you'll have nothing new One line of compatible to learn because the same software goes with systems. A whole spectrum you. ofpowerful solutions. A spectrum of solutions. The 50 Series was designed to provide a broad spectrum of Just a few years ago, advanced technology solutions for just about any application you and system compatibility were mutually might have, including manufacturing, finan­ exclusive. But when Prime began making Cial, education, utilities, engineering, energy, computers, technology and compatibility automated office, you name it. became one. Consider Prime first. Today, more than Big. Better. Best. The Prime 50 Series ever before, you need the compatibility and includes the Prime 250-11, 550-11, 750, and the the spectrum of solutions that only Prime can new Prime 850. The Series is so flexible, it can offer. For more information, write to us at handle Virtually any application you have. Prime Park, MS 15-60, Natick, Massachusetts And so powerful, it can meet your most 01760. In Europe, write Prime Europe, 6 demanding needs. Lampton Rd., Hounslow, Middlesex, TW3 1]1, If you're in a start-up mode, the perfect way England. Telephone: 01-570-8555. to begin building your system is with the Prime 250-11. If you need more power, you'll find the solution in the Prime 850-11 or the Prime 750. And if you're looking for maxi­ PRIME mum performance, the Prime 850 is the most Computer powerful mini available today.

CIRCLE 15 ON READER CARD ,." .

The computer services industry,. once the crying stepchild of the matured hardware in­ dustry, is attracting attention and money. Big money. MILLIONAIRE Stock prices are up, the pace ofmerg­ ers and acquisitions quickens, startup ven­ tures abound, new products find quick suc­ cess, prominent companies go pUblic. MACHINE? Growth--of markets, revenues, and profits­ Like the industrial revolution, the information revolution is is the word on everyone's lips. spawning new industries and creating fortunes. Dp professionals, company manag­ ers, and investors are all enjoying the growth by Alfred R. Berkeley and change. And yet, some observers, par-

20 DATAMATION ticularly those with a financial stake, are not traditional life cycle concept may be applied and benefiting the standard of living. too sure about the industry's future. effectively. Just as humans and other living Like the industrial revolution, the in­ They ask: can the astounding growth organisms go through specific periods of formation revolution is spawning a whole list of software and services, which currently birth, growth, maturity, and decline, indus­ of small industries, each composed of many outpaces that of the overall computer indus­ tries may show similar tendencies. companies. Computer services, a term Wall try, continue for long? Or will the business, The industrial revolution created Street uses to embrace a wide variety of and stock prices, crash the way they did so enormous fortunes as capital and labor moved companies whose principal value lies in their spectacularly jn the early '70s? from agriculture to manufacturing. The computer software, is just one of many busi- To answer such questions and to make movement's by-product was a significantly sense of what some seem to think are contra­ improved standard of living. Similarly, the FROM LEFT TO RIGHT CLOCKWISE, PHOTO­ dicting signals, a method of analyzing the shift of capital and labor now occurring, from GRAPHS BY: J. BLAUSTEIN, D. DURRANCE II, J. BLAUSTEIN, J. CASPARY, M. WEAVER, services market's current state and future po­ established industries into information indus­ D. DURRANCE. ELECTRONIC COLORIZATION tential is needed. In lieu of a crystal ball, the tries, is again creating significant fortunes BY PETER ANGELO SIMON .

. ~

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.:

SPECIAL REPORT 21 SOFTWARE & SERVI CES

nesses in the infonnation industry. Others include computers, telecommunications, per­ EXHIBIT 1 ipherals, and semiconductors. The computer COMPUTER SERVICES INDEX services industry itself may be segmented into timesharing, facilities management, turnkey 3.80 r------, systems, packaged software products, and contract programming. Capital flowing into these growth areas is fleeing from older industries which 3.20 t------/ offer little growth and a return on equity lower than the inflation rate. By contrast, computer. services companies offer growth rates consid­ erably higher than the inflation rate and many 2.60 t------I\. times the growth of the economy as a whole. Peter Cunningham, of Input, Inc., estimates industry growth at about 20%, broken down 2.00 I------~ as follows: 1980 1985 (in $bil.) (in $bil.) Processing services $8.8 $18.8 1.40 I------~ Software products 2.4 8.7 Professional services 3.4 7.5 The average annual growth rate for each of the three categories is: Processing Services, 0.80 17%; Software Products, 29%; and Profes­ sional Services, 17%. Recognizing this substantial growth, 77 78 79 80 81 Wall Street has poured money into the indus­ DATE MONTHLY: 4/76-3/81 SOURCE: ALEX. BROWN & SONS. try. In 1980, the computer services stocks followed by Alex. Brown & Sons more than . doubled on average-perfonning significant­ To investors, the ability to benefit + Component N ly better than the market as a whole, as shown directly from others' advances has important Product 1 + Product 2 + . . . + in Exhibit 1. implications (Le., the closer a producer is to Product N In the early growth stage of the life the end user in the manufacturing and distri­ System 1 + System 2 + . . . + Sys­ cycle, computer services companies are en­ bution chain, the more stable the demand is tem N joying a fast track because of three sources of for its service). Conversely, the more re­ Network 1 + Network 2 + . . . + available growth. First, the market for com­ moved a producer becomes from the end user, Network N puter services is rapidly expanding as de- the more susceptible it is to the accordian User

~ ..J~ ______• _ ...crr.nC'~_1"W __ ",foro J...-: __ ". ____.".: __ .... !.L! ___ ...... L _&&__ ... _C! _____ ... ___ __ ...l ___ .... _1 _____ ...... '""I.&~.u·.6 ..... V~"103 U.I.l1..l5 ,",V.llJ,PUI.1.115 "".11111 .l~a""ll ~U~"L U. UIV~UlU.'y auu ~apual ~pCllUlllg l:Ul- Sufiwart: t:nit:rs iht: chain as a produci, and of more and more buyers. Second, not all tailments up and down the chain of producers. computer services such as timesharing and . among those who can afford and want com­ Schematically, raw material is converted to turnkey systems enter at the systems level­ puting use it. Hence, growth is available relatively close to the end user. Computer through additional market penetration. Third, Hardware/software cost re­ services companies add value to "iron" pro­ growth is available to any company grabbing lationship reversal has led duced by others. One of the· reasons that market share from competitors. computer services companies are now acqui­ In mature markets, it is not unusual to to significant shifts in rela­ sition targets is that they represent a way for find the dominant competitor commanding a tions between hardware hardware vendors to integrate forward, add 50%, 60%, or 70% share of the market. and software vendors. additional value, and create complete solu­ (General Motors provides a classic example.) I tions to users' problems. By entering the No such dominant competitors, however, parts, parts to components, components to chain at a higher level, computer services have yet emerged in computer services. In products, products to systems, and now in companies benefit from other participants and fact, the very largest competitors command this business, systems to networks. To the investments. This means lower capital inten­ less than 5% of the market. extent that different providers up and down sity, lower labor intensity, and higher operat­ The unusual growth opportunities that chain curtail their inventories, the lower­ ing leverage .. have attracted much investment attention be­ level producers find the demand for their Frank Lautenberg of Automatic Data @ cause in older industries growth is slow or products violently fluctuating. The earnings Processing, Inc., stresses the difference be- g declining, markets are fully penetrated, and of such companies are even more erratic be­ tween computers and computing: computers ~ the sole source of growth is someone else's cause these companies are often both finan­ are tools; computing provides solutions. C/) market share. Further, computer services cially and operationally leveraged. Addition­ Computing turns data into infonnation and ~ growth is leveraged and enhanced by other ally, as a general rule, the closer the business infonnation into insights. Insights provide 'Z industries' investments. Importantly, plum­ is to raw materials, the more capital intensive raw material for knowledge, which is power. 0 meting semiconductor prices bring real bene­ it is, as in the case of computer services: The computer services industry turns comput- ~ fits to computer users by creating' price-elastic Raw Material + Capital + Labor ers into computing, and provides solutions to ~ markets. Hence the explosive demand for Part 1 + Part 2 + . . . + Part N significant infonnation problems. ~ cost-efficient computing. Component 1 + Component 2 + . . As the demand for'computing soars, G

22 DATAMATION EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO SELL TO-OR BOY FROM­ MINICOMPUTER OEM's AND SYSTEMS HOUSES.

EVERYTHING.

When you're selling to-or buying ~------~ from-systems houses, you've got to ORDER FORM have all the facts. You've got to know who they are, where they are, what they D My check for $347 is enclosed make, howmuch they sell. Now you can for 1 copy of the 1981 Directory of have these facts at your fingertips in the Systems Houses & Minicomputer OEM's new 1981' edition of the Directory of Systems Houses and Minicomputer D Authorized company purchase OEMs. order for $347 is enclosed for 1 With over 500 pages of systems copy of the 1981 Directory of house listings including full address; Systems Houses & Minicomputer phone number; application specialties; OEM's. product descriptions; chief executives, Mass. residents add 5% sales tax. brand of computer used and annual For airmail delivery outside North sales, it's the most comprehensive di­ America, add $25.00 rectory of its kind. Listings are indexed four different ways-alphabetically, geographically, by applications exper­ Name Please Print tise and by brand of computer used. And the 1981 edition features a special uses for this most comprehensive di­ Title section on computer OEM market rectory of the industry. trends, including market statistics, de­ The Directory of Systems Company mographic profiles, and a three-year Houses and Minicomputer OEM's . .. Address (Please, no po. Boxes. All shipments via UPS.) analysis of industry growth patterns. it's everything you need to know. This fact-filled directory is an in­ The 1981 Directory of Systems City valuable tool for computer and periph­ Houses and Minicomputer OEM's is a eral marketers who want to increase limited edition. Prepaid orders will be State Zip Code their OEM sales, and an indispensable filled first. We'll refund your money if ( )------reference for prospective buyers of you're not completely satisfied. Order Telephone small business computers or custom your copy today. turnkey systems who need the expertise Date Sentry Database Publishing of a local systems house. Software 5 Kane Industrial Drive firms, computer manufacturers, market Technical pubhshlng Hudson, MA 01749 USA researchers, purchasing managers and a company of Telephone (617) 562-9308 ev.en systems houses will find countless The Dun &: Bradstreet Corporation DB ~------~ DO YOU R~ .. LIZE ~ THEOTHER· 32-BIT COMPUTER COMPANIESAR~... ~E · SHOWING OFF .. THEIR'

IIARDWARE?. . world have SNA, RCX70 PRESENTING (3270), RJEBO (27BO/37BO) and HASP II. And you can run M\f8000 in the X.25 world or SNA world. Or both at the same time. For the SOFTWARE. first time in this industry. You're looking at the biggest DATA MANAGEMENT. library of 32-bit computer software Here again you have a choice. in the business. If you're after productivity, you have We point this out not to un­ our CODASYL-compliant, DG/ derplay the hardware of our total DBMS software with design and ECLIPSE MV/BOOO™ system, development aids. Or our INFOS® but because every industry observer II file management software. we've heard is saying that software TRANSACTION has become even more important PROCESSING. than hardware. We've given our Transaction And in this regard, we Processing Management Software have some very important (TPMS) a strongly interactive software. design/development capability. We have made it Sophisticated security feat­ easier for application de­ ures. And simple recovery signers to design, pro­ procedures. And it's fully grammers to program. integrated with both And users to use. COBOL and PL/I.And We have made it for ultra-high- speed data compatible with our entry, there's DATA­ existing software. PREp® key- to-disc And flexible enough software. to work whatever APPLICATIONS way you like to DEVELOPMENT . work. LANGUAGES. Wherever All seven of the worldwide stand­ most popular lang­ ards exist, uages. All 32-bit. we've followed All to industry them. (We're standards (where even peacefully co­ industry standards existing with IBM's exist). All user­ standards. ) friendly, interactive. We've made our PRODUCT­ software friendly, interactive. Every' IVITY AIDS. software product you'll need for com- This is where you can mercial, scientific or communications affect the bottom line most. With our full applications development is here. line of user-friendly, interactive aids. Andready to go. Including an automatic CO BOL pro­ SYSTEMS RESOURCE gram generator. TRENDVIEWTM MANAGEMENT. interactive business graphics software. Data General AOS/VS is Word processing. Database inquiry the most advanced 32-bit operat­ and a source levellangiIage debugger. ing system in the world. Period, With a Command Language that is FINALLY. THE ECLIPSE MV/BOOO HARDWARE. the same for both batch and interactive processing. A HELP com­ If, after reading all this information about MV/BOOO software mand. A Sysgen so interactive you don't even have to look at the doc­ you are disturbed to find nothing about the ECLIPSE MV/BOOO umentation. Resource Usage Accounting and Security. systems hardware, write us at ISD Marketing Communications, Not added on. Built in. Data General, 4400 Computer Drive, Westboro, MA 015BO. COMMUNICATIONS. We will even include some very impressive four color photo­ Those who prefer working in the world of international standards graphy of our 32-bit hardware. Just like you see on all the other can use our X.25 XODIAC™ networking. Those who want IBM's pages of this publication. t. Data General

ECLIPSE MY/8000, XODIAC, and TRENDYIEW are trademarks, INFOS and DATAPREP are registered trademarks of Data General Corporation. © 1981 , Data General Corporation.

CIRCLE 17 ON READER CARD Each player rolls dice three (3) times before turning over to the systems Objective: New objective: ~GetCICS~ Executive query an and programming m manager applications Reports on-line up on time Use UFO to create on-line applications in days instead of weeks. ~ Staff Project: Try DMS/vS. Every player to cal! ~ Wait one (1) turn Not so good. Needs OXFORD is a winner ~ CICS experts. . Go back two (2).

~ Friend . recommends UFO. 1!l Call OXFORD. CICS experts leave. Send people ~ to school. Go back to start.

CIRCLE 18 ON READER CARD SOFTWARE & SERVI CES

the largest, Shared Medical Systems, now EXHIBIT 2 offers 28 different modules. The company's PROGRAMMERS PER COMPUTER average revenues per hospital bed per day have risen to $2.07 from $1.16 over the last six years. This trend has spread to other 8 industries as computerization brings efficien­ cy, discipline, and control to more and more corporate functions. Life cycle analogies also show that market share changes swiftly. Vendors deliv­ 6 ering excellent service at attractive prices before competition arises can usurp and dominate thousands of small individual mar­ kets for computer services. Triad Systems, Inc., serving the automotive parts retailer, is a fine example. But winning market share in head-to-head battles with entrenched com­ petitors can be terribly expensive. Acquisi­ tion represents a far more fruitful strategy, as 2 Automatic Data Processing, Anacomp, and Tymshare have clearly demonstrated. Domi­ TOTAL COMPUTERS nant competitors in other industries have emerged in the same way. The cumulative investment in product features and marketing have prompted new entrants to tackle poten­ I I I I 1955 1965 1975 1985 tial competitors directly by buying existing participants. COMPUTER POPULATION (THOUSANDS) Economic shifts caused by techno­ 1955 1965 1975 1985 logical advances represent yet another reason GENERAL PURPOSE 1 20.0 150 925 for industry growth, perhaps illustrated most DEDICATED o 2.5 220 330 dramatically by the shift between hardware TOTAL 1 22.5 370 1,255 and software costs. Plummeting hardware Source: Share, Inc. and G.T. Orwick, MSA, Inc. costs contrast sharply with inflating program­ mer costs. Consider the apocryphal tale of the computer services companies fill the gap be­ attracting enough customers, while custom­ manufacturer who paid about $5 for the mi­ tween supply and demand. The computer ers are faced with a classic "make or buy" croprocessor and over $100,000 to develop population is increasing faster than the supply decision. Relevant costs are fully allocated software for it. Conventional wisdom in the of trained programmers, with every new gen­ life cycle costs, and economies of scale pro­ industry claims that in the late 1960s hard­ eral-purpose computer sold needing 150 to vided by computer services are large because ware costs consumed 80% of the dollar, pro­ 400 separate programs in a typical business solutions to significant problems involve gramming costs consumed 20%. Now the installation-from utilities and programming complex software. (All the easy programs ratio may be reversed. This highlights the aids to database management systems and have been written!) compelling economics of buying computer applications. Wall Street is particularly in­ A buyer can license a database man­ trigued with this "software multiplier" con­ agement system for about $100,000; building Plummeting semiconductor cept. The marketplace expresses such supply/ a similar system might cost $1,000,000, demand imbalance in its pricing mechanisms: might take several years to implement, and prices bring real benefits trained computer programmers earn signifi­ might never work. The decision switches to computer users by cre­ cantly more than the average American work­ from "whether" to "which?" Since comput­ ating price-elastic markets. er; even entry-level programmers receive ers require a specialized body of knowledge, I more than the minimum wage. Exhibit 2 since the intricacies of major applications services to a point where the rate of growth for shows educated estimates of programmer and require their own body of knowledge, and services is faster than the rate of growth for computer populations by G. T. Orwick of since the costs of developing significant solu­ hardware. Additionally, computer services Management Science America. tions can be shared by many users, the econo­ spread high ongoing maintenance costs But while a shortage of computer pro­ mies of scale in computer services are real and among many users while developing cost­ grammers contributes to the growth of com­ pennanent. The compelling economics of efficient, universal applications for entire in­ puter services, the industry also profits from computer services have given the whole in­ dustries. significant economies of scale. Assembling dustry a new legitimacy and acceptance. Trust accounting, for example, is the and distributing specialized computer solu­ Computer services companies benefit toughest computer application facing modern tions for a vast customer base is ultimately from selling old products to new customers banking. Maintaining a trust department typi­ cheaper than having· users acquire requisite and new products to old customers. For ex­ cally consumes between 8% and 10% of the skills and facilities on an individual basis. All ample, virtually every major hospital in the bank's data processing assets, although on the buyers together, however, pay more than the country uses computers to manage infonna­ average the service produces only between costs of providing the solution. Thus the tion. Nonetheless, major independent com­ 1% and 2% of the bank's revenues, and often industry offers access on tenns economical to puter services vendors have consistently add­ less of the profits. But the trust industry is both buyer and seller. The seller's risk lies in ed new products over the last decade. One of experiencing wave after wave of significant

SPECIAL REPORT 27 A DP PROFESSIONAL BY ANY OTHER NAME ...

· .. is still a DP professional. He technology payoff ... to wire up the might be a first lieutenant, a doctor or office-of-tomorrow today. a monsignor, but to us, he (or she) is a Data processing professionals by DP professional. Because if you're every name have grown up reading selling in the EDP market, it's what DATAMATION magazine. Now they do that's important. And they do there are 144,185 of them around the a lot. They control EDP budgets, set world who count on DATAMATION EDP procurement policy, provide and its advertisers to help them grow standards for user departments and in the world's fastest growing sell to top management. industry. Right now they're at the spot where data processing, data commu­ nications and word processing come 1echnlcal publIshing together. Their companies are count­ acompa~of ing on them to make all the new DB 'I1te OOnl!< Bradstreet corporatIOn c 666 Fifth Ave .• New York, NY 10103. (212) 489-2200 u a u a> :2 CRTRMRTICN® C ~

in Federal ADP operations. You'll also find a wide variety of other sessions, seminars and workshops dealing specifi­ cally with your own areas of interest or responsibility. It's a Conference for Federal ADP users at all levels, in both military and civilian depart­ ments and agencies. And the Managing change. It's the Exposition held with the Con­ major challenge for today's ference is the only show in Federal ADP professional Washington where you get to Sponsored by Federal Education Programs faced with new policy ini­ see the computer industry's (Federal government not a sponsor) tiatives, new technological leading companies. developments, new constraints September 21, 22 & 23, 1981 on personnel and computer The 1981 Federal Computer Sheraton Washington Hotel resources. Conference. In a time of Washington, D.C. change, a unique opportunity to That's why this year's stay on top of what's new ... Federal Computer Conference and prepare for what's ahead. is especially important to you. Go for it! Our 1981 program features special sessions devoted ex­ For information on attending clusively to managing change or exhibiting, write: Federal Computer Conference P.O. Box 368 Wayland, Massachusetts 01778 Or call 617·358·5181 collect.

© 1981 Time, Inc. All rights reserved. Monsters are cute except when significant software packages such they are messing around with your Automated: Archival • as TLMS, TMS, SPF, RACF and data. ASM2 was the first auto­ Backup/Recovery • Migration • ACF2 (Access Control Facility­ mated space management system DASD Billing • Reporting also marketed by The Cambridge • Volume defragmentation to control the antics of those • Volume cleanup • Standards Systems Group, natch) and on­ little beasties. enforcement ... and more going enhancements we make at With the new Release 2.5 no extra charge to users, monsters ASM2, completely rewritten docu- are finding they no longer have mentation; simplified installation; improved uncontroll~d access to data storage devices reporting facilities; RSVP-a powerful data set at the computer sites that have ASM2, and cus­ preprocessing facility; DASD space billing; tomers are finding out why ASM2 remains the expanded VSAM support; and interfaces to other continued leader in the field.

U~i1® ©©Jnm[Q)u'D©1~@ §VS~I@U1tU$ @%'©MLQ) 24275 Elise, Los Altos Hills, California 94022 (415) 941-4558-Telex 357437 Representative: CSG Limited, 7 Cavendish Square, London W1M 9HA, England (01) 580-1222-Telex 299512

CIRCLE 200N READER CARD SOFTWARE SERVI CES

change. New investment vehicles are enter­ make incremental investments and acquisi­ the solution probably addresses problems that ing the market. Traditional holdings, stocks, tions. Competitors must follow suit or risk are core to company survival. It is unlikely and bonds are being joined by options, Ginnie losing market share. that the salesperson who sells the solution via Mae pass-throughs, commodities, oil drilling The services industry has moved from timesharing is the same person who can sell partnerships, financial futures, and even selling computer tools to creating the solution as a software product. The indus­ stamps and diamonds. Add to all this increas­ customer solutions. To capture new users try is plainly wrestling with these problems ingly burdensome government reporting re­ who might never have considered service now. Nonetheless, the trend is clear: more quirements for ERISA, IRA and Keogh ac­ contracts, the maturing industry has resorted and more services will be offered via multiple counts, and the Comptroller of the Currency. to product enhancements such as user-friend­ distribution channels. When the trust department requests ly access and multiple program and services For new entrants, penetrating estab­ software modification or development, how­ packaging to make leasing time as economi­ lished markets has become increasingly diffi­ ever, it's usually queued behind electronic cal as possible. A parallel shift from single cult and expensive. The trend can clearly be funds transfer, automatic teller machines, and product, single market strategies to multiple seen in virtually all niches of the market. In interest bearing checking. The department product, multiple market strategies often oc­ the early days of timesharing, it was competi­ can hardly afford to wait its tum; here, it may curs as growth proceeds. tively sufficient to offer raw time on a com­ find purchased computer services the better The shift toward multiple channels of puter. Once several vendors offered raw time, distribution for computer services deserves competition turned to selling specialized soft­ Computer services compa­ mention. Increased competition and sophisti­ ware. When several vendors offered the same cation in product performance has forced specialized software, aggressive competitors nies benefit from selling many participants to change the definition of invested in interactive capabilities and remote old products to new cus­ their business. As products evolve from tools processing. tomers and new products to solutions, business formats evolve into The cycle continues today with com­ to old customers ... for distribution modes. A company that entered panies vending databases and specialized example, nearly every ma­ the business viewing itself as a timesharing access programs. Existing competitors have firm may grow to view timesharing as just one financed these capabilities from earnings over jor hospital in the country way to deliver computing solutions to cus­ time; a new entrant would have to commit uses computers to man­ tomers. significant capital to play the game. age information. The shift toward multiple distribution Emphasis is also shifting from indi­ modes is no easy task. While it is an absolute vidual products and services to integrated alternative, where companies like SEI will bonanza for the customer to be able to move systems. This is part and parcel of the shift to spend almost $2 million this year alone to easily up and down the scale, using as much provide complete solutions to users' needs. enhance and maintain its trust accounting or as little of an offering as needed at an ever The trend in financial software products, for software. These costs exceed the revenues of decreasing cost per transaction, the vendor instance, is clearly toward offering communi­ many trust departments and the profits of all has a vastly different view. There are often cating programs. It used to be sufficient to but the larger ones, but when life cycle costs heavy initial costs associated with marketing offer good standalone accounts payable or are understood, the economics become clear. a new product, and the revenues that were fixed assets, general ledger, payroll, etc.­ In the early stages of any business life repetitive in a timesharing offering may be­ each able to interact where appropriate. Com­ cycle, management emphasis is on producing come one-time revenues in a turnkey system petition demands that the vendor satisfy two a product that works, on product features, and or software environment. of his customers' dilemmas-writing and on performance. But as the business matures, Other complications arising from maintaining a solution, and weaving that so­ and as competition matches product features multiple distribution channels involve the lution into the overall flow of the enterprise. and marketing capabilities, capital and mar­ sales cycle and the degree of knowledge and The customer benefits from this competitive keting strategy become paramount. For com­ expertise required by the vendor's sales force. quest for superiority in the market. puter services, marketing is now key, but For example, buying a solution via timeshar­ Another shift is toward world compe­ capital has not yet become a critical determi­ ing is a variable expense, easily canceled on tition. Decreased telecommunications costs nant of success. The relative importance of short notice, and any line manager in the have propelled the timesharing firms into each factor shifts as markets mature. For buying organization probably has authority to example, technology changes throughout the make the purchase decision. A solution in the Because growth is valu­ life cycle greatly influence service compa­ form of a turnkey minicomputer, however, is able and acquisition car­ nies' product development, marketing strate­ probably a capital budgeting item for the ries much lower risks than gy, and financial controls. Products must buyer, requires advanced planning and rather keep pace with new advancements, so R&D high-level approval, and cannot be canceled. starting from scratch, ac­ costs remain high. Furthermore, if a customer's level of usage is quiring firms are willing to Similarly, marketing investments re­ high enough to justify a turnkey system, the pay high prices. main substantial because of rapid market solution offered is probably rather important growth. All participants assume heavy rein­ to business continuity. more and more markets. Software product vestment spurred by fast growth and fast The vendor's sales force requires so- vendors are going international too, drawn by technological change: professionals must in­ . phisticated knowledge of the solution and large, untapped markets and compelling eco­ vest time in education and reeducation; man­ ability to sell at a rather high organizational nomics. American companies are not alone in agers must forego a percentage of profits for level. Selling the same solution in the form of the move to worldwide competition. The new product development; and shareholders a software product for use on the customer's French government, for example, nurtures must exchange dividends for corporate rein­ large in-house computers is quite another and protects domestic industry while its com­ vestment. Also, some companies use Wall task. Here, the vendor's sales force must panies, like Cap-Gemini, acquire U.S. com­ Street's reborn interest in the industry to raise interact with professionals as well as with puter services firms. low-cost capital·to weather hard times and to high-level line managers. At this level of use, Overall, competition has encouraged

SPECIAL REPORT 31 S 0 F TWA R E & S E R V ICE S

... entrepreneurial management styles and struc­ each using hardware vendors as subcontrac­ Also contributing to the stepped-up pace of tures to move toward more formalized, more tors! One cannot overemphasize the signifi­ . mergers and acquisitions is the fact that there professional arrangements. Owners and man­ cance of this arrangement as evidence of the are willing sellers as well as willing buyers. agers who have traditionally focused on prod­ shift in power toward software. Many computer services companies go on the uct performance and personal selling now As noted, the quest for growth has led block because entrepreneurs can cash in, fi­ find themselves in the business of managing the industry through a number of rather obvi­ nance product growth, and bring in additional people, bankers, and vendors. ous shifts: toward solutions rather than tools, marketing and development resources. There Hardware/software cost relationship toward integrated systems, and toward multi­ are literally thousands of small computer ser- 1 reversal has led to significant shifts in rela­ ple markets and multiple distribution chan­ tions between hardware and software ven­ nels. In sum, the trend is toward "vertical Information processing dors. The hardware industry has tried for markets. ' , Vertical marketing means the years to ignore the computer services indus­ computer services vendor satisfies all com­ systems have become so try. Now computer services firms are among critical to the operation of puting requirements for a single market. ~ their largest customers and among their Shared Medical Systems is probably the best an organization that chaos toughest competitors in selling computing known vendor using this approach, meeting would result if these firms t solutions and software. At International virtually any health industry computing need. tried to operate for even a 1 Computer Programs I~c.' s annual software The vertical approach incorporates complete few days without the infor­ awards meeting in San Antonio this year, solutions, hardware, software, integrated in­ ( almost a dozen hardware manufacturers sat at teractive programs, and complete backup mation provided by data the same podium and virtually begged the support. Vertical marketing offers buyers systems. 1 assembled software houses to do business substantially simplified purchase decisions with them, through them, and for them. The while giving substantial operating leverage vices companies' without resources-man­ ] bait was all sorts offree or low cost hardware, and clear: competitive advantages to vendors. agement, financial, or otherwise-to sustain technical support, and promotion. Certainly, marriage and divorce are the battle. Cashing in at today's prices looks 1 The hardware vendors, of course, no strangers to the computer services indus­ awfully good to many of them. Secondly, hoped to tap the enormous capital investment try, each producing significant impact. The fast-paced activity is assured as new compa­ and accumulated experience of the software .. merger and acquisition movement has in fact nies attracted by plummeting computer costs ~ houses. Economically, the ICP meeting may effectively placed a "safety net" under in­ open up still unspoken-for markets. ] have been a milestone event for the computer dustry investors in that successful companies Larger computer services companies services industry. The seesaw is tipping: in are extremely valuable properties. Eyes were are probably affordable only to very large ( the past, vendors sold hardware and gave opened industrywide and particularly on Wall companies outside the computing industry. away software; now, vendors sell hardware Street by prices paid for access to the business Many corporations, Exxon for example, need 1. and software. In the future, vendors may sell by well-heeled outsiders. Broadview Associ­ fast growing businesses to sustain their own software and give away hardware. Passionate ates provides summary figures. growth. Further, antitrust considerations and 1 courting of software houses by hardware Acquiring firms pay high prices be­ high prices may restrain the takeover of large firms is further prompted by the zero cost cause growth is valuable and acquisition car­ computer services companies such as Auto­ 1 hardware concept. Since hardware alone ries much lower risk than starting from matic Data Processing, Electronic Data Sys­ ] doesn't provide solutions, its pricing moves scratch. If a company does not perform well, tems, and Computer Sciences Corp. ,among from value to cost. The only way the hard- it can probably be sold at a handsome price. others. Below these large companies are other ] Acquisitions accomplish different tasks for companies probably too large to be acquired ] With American tax laws different competitors. McGraw-Hill and Dun by computer services companies but that & Bradstreet entered the business to gain could be acquired by large outsiders. Compa­ and free market policies electronic publishing capability for large, nies like Shared Medical Systems, National encouraging sustained for­ valuable databases and another distribution Data Corporation, Comshare, and Quotron 1 eign competition in Yirtually channel or delivery method for ongoing pub­ Systems fit into this category. Below these all the older industries' .' .. lishing efforts. Automatic Data Processing, are companies representing fair game for in­ ( computer services ·compa­ Anacomp, and Tymshare are clearly execut­ siders and outsiders alike. While outsiders nies seem uniquely pro­ ing growth through acquisitions strategy. Life grow by acquiring computer services compa­ cycle analysis shows us that the giants of nies, and industry insiders buy other industry tected by software's inti­ many industries have grown large via acquisi­ insiders, it seems unlikely that industry insid­ mate association with tions. It happened in railroads (Pennsylvania ers will seek industry outsiders. Clearly, the American business. Railroad), in tobacco (remember the tobacco best use of time and money is in this business. trusts), in public utilities, and in textiles The computer services industry has ware vendor can continue to price its products (Burlington Industries). Computer hardware developed all the trappings of permanence. to value is to create value by adding software. manufacturers like Burroughs and CDC ac­ Professions such as accounting and legal ser­ Further evidence of the dramatic shift quire software houses to add value to hard­ vices have honed field specialists, and a in value between hardware and software lies ware offerings and to move from providing whole body of law has emerged for patenting in the astounding lineup of bidders for the tools to providing solutions. and copyrighting software. The Association U.S. Army's so-called "viable" contract. The aggressive approach to acquisi­ of Data Processing Services Organizations The army is requesting proposals from ven-, tions reflects participants' sure knowledge has created industry support and represents dors to automate administrative support at its that growth does not go on forever and that the industry before government. The press bases. Traditionally, such proposals would deals should be struck "before the music has recognized the industry with specific pub­ have been submitted by hardware vendors. In stops." Virtually every company in the in­ lications, and academia has responded with this case, the major contractors are Electronic dustry actively seeks acquisitions, much like more course and degree offerings related to Data Systems and Computer Sciences Corp., the larger fish drooling over a smaller prey. software and services. Finally, Wall Street

32 DATAMATION Theirs: QBE, GIS, STAIRS, APL, ADRS,SQL, Etc••• Ours: INQUIRE® SOFTWARE & SERVI CES

has focused on computer services as an indus­ ating leverage, or lower capital intensity, or are major beneficiaries of this shift. Capital is try in its own right, no longer an awkward lower labor intensity, but they do not offer no longer a constraint for promising vendors. appendage of other companies. growth or returns on equity greater than the With a growing number of computer services The investment community has taken rate of inflation. companies tapping the public market for an extraordinary interest in computer services Professionals and managers have sig­ funds, more investment vehicles are avail­ for several reasons. The services industry as a nificant sunk costs-in training and experi­ able, thus enabling investors to spread their whole is growing at about 20% per year. ence, if not in cash-in their industry. Inves­ risks in this increasingly attractive industry. Input, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., estimates tors have no such constraints. The capital Computer services accounting practices are that some parts of the industry are growing particularly attractive to investors. For the faster than 30%, while individual niches and Standard approaches in most part, revenues reported approximate some companies are growing faster than 50% the accounting or payroll cash received and expenses reported approxi­ per year. Fast growth is coupled with the mate cash disbursed. Development costs are potential of enormous size. The industry, functions should not re­ generally expensed. Most parts of the indus­ earning just over $14 billion in revenues to­ strict a company's com­ try are able to generate a stream of repeat day, is clearly going to be one of the largest petitive alternatives, but income from their customer base. Timeshar­ industries in the country by the end of the adopting standard product ing is built around repeat revenue, and turn­ decade. Fast growth and large scale become selection, design, and dis­ key systems and software products usually even more appealing because of the indus­ generate a stream of maintenance revenue. try's unique financial characteristics. Com­ tribution systems could se­ Extensive cash flow finances ongoing prod­ puter services have been called the "million­ verely restrict a firm's uct development and enhancement. aire machine" because it is still possible for a competitive options. Perhaps the most appealing character­ smart fellow to develop a useful program and istic to investors is the industry's unique tech­ make himself rich. At the industry level, markets are highly liquid, and continued high nological niche. Many investors feel that computer services are relatively less capital inflation has put an extraordinarily high pre­ computer services represent the most defend­ intensive, have relatively higher operating mium on companies capable of growing more able high growth, high technology invest­ leverage, and relatively higher output per rapidly than the rate of inflation. Money is ment available. With American tax laws and employee than most industries. Some older, pouring out of yesterday's industries into to­ free market policies encouraging sustained more mature industries may offer better oper- morrow's industries, and computer services foreign competition in virtually all the older

MVS/VS1/0S Pascal for PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENT PRODUCTS Data General FROM DUOUESNESVSTEMS INC.

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CIRCLE 22 ON READER CARD CIRCLE 23 ON READER CARD 34 DATAMATION ThisI' Publication • I • is Available in

MICROFORM'......

FOR INFORMATION WRITE:

University Microfilms International Dept. F.A. Dept. F.A. 300 North Zeeb Road 18 Bedford Row Ann Arbor, MI 48106 London, WC1 R 4EJ U~S.A. England . SOFTWARE & SERVI CES

industries (steel, textiles, automobiles, etc.) maining software-compatible with older gen­ nies capitalized software development costs and increasingly in high technology business­ erations. Consider that there are some $95 and reported profits that rarely approximated es (semiconductors and computers), comput­ billion worth of computers installed vs. be­ cash flow. In those days, the whole concept of er services companies seem uniquely protect­ tween $200 billion and $400 billion worth of buying software was new; IBM gave away ed by software's intimate association with the software installed. "bundled" software until 1969. The inde­ workings of American business. Even gener­ When the old-timer observes the com­ pendent software products industry was truly alized software programs incorporate features puter services industry of today, he cannot an infant. that require an intimate understanding of our help but remember the same industry of a Today the industry has won respect­ business culture. decade ago. Then, as now, it was a darling of ability through proven perfonnance and com­ Software is not a commodity item. It Wall Street. Will it crash into disrepute pelling economics. Large user groups exist is still priced to value, and this should contin­ and support specific products and services. ue as its value is continuously enhanced by Computer services has So strong is this movement that most software ongoing development. been called the "million­ and services sales are done by reference base As the essence of value in any com­ aire machine" because it selling. puter services offering, software occupies a Times have changed, and so has the uniquely protected position between the rap­ is still possible for a smart industry, but clearly, computer services has idly changing technology of computer hard­ fellow to develop a useful earned a vital-and pennanent-place in the ware and the slowly evolving needs ofthe end program and make himself infonnation revolution. :§: user. rich. Computer users expect to change With Alex. Brown & Sons, Baltimore, hardware as new generations pennit more again? Are there important differences be­ Maryland, since 1972, Mr. Berkeley fol­ perfonnance at lower prices: they do not ex­ tween the industry then and now? In those lows a number of companies, primarily peet to change their way of doing business. days, hardware was relatively expensive and those in the computer services indus­ Hence, while computers come and go in an software relatively cheap. Back then, com­ try. He graduated from the University organization, the software stays on. In puters were used by very large enterprises and of Virginia, received his MBA from the economic tenns, hardware's life cycle is sub­ by government. Today business computing Wharton School of Finance in 1968, stantially shorter than software's life cycle as comes in all shapes and sizes. and then joined the Air Force from reflected by new generations of hardware re- In the past, computer services compa- 1968 to 1972.

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Gal/Today P.O. BOX 188 RIVERDALE. MD 20737 MR. DON WHITE, CONDATA, INC., 1809 WALNUT STREET, (301) 864-3700 e· PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19103, 215-569-4240 Specialists in Software for DEG Computers CIRCLE 25 ON READER CARD CIRCLE 26 ON READER CARD 36 DATAMATION Technology has a reputation report that maintainance is 50% less for turning myths into reality. It can with RAMIS II than without-even also make what was once a reality though RAMIS II systems are Three a myth. You can shatter some of life's modified more frequently because more frustrating programming they are easier to update. realities using RAMIS II. MYTH #3 RAMIS II is the first product to fully integrate an English-like It takes anywhere from nonprocedural language for re­ 6 months to 3 years to integrate a new software product into porting and data maintenance,a an organization. flexible and efficient DBMS, a comprehensive application FACT manager, a data dictionary, and RAMIS II provides automatic options such as high resolution transparent access to IMS, DL/1, graphics and financial modeling. ADABAS, TOTAL, ISAM and VSAM This combination has trans­ files, as well as to RAMIS II data­ formed many of yesterday's pro­ bases. This means that the full range gramming realities into today's of RAMIS II reporting capabilities myths. -including graphics and financial MYTH #1 modeling-is available for all your The 3-year development backlog files beginning on Day One. found at most installations can only be reduced by a massive Quick implementation, reduced infusion of new resources. maintenance, unrestricted access to files -these former myths are now FACT realities for RAMIS II users, and A recent survey shows that they are just three reasons why RAMIS II systems are implemented RAMIS II users report an average in less than 1/5 the time it takes payback period of less than using COBOL, FORTRAN, or PL/1 12 months. - and the RAMIS II systems Mandatory backlogs, excessive typically use no more resources maintenance, slow start-up - these than the average COBOL program former realities are now myths at to do the same work. over 450 in-house installations and MYTH #2 for another 1,000 clients worldwide who use RAMIS II through 14 service 80% of programming resources bureaus. are taken up by maintenance work and there's no way If you want to be a myth maker, to reduce this figure. a fact maker, or even if you just want to p1aximize staff productivity FACT and responsiveness to users, join Because RAMIS II commands us for a free RAMIS II seminar and are precise, concise and clear, users demo. We'll show you how.

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RAMIS II Seminars Please send me: D An invitation to the next seminar. Over two hundred RAMIS II D Information on RAMIS II. seminars are held each year. For Name ______information or an invitation to a Title ______seminar near you, fill out the coupon or phone Lillian Greenhut Company ______at 800/257-9576 (from New Jersey Address 609/799-2600). City ______State __ Zip ___ RAMIS II runs on IBM. 360, Phone ______370, 43XX, 30XX and plug com­ patible computers. Mail to: Mathematica Products Group P.O. Box 2392/Princeton, New Jersey 08540

A A 12 Roszel Road M ~'THEM ~'TICA Princeton, NJ 08540/(609) 799-2600 CIRCLE 27 ON READER CARD

Whats thescore on the BT/BOOO? \ \ I'

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In this game, it's clearly no contest. The count structure and fail-soft architecture elimi­ BTl 8000 32-bit multiprocessor system gives nate any worries about security, control or you the lead in the first inning, and keeps you downtime. there all the way. And, you can sign it up for As for reliability, BTl bats near 1000, 30 percent less than competitive systems. thanks to service via remote diagnostics. BTl Furthermore, the BTl 8000's hardware and has been using this method for over 10 years, software architecture will continue to make it and currently supports over 3000 systems. a top performer, long after other systems have These are just a few reasons why you been traded away. should put the BTl 8000 in your starting line­ For example, starting with a basic system, up. For a complete scouting report, contact your BTl's exclusive Variable Resource Architecture nearest BTl office. lets you increase processing power by ten times, just by plugging in resource modules. You don't have to rewrite systems or applications software either. }=-BTI Despite its "superstar" status, the BTl 8000 is friendly to users and a real team player. COMPUTER A virtual machine environment, hierarchical ac- SYSTEMS Corporate Offices: 870 West Maude Avenue. Sunnyvale, CA (408) 733-1122; Regional Offices: Piscataway, NJ (201) 457-0600; Palatine, IL (312) 397-9190; Atlanta, GA (404) 396-1630; Sunnyvale, CA (408) 749-0500. Sales Offices in major U.S. cities. In the United Kingdom: Birmingham (021)-477-3846. BTl is a registered trademark of BTl Computer Systems

CIRCLE 29 ON READER CARD u:: LL :::> a:« CD ~ a: o z « >­ CD Z o a:~ ~ :::> ...J ::!

40 DATAMATION SOFTWARE TRENDS IN EUROPE Software products sales in Europe are less than one-half of U.S. sales, but are growing at a much more rapid rate.

by Murray Disman estimates which add to the lead in growth Software product sales have been growing rates for the European software industry. De­ more rapidly than hardware markets or the spite price change considerations, the Euro­ overall computer services industry, in both pean market for software products will still the U.S. and Western Europe. Performance grow twice as rapidly as the total European pressures on management, staffing difficul­ computer services market. The growth of the ties, and long and lengthening backlogs of U.S. software products market will be some­ work have made software packages an attrac­ what less than twice the growth rate of the tive and cost-effective alternative to in-house total U. S. computer services industry. By development. The key advantages to a data 1984 the European software product market processing organization are: will be $4.0 billion, compared to a U.S. mar­ • Less Risk: it can be proven, through either ket of $6.6 billion. trial runs or by verifying the experiences of Software packages have become in­ other data processing departments, that the creasingly attractive because of several package does work. evolutionary changes-both internal and ex­ • Speedier Implementation: the packages can ternal-affecting the department. The trend be installed much more rapidly than the appli­ toward outside software purchases first oc­ cation could be developed internally, even curred in the U. S. It is now moving very allowing for customization and familiariza­ rapidly in Western Europe because of severe tion processes. personnel shortages and sky-rocketing costs • Lower Cost: package prices are typically of in-house program development. less than 10% of what an internal develop­ Dp use has evolved from an off-line ment activity would cost. This assumes that reporting and/or scientific calculation mode comparable levels of expertise and special­ to an on-line control mechanism. This trend ized knowledge are available in-house. first matured in the U. S. and then spread to The delay in the development of the Europe through the needs of multinational Western European software product market, companies. These firms, either U.S.- or Eu­ compared to the U. S., results from a more ropean-based, compete internationally and generally conservative attitude toward new need the most effective and updated systems approaches and from differences in language available. The popUlarity of database man­ and business practices between countries. agement systems indicates the importance of These differences require a great deal of information and its use in continuous deci­ vendor effort to make a given package broad­ sion-making processes. Interactive applica­ ly acceptable. U.S.-based package vendors tions and real-time operation concepts are concentrated, at least initially, on the devel­ evident at many companies where the dp sys­ opment of domestic markets. tem must interface with the customer. Typical Exhibit 1 provides data comparing the applications are reservations, ticketing, credit U.S. and Western European software mar­ verification, and bank teller functions. kets. Current sales of software products in A new bit of jargon, Information Re­ Europe are less than one-half of U.S. sales, source Management (IRM), is becoming pop­ and represent a smaller percentage of the total ular in European industry to describe a high­ computer services market, but are growing at level position with the responsibility for see­ a significantly more rapid rate. Market ing that an organization makes optimum use '.f) :> growth rates from 1979 to 1980 were 39% for of its available information and data. Estab­ c:{ :r:: Western Europe, contrasted with 28% for the lishment of an IRM indicates management's :.::: c:{ U.S. Input has forecast that these respective concern with handling large amounts of data :r:: c:{ growth trends will continue at least through in a timely and accurate manner. Information :0:r:: 1984. The forecast contains price increase processing systems have become, in many c:{ :0 I instances, so critical to the operation of an >- :0 J FROM LEFT TO RIGHT CLOCKWISE, PHOTO­ organization that chaos would result if these i: GRAPHS BY D. DURRANCE II. D. JONES, firms tried to operate for even a few days c:{ J. BLAUSTEIN, S. SEITZ/WOODFIN CAMP & :r: ASSOCIATES. ELECTRONIC COLORIZATION BY without the information provided by data sys­ :.:> II PETER ANGELO SIMON. tems. This evolution is changing the major

SPECIAL REPORT 41 SOFTWARE & SERVI CES

thrust of the dp department's role from one of Another significant factor leading to vendor can introduce features that make his development to one of maintenance and en­ the increasing acceptance of packaged soft­ product far superior for a more narrowly hancement. Exhibit 2 shows the percent of ware products is the growth in sophistication selected group of users. time spent by programmers and computer and confidence of European dp management. • Lower hardware costs have had the dual equipment on different functions. The data, In general, managers are now capable of effect of optimizing the use of the dp manag': derived from Input's panel of dp users in the defining requirements for a specific applica­ er's personnel resource (which is increasing U. S., shows less than 20% of total machine tionand implementing it with the most cost­ in cost) and easing concerns about achieving time utilized toward programming effort is effective approach. This capability varies high levels of machine efficiency. The latter devoted to new application development. from country to country in Europe and de­ makes software package solutions, that may Programming personnel spent 51 % of their pends on the size of the firm and actual not be optimum in terms of equipment utiliza­ time on new applications in 1978, 49% in experience of the dp manager. tion, more readily acceptable. 1979, and only 45% in 1980. This 45% was In addition to the changes just de­ • Package improvements in terms of the an average for all industry sectors and ranged scribed, a number of external factors have range of products available, sophistication, from a low of 31 % for Federal Government increased the attractiveness of packaged soft­ features, flexibility, and ease of use have respondents to a high of 53% for retail. In ware in Europe: resulted from the experience gained and the both Western Europe and the U.S., mainte­ • Unbundling, started by IBM some eleven inventiveness of the vendors. Significant im­ nance growth, in conjunction with a major years ago, has succeeded in ending the era of provements in these areas will continue for at effort to develop on-line applications has "free" IBM software. As a result, managers least the next five years. placed an inordinate load on already scarce have become used to paying separately for • Increasing respectability of the software programmer resources. A recent Input survey software; software vendors now have a clear product provider as a result of growth in size of Western European users confirms this con­ target in terms of price and program features. and longevity has given managers the confi­ cern with the scarcity of dp analysts and IBM'S programs must satisfy an extremely dence to do business with these firms and to programmers. wide user base. An independent software know that they will be aro~nd to provide

EXHIBIT 1 EXHIBIT 2 EXHIBIT 3 WESTERN EUROPEAN AND DATA THE 1980 COMPUTER U.S. SOFTWARE PRODUCT PROCESSING SERVICES INDUSTRY MARKETS 1980-1984 RESOURCE USE (in $ BILLIONS) (in $ BILLIONS) .. WESTERN UNITED PROGRAMMING COMPUTER WESTERN UNITED EUROPE STATES PERSONNEL EQUIPMENT EUROPE STATES 1980 1984 1980 1984 45% 31% 24% 67% 15% 18% TOTAL SERVICES TOTAL SERVICES $8.1 $18.0 $14.2 $28.9 $8.1 BILLION $14.2 BILLION $1.1 $4.0 $2.4 $6.6 $1.1 $2.7 $4.3

o a: C§ o en8 <{ Source: INPUT Source: INPUT I SOFTWARE ...., NEW PROGRAM .---, PRODUCTION PROCESSING I­ Z I PRODUCTS L-..J DEVELOPMENT L--..J JOBS I• SERVICES >­ :====::::: () EXISTING EXISTING PROFESSIONAL TOTAL COMPUTER PROGRAM :===:::1 ~ ____...... SERVICES PROGRAM I D MAINTENANCE D MAINTENANCE ~==::::. SERVICES 10 en ..ENHANCEMENT .---, NEW r- 1 SOFTWARE I­ L-..J OF EXISTING L-.J APPLICATIONS ___... PRODUCTS a: PROGRAMS ..::( DEVELOPMENT I ~------~() 42 DATAMATION duplicate records are eliminated. For the first time, you can have a single source for all current human resources infor­ mation - payroll, tax and personnel MAKING SOFTWARE DECISIONS? management. Systems are in compliance with EEOC, ERISA and OSHA requirements. And new changes are automatically issued to update your systems as account­ Your next software ing guidelines change and government l~gislation is enacted. system is probably PRACTICAL SOFTWARE Our approach is to install software that on this list ~elps you to get jobs done. We specialize 10 ready-to-use, application software. We pioneered and perfected many The Most Comprehensive List of Application Software of the systems currently in use world­ Currently Available from One Source wide. Our list of systems is constantly updated and improved to keep pace with the changing needs of your comrany. people don't have to be data processing Our methodology is both practica and MSA READY- TO -INSTALL productive. SOFfWARE professionals to use it. But coupled with our General Ledger System, even greater MSA Industry Specialists are ex­ perts in government, education, finan­ 1. General Ledger benefits are possible: cial, insurance, health care and manu­ (1) you have the best, MSA installation growth 2. Financial Information & Control d d fi has averaged 31% a year facturing industries. By understanding n:ost a vance . 1Oan- for ten years. We have the problems most frequently encoun­ 3. Fixed Assets Accounting Clal system available, licensed over 6500 soft­ and (2) you get as- ware packages for more tered (and the terminology) they are 4. Financial Forecasting & Modeling .. . " than halfof the Fortune resources you can use. tOnlsh1Og flexlblltty. 500 companies and hun- 5. Payroll Accounting For example dreds of smaller firms, CALL Now · h" many with their first t 6. Personnel Management & Reporting you can re neve IS- compute!: torical information '--_____---l We have prepared support material with 7. Accounts Receivable from the database, develop and refine all the facts and information to evaluate the systems listed here. Everything is 8. Accounts Payable plans and forecasts, then automatically update plans and budgets for Man­ available without obligation. 9. Supplies Inventory Control agement Reporting. For more details, please contact & Purchasing Robert Carpenter at Management Science America, Inc. (404) 262-2376. 10. Procurement M~tching' MANAGE YOUR CASH Telex 549638. Or send this coupon. HECK THIS LIST. No other soft­ The MSA Accounts Receivable System r------, I ware company in the country dramatically simplifies receivables man­ MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AMERICA. INC. I offers such a comprehensive choice agement and greatly stimulates cash flow. 3445 PEACHTREE ROAD. N.E. : C ATLANTA. GEORGIA 30326 I of systems. It automatically highlights unau­ As a result, you don't have to wait thorized deductions and unearned dis­ Please send more information about MSA : application software, including the sys- I for software, tie up your data processing counts, and can forecast cash flow terns listed here (write numbers ): ___ resources, or ray the enormous develop­ through customer payment history. It ment costs 0 in-house design. You can even interfaces with Dun & Bradstreet install the MSA systems you need in a and NACIS credit information. NAME Install our Procurement Matching much shorter time. TITLE Instead of picking and choosing Sys~em and you get added flexibility. COMPANY among different packages (or vendors), ThiS system integrates three important more and more companies are making functions - purchasing, receiving and ADDRESS accounts payable. MSA their software company. Of course, CITY speed and economy aren't the only rea­ MANAGE YOUR RESOURCES sons. What counts is the quality and ;iTATE ZIP COMPUTER TYPE compatibility of our products. The MSA Payroll System is one of the AND MODEL L.. ______,;. ______~~8~!:1.J most popular accounting systems in the MANAGE YOUR FINANCIALS country. ------~- Take our Financial Forecasting and Combine this with our Personnel Modeling System. It works with most Management and Reporting System, financial databases, and your financial and volumes of redundant input and

CIRCLE 30 ON READER CARD INTENSIVE ONE &TWO-DAY SEMINARS AND BRIEFINGS

.. PRESENTEDIN 2 CONVENIENT FORMATS

Highly focused one and two-day sessions In-house - at your organization • In 13 major cities - Cambridge/Boston, New York, • Tailored to your timing and specific requirements Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, San • At significant cost savings. 1 Francisco, Scottsdale/Phoenix, Seattle, Toronto, 2 Washington, D.C., London, England . • On 250 different dates - so you can be sure that there's always a session and location convenient for you.

Whichever format you prefer, you'll have the confidence of knowing that any seminar you choose is one of the Datamation "36." This is a select group of the 36 seminar topics and instructors accorde~ Datamation's highest ratings for 1981-82. The seminars are:

Data Base Management Systems Demonstrating DP Department Performance to Non-DP Management Baley, Feldman Behar Data Communications Concepts and Overview Management Skills for First Line DP Supervisors Baley, Feldman Dudley Advanced Data Communications: Regulation, Analysis, Design Writing Skills for DP Professionals Wenker Pond Distributed Systems: Concepts and Management Overview Reducing DP Turnover Baley, Feldman Dudley Distributed Systems Technology and Design Word Processing Uebowitz Dudley Data Base Management for Geographic Information Systems Office Automation Hamlin Barrow Data Dictionary/Directory Systems (DD/DS) Integrating Word Processing & DP Plagman Broos Management of Software Engineering Electronic Communications Manzo, Levenson Amport DP Security, Audit, & Control Computer Graphics Rector Orr Improving DP Center Performance & Productivity The CAD/CAM Revolution Plasket Orr Structured Programming, Analysis, Design, and Testing Business Graphics Berard Paller, Nisen Systems Analysis Computer Mapping Cariss Schmidt, Teicholz, Nisen, White Systems Design Digital Image Processing Cariss Green Project Management Management's Use of Computer Graphics Contos, Collard Friend, Nisen DP Project Management Financial Management's Use of Computer Graphics Alexander Jarett Strategic Planning for Information Systems DP Fundamentals for Management and Users Rector Wenig, Pardoe Improving Your Leadership & Management Skills Selecting Your First Computer Averch, Johnston Lover The DP Executive as Manager Slashing Telecommunication Costs and Improving Service Averch, Johnston Griesinger

Send this coupon, or call Karen Smolens, Seminar Coordinator, The Datamation Institute For Information Management & Technology, 850 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hili, Massachusetts, 02167, Tel. (617) 738-5020.

Please rush my copy of Datamation's Guide to its 36 top-ranked seminar topiCS and instructors for 1981~82. I am especially interested in: __ The schedule of public seminars in 13 major cities __ Please keep me on your mailing list to receive new seminar, con- _ In-house presentations tailored to my organization ference, and briefing announcements as they become available. NAME ______. ______ADDRESS ______TITLE ______COMPANY ______

CITY ______STATE ______ZIP CODE ______TELEPHONE ( S 0 F TWA R E & S E R V ICE S

future support and upgrades. • Satisfaction of other users is the key to this EXHIBIT4 market's growth. Ask your neighbor if you A COMPARISON OF ,LEADING want proof that the package works, that it can SOFTWARE SUPPLIERS IN FRANCE be installed quickly, and that it costs signifi­ cantly less than an in-house or custom devel­ LEADING CUSTOM LEADING VENDORS OF opment effort. SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS APPLICATION PRODUCTS Computer users have solicited help in developing information processing systems, CAP/GEMINIISOGETTI IBM especially at the applications level, since the SESA CII~HB beginning of the dp industry. Some of this aid TSIL HEWLETT·PACKARD came from hardware manufacturers and some CERCI PHILLIPS from independent vendors established to spe­ SEMA SG2 cifically provide services to organizations. SG2 SESA The computer services industry grew SlIGOS GFI out of these activities and now has the size and STERIA CISI structure shown in Exhibit 3. Processing ser­ SOPRA UNIVAC vices include batch and remote computing ORDINA CAP/GEMINIISOGETTI services; software includes both systems and CISt GSI applications products; professional services GFI TSIL include education and training, consulting, GSI . SEMA and custom software development activities. SOPRA Custom software development expenditures Source: INPUT in Western Europe are about 50% of the total professional services segment. European us­ ers currently spend more for custom program­ EXHIBIT 5 ming than they do for software packages .. WESTERN'EUROPEAN USER SATISFACTION Expenditures for custom software in Europe will grow at a 23% annual rate as compared to WITH COMPUTER SERVICES a 38% rate for software packages through 1984, demonstrating a desire on the part of dp OVERALL', RATING'" management to achieve more cost effective UNITED WEST and timely solutions to software assignments. SERVICE TYPE KINGDOM FRANCE GERMANY ITALY BENELUX The shift to procure! :ent of software pack­ ages, however, represents a potentially seri- HARDWARE 2.2 2.0 2:0 1.8 2.2 MAINTENANCE Companies compete with PROCESSING 1.9 1.5 1.7 1.3 1.5 each other on the basis SERVICES of different styles and SYSTEM SOFTWARE 1.8 1.8 1.4 1.7 1.9 approaches to satisfy .PRODUCTS their customers' needs and demands. APPLICATION' SOFT- 1.5 1.6 1.0 1.3 1.6 , WARE PRODUCTS ous problem for corporate management. The CUSTOM 1.6 0.9 0.9 1.2 1.9 problem is one of restriction on competitive SOFTWARE differentiation between organizations arising from the use of standard hardware and soft­ Source: INPUT 1< HIGH = 3 MEDIUM= 2 LOW = 1 ware. Companies compete with each other veloped and package approaches to software. ages being marketed today evolved from cus­ on the basis of different styles and approaches It is much more evident at the applications tom programs developed by the software to satisfy their customers' needs. This compe­ than at the systems software level. As one vendor. The improvement in package flexi­ tition, which derives from the creative abili­ moves away from the commonality inherent bility and adaptability has come from the ties of the individuals within the organization, in dp and communications hardware, it is the experience and sophistication gained by the has been the basic driving force in improving applications software which adapts a fixed vendor as the software package was marketed the quality and lowering the costs of goods hardware system to the operating style and and installed at different organizations. Ex­ and services produced throughout the western approach desired by the user management. hibit 4 lists the leading suppliers of software world. Standard approaches in the accounting There are two approaches to this difficulty: products and custom software services in or payroll functions should not restrict a com­ the first is the design of a completely custom France. The number of French companies pany's competitive alternatives, but adopting system, while the second approach is the performing custom programming and also standard product selection, design; and distri­ procurement ofa software package with suffi­ offering software packages demonstrates the bution systems could severely restrict a firm's cient flexibility to be adapted to "almost" close relationship between these two areas in competitive options. satisfy user management. Europe. . This problem is at the heart of the The relation of these two choices is European users have had both good controversy between custom or internally de- evident when one considers that many pack- and bad experiences with the purchase and

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installation of software products. The result achieved depends on type of product selected, EXHIBIT 6 vendor used, expectations of the buyer, and OUTSIDE PURCHASE OF .' NEW APPLICATION most importantly, preparation and selection procedures used by the dp manager. A rating SOFTWARE PROGRAMS AS A PERCENT OF TOTAL of user satisfaction with a number of different PROGRAMS DEVELOPED services for each of the major European coun­ PORTION OF TOTAL tries is shown in Exhibit 5. Two key points are NEW'SOFTWARE PROGRAMS discernible from the data. The more standard and closer the service is to the hardware, the UNITED higher the degree of user satisfaction. Sys­ KINGDOM tems software products ranked higher, in ev­ ery case, than applications products, and ap­ INDUSTRIALIMANUFACTURING plications products generally ranked higher CONTROL than custom software. Countries with a "we ENGINEERING/DESIGN prefer to do it ourselves" user attitude­ ORDER ENTRY/BILLING/PURCHASING primarily West Germany and Italy-were PRODUCTIONIINVENTORY CONTROL less satisfied with software products than the DISTRIBUTION/TRANSPORTATION other countries. MARKETING/SALES The European software products mar­ PERSONNELIPA YROLL ket varies from country to country in almost ACCOUNTI NG/FINANCE all characteristics. In all countries but the OTHER U.K., more than 93% of the software pack­ ages bought by a company are purchased by OVERALLAVERAGE -OF ·APPLICATIONS the dp manager. In the U.K., 15% of the PACKAGES PURCHASED'· packages are bought directly by the end user, Source: .INPUT showing a much more decentralized dp envi­ ronment. the software product market varies by coun­ Exhibit 6 contrasts the U.K. and Italy try, ranging from the U.K. with 76% of the EXHIBIT 7 indicating the portion of applications pack­ market to France's market share which drops WESTERN EUROPEAN ages purchased compared to the total new to 55%. The variation is highly dependent on MARKET FOR applications being developed. The U.K. is a the strength of the local software vendors and SOFTWARE PRODUCTS more mature market and buys three times as the attitudes of the users. many of its requirements from outside ven­ The top 10 suppliers of software prod­ AND SERVICES 1980- dors as does Italy. ucts in Europe are all hardware manufactur­ 1984 (IN $ BILLIONS) In two areas which are not so com­ ers. These 10 account for 53% of the total 1980 1984 pletely dominated by dp management-In­ packaged systems software market but only TOTAL EXPENDITURES TOTAL EXPENDITURES dustrial/Manufacturing Control and Engi­ 41 % of the applications market. In order of $2.6 BILLION $7.2 BILLION $.4 $.7 $1.5 $1.8 $2.1 $3,3 neering/Design-Italian companies purchase market leadership, they are IBM, ICL, Bur­ a greater percentage of their requirements roughs, Honeywell, Siemens, DEC, NCR, Uni­ from outside vendors than do English compa­ vac, Hewlett-Packard, and Nixdorf. nies. However, these two areas represent a very small part of the applications software U.S. firms-Cincom, Computer Associates, market. Together, they account for only 5% and ADR-Iead that portion of the Western of the total U.K. market. In contrast, the European software products market held by Order Entry/Billing, Production and Inven­ the independents. Six of the top 10 positions tory Control, and Personnel and Payroll areas are held by U.S. companies. European-based each represent 20% to 30% of the total mar­ firms among the top 10 independents include ket. ADv/Orga and Software AO from Germany, The Western European market for so2 from France, and Altergo from the U.K. software products and services between 1980 Most of the other European-based independ­ and 1984 is shown for applications software ent software product vendors concentrate on products, system software products, and cus­ their home markets. .. tom software in Exhibit 7. An increase of2.8 times occurs during that period, as the market Dr. Disman is managing director with grows from $2.6 to $7.2 billion. The market Input, Ltd., London, where he is re­ for applications products will grow most rap­ sponsible for managing and develop­ idly (48% per year) as a result of the pressures ing Input's European activities. Prior to on dp management to look outside of its own joining Input in 1980, he was president organization to meet cost and time con­ of Mackintosh Consultants, lnc., the Source INPUT AAGR 29% straints. Systems software markets will grow U.S. branch of a large European elec­ r---...... I ~f~~;~~kON more slowly (32% per year) representing the tronics consulting firm, for five years. SYSTEM effect~ of unbundling policies set in motion Dr. Disman received his BEE from :==::::::I PACKAGES by the hardware manufacturers. The relative New York University, and an MSc and CUSTOM ...... _---1 I SOFTWARE importance of the hardware manufacturer in a PhD from Stanford University.

48 DATAMATION right in. We build most of the We designed them components ourselves ... to meet two standards. which gives us <, complete control ""'" over quality, reliability,""",,,,, Ours. and performance every step' of the way. And Toshiba now offers you a And the industry's. fully developed and comprehen­ sive dealer program based on our With a Toshiba Very Small high standards of quality, Business Computer or Word reliability, and deliverability. Processor, you'll never worry Which means you can build your about obsolescence and reliability. product line ... and your profits. That's because they're designed So when you're looking for a to meet not only the industry's reliable, well-thought-out VSBC or software and operating standards, Word Processor, remember the but our own high standards of name Toshiba. Our standards are quality and dependability. as high as yours. With Toshiba, you can rest assured knowing you'll get day­ .. J :' 1 11 in, day-out dependability built ' 'j , J'" " " ...... J. ~ ..

EW-IOO display capacity: 80 characters x 24 lines floppy disk: 8" storage capacity: 300KB x 2, 1MBx2 type of printer: daisy-wheel printer printing speed: 45 characters/sec. print pitch: 10/12/proportional spacing

T200/T250 Hardware memory: 64KB display capacity: 80 characters x 24 lines .. "~ ~~Ii; :\~1$.\~\~\f~~\\~\\i\i1 \ ~ \ II: floppy disk: T200: 51/4" .... _... .. T250: 8" storage capacity: T200: 280KB x 2 , T250: 1MB x 2 printing speed: 125 characters/sec. characters per line: 136 characters Software CPjM@, Microsoft BASIC-80, CBASICM " ~ • CP/M(I!) is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. "-.,.",- CJ3ASIC is a trademark of Compiler Systems, Inc.

::~... ' _<*':":.IIUI.. r--pi;~~;-;;~d-;;;;;~;~-i-;,;~;;-;~ti~-;'-~b~~tT~~-hib-;;-w;;ci-----DM~81 Processor and VSBC: 0 Products 0 Dealer Program '-111.,...... ·"_-...... 11 - .... -... Name ______Title ____ Company ______

Address __----;- _____ City ____ State _____Zip ___ Phone ___ Information Processing Systems Division TOSHIBA AMERICA,INC. CIRCLE 37 ON READER CARD ------2441 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92680 Tel: (714) 730-5000 • Ive • • ever 10 I • • • In enslve care.

c-___-=:J An ailing data stream can't tell you where it hurts, and that can mean hours of trial,and,error testing, some of it done far away and hard to supervise. o o

The Bell System's Dataphone®II modular data transmission subsystem gives you central monitoring, diagnosis and control of your whole data communications system, and automatically identifies system faults. Regardless of your system's host or line protocol, Dataphone II is fully compatible, at transmission rates of 2400, 4800, or 9600 bps. Three levels of service are available, covering every level of system complexity. And because the service is fully modular, it can grow with your needs by simple . addition of components. Dataphone II service is state ... of... the... art in sophistication, yet extremely simple in operation, and communicates in plain English. With its full ... time assurance of operational readiness, Dataphone II service is the ideal link to integrate your system. It is a product of the world's most advanced information management system-the nationwide Bell System voice and data network. <> Applying our knowledge to your information management needs is a pro~ess that begins with one call to your Bell Account Executive. C)

The knowledge business @ The ADAB Answer: 1 UNCHAIN t UR DATA BASE!

That's one big reason why the DBMS answer for a company on the move is ADABAS, Software AG's easy-to- But, practically speaking, that's use - and easy-to-maintain-DBMS. just what chain-pointer DBMS Our inverted list architecture '- L systems do. All their logical separates logical relationships from relationships are hard-wired into the physical data. This gives you """'\\2 the physical data. So, when it remarkably flexible access to, and A lot of software companies like to comes to meeting the dynamic control of, the data base. claim they have the answer to data access and update require­ With ADABAS, you decide exactly DBMS cost effectiveness, ments of a growing company, what your data base relationships will programmer productivity, and these systems simply get too tied be and change them anytime you throughput efficiency. up in their own structural want, to meet special corporate needs. Only ADABAS provides the limitations to deliver effective, Without any effect whatever on the architecture to support claims like flexible data rY\,"",..."",..,.nr"Y"lr\,n+ data base or on existing programs. these 100%!

p _. ,_J--·-~··j·I..L-,- . .; t J-~ --- L-. f' j .~_J-'l-_.\ -) L-.------l,,-,I '"\,.4 l/ l

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City -----State ------W"l~n eHecUve Zip Telephone ------da~a baDe mDnagem~l1lt Type of Computer ______i!J the c'lc::llenge - Operating System ______ADAGAS i!J ~i1e c:m!Jt"Jer.

Reston International Center 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Va 22091 (703) 860-5050

Affiliates: ADABAS Software Ltd, Derby, England (44332 372535). Arabian Data Systems Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (693-866) • CONSIST Sao Paulo, Brazil (289-4445). Datanalys AB Stockholm, Sweden (08-218410). Fraser Espanola SA Madrid. Spain (4561350). RD, Nickel & Associates, Inc. Cambridge, Canada (519/653-6142). Pan American Computer Systems Buenos Aires, Argentina (883-3790) • Silesta Sistemi S,PA Milan, Italy (1-874246) • Software AG Darmstadt, Germany (06151-84072). Software AG of Far East Tokyo, Japan (03-278-0258). SPL (Australia) Pty. Ltd, North Sydney, Australia (02-922-3268). SPL (Israel) Ltd. Givatayim, Israel (03 777 -860) • Systems Programming (PTY) Ltd. Sandton, South Africa (783-4250) • TECSI Paris, France (225-86-83). Teleinformatica de Mexico SA Mexico, Mexico (905/550-8033). Volmac BY Utrecht, Hoiland (0031-30334421) CIRCLE 41 ON READER CARD seen since the go-go years of the late '60s WALL STREET when just about every computer-related issue was automatically hot. Unfortunately, there WED TO weren't many opportunities for investors since most of the business, especially pack­ SOFTWARE aged software, was in private hands. Software companies are' be­ All that has changed, however, with ing courted and wooed like the recent rash of public offerings, increasing never before. emphasis on software by traditional hardware vendors, and the imminent explosion (any by John W. Verity ,minute now, they keep saying) of personal it wasn't the baseball strike that made Wall computing and on-line information services. Street find the software and services business Investment houses are not exactly rushing en one of the best games in town. As the fastest masse to cash in on the software boom, but growing segment of the overall computer in­ they are devoting more resources to finding dustry, software and services offered what out what makes this market segment tick. seemed to be great investment potential and The most obvious sign of the Street's the chance for some real action, the kind not awakening to the software market is the ap-

SPECIAL REPORT 53 I NTH ENE W S

SY KAUFMAN: "Cullinane set the ROBERT K. O'CONNOR: "Finally peo­ ESTHER DYSON: "It's a very exciting benchmark." ple realize the industry is viable." time. There's a lot of money flowing." pointment by several large investment houses ther Dyson, analyst at Oppenheimer, a New Anthony & R. L. Day, also in New York. of research analysts specializing in software York house known for its strong research "Finally people realize the industry is via­ and services. While several analysts had been activities. "There's a lot of money flowing, ble," he comments. "Most people couldn't following established services vendors such there are many companies starting out, and see ADP selling any more payroll accounts, as Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Com­ there's a lot of ferment right now. " but they did and they will. " Acquisitions by puter Sciences Corp. (esc) for years, it was Dyson, who in mid-June was recom­ big corporations of services firms in recent primarily as an adjunct to following IBM and mending EDS, Automatic Data Processing years (among them, Dun & Bradstreet bought its mainframe rivals. (ADP) , Tymshare, Informatics, Cullinane National CSS, McGraw-Hill went for Data Now, firms such as Oppenheimer & Database Systems, and Triad, notes that Resources, and Schlumberger picked up Co., Hambrecht & Quist, and Merrill Lynch "practically anybody (in the software busi­ Manufacturing Data Systems) has also helped have analysts devoted to following software. ness) can go public right now and do very well draw attention to the services segment, Of particular interest to them is the packaged since the basic demand for services and stocks o 'Connor says. The general business press software market, which has seen several of its is quite high. " also has taken a few good looks at the market, leading contenders go public in recent Robert 0 'Connor, who says he's been prompting interest among investors. months. following the services industry for some 13 "Instead of the lone operator like me "It's a very exciting time," says Es- years, tracks 23 such companies for Tucker with a limited clientele," 0 'Connor says,

SELECTED KEY ACQUISITIONS DURING CALENDAR 1980

SHARE PRICE PRIOR TO ACQUISITION TOTAL TRANSACTION PRICE PER CONSIDERATION COMMITMENT· SHARE PAID FIRM ACQUIRED BY WHOM ($ PER SHARE) ($ PER SHARE) ($ MILLIONS)

Manufacturing Data Schlumberger, Ltd. $43 $63 $ 187.0 Systems, Inc. Calma Co. General Electric Co. - - 100.0 System Development Corp. Burroughs Corp. - - 98.0 First Data Resources American Express Co. - - 57.0 Lambda Technology General Electric Information Services Co. (GEISCO) - - 22.0 Digital Systems of Florida Wyly Corp. - - 17.8 Itel's Audatex Div. Automatic Data Processing - - 15.0 Source Telecomputing Reader's Digest Assoc. - - 12.0 DASD Cap Gemini Sogeti - - 11.0 Synergraphics Anacomp - - 9.7

SOURCE: BROADVIEW ASSOCIATES *APPROX.; 30-60 DAYS ADVANCED.

54 DATAMATION " -

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, .. '"-~ .. ! ... . ,_, ;:'.S!:;f\JOUI~::;,';' i;';SSU~i~:; :=5S:Ci 3, I~Si/! i'lQU I R'( ProvideS ,'\CC,:: 53 di1C; ;:!C'::>pr.H,\S!"~ "ii nh~, Complete SeCliritv.

B'c;c::luse i:":1: p,SllIi'JOUIFN lets you access your Built-ill safeguards protect data at simple ;:::~-~::J;:;~;~' DL./! d2,~a Q2SeS through IMS or TSO the system, terminal, and data base '~~F-' Ir",-,'" ;:--tst.:,:r ::.l:,d rno(p efficient:'I, -:-hat's levels, Data base administrators becau::;e it eliminates need to write and define the data bC1ses usei-S can rje:;buQ tl10se higilly procedural access, tlleir passwords, al'ld the You neecj nu~ ;.J!iclerSli::i1Fi til',:; CC);Ti' proCJrams IJsually required to access terminals from which individual lies :1',:, ,._ cj;:1ta l~ases. /l,SIIINQUIRY operates data bases can be accessed. c:lata t)(Jse C\C(~,U:=,,~S, as an IMS message processing program ci i ;'J~l nCl~;t I ern r;";~;: i q' e>"J~culed from any IMS DBIDC­ Learn wily ASIM,IOUIRY is c(JITectioll, ,:\~~ i I: (Ie': !! :"/ :' ur::;::lcJ i ie- :,]upporte;'J terrninC11. EXEcution more h(~a\/ily used than any com pet­ i~, '.J\ln2r:,jr:?I!\' (~n:ltr:~lie(; thrOI.!f]h iil~ prccJucl. CJ.II Qj' writc--today: ,lUtCnl8tiC prcgr3m rnes~)a[~e swilch- (1)(,::(10'/,', 0, ',1:~_: ~n~J, HISJt1 initial prirJrity assignment desi(ed :':C:' ,~tssures fCist r8spons'2. [.Jriority is then .i\pplications Software, Inc. :2'15'j 5 Ha'.'Jthorne Boulevard l?>:ecutecl qu,':~ 1(;::> "':;"~(: [;,.:: '~(J'!t';U In a.utonltltic8.1 iy 8.djusted h) the ute Hlat all oil-line '>::;'y,(~; i'!C\'.' rc:;le::I~~(> :l to-n(~-cli~3playc::cl data is E;r1countered, Torrance, CPt 90503 (213) 540·01 '11 feature;3 inciuc:J(; the aJJiiil~/ to which optimizes load leveling of IMS Lieier qU(~ly (':/;:>,~lJ:i',T, [0 t-JcJ!CI"1 a r~cJ DI::1!DC resources. a poweriu! L;SH Member SIA ~~

CIHClE 38 Oil i"1EADER CARD I N THE NEWS I I "you now have major wire houses like Mer­ in a single quarter) and that investors, attract­ factor holding back the burgeoning micro­ rill Lynch watching the market, so everyone ed to predictable results, are willing to pay computer industry. The way things are going, listens. " premium multiples for such stocks. There­ he said, "in another couple of years there will O'Connor credits Alex. Brown & fore, he says, it is more important to look at only be one programmer for every five to 10 Sons, the Baltimore investment banking out­ these companies on a year-to-year pattern, machines. " fit, with boosting the software industry within something which hasn't been possible before Creative Strategies International, the Wall Street circles. "They're clearly the lead­ due to the lack of public information. San Jose, Calif., market research firm, has er," he says, pointing to a monthly computer Cullinane, a leading database man­ said the number one factor in deciding the services bulletin put out by Alfred R. Berke­ agement system vendor which is branching success or failure of microcomputer compa­ ley and Joan E. Rodgers which investigates out into applications software, has become nies in this decade will be software. Sales of various submarkets, specific companies, and "the benchmark that other software firms will software in 1980 exceeded $100 million. stock performance. Alex. Brown last year have to be measured against," Kaufman Brackett believes the day is coming held a two-day conference on the software says. "It has done a superb job of managing when "people will buy functional capability ] its business and giving a sequential pattern of and then ask what kind of computer it will run Some of the strongest growth. " on. If you had an applications program for all areas in venture capital Hambrecht & Quist, in addition to machines, even today, you could sell a mil­ y underwriting new issues, also has its hand in lion copies. " acti.Vit are database man­ another growing area of involvement in soft­ Soffech Microsystems is a systems agement, CA~/CAM, and ware by the investment community: venture software firm that emphasizes software porta­ business graphics. capital. While Mr. Kaufman is reluctant to bility. A subsidiary of Soffech, Inc., Wal­ I discuss details on his firm's specific vc activi­ tham, Mass., the company was formed in w and services business which drew attendance ties, he characterizes the vc area as "frenet­ 1979 when it was granted the exclusive rights ct from a wide variety of vendors and invest­ ic." Software firms are "being courted and to license the Univ. of California, San Die­ in ment analysts. wooed like never before. " go's (UCSD'S) portable Pascal system, as well Sy Kaufman, general partner at San Some of the strongest areas in venture as to improve it. Today it has exclusive rights Da Francisco-based Hambrecht & Quist, sug­ capital activity are database management, to license what has become the UCSD p-Sys­ Da gests that Cullinane's public offering of 1978 CAD/CAM, and business graphics, he says, tem in Pascal, Fortran, and BASIC. And Cobol did much to fuel interest in the software in­ noting that Hambrecht & Quist has made cap­ will be added soon. Brackett called the Ad dustry among Wall Street circles. "It was the ital investments in some five software firms first software company to go public in a long, so far. "They're not startups; they're estab­ Applications programs Dis long time, " he recalls. "It offered the inves­ lished companies with sound product portfo­ written using the UCSD p­ Dis tor an unblemished record of earnings and lios, measurable p&l (profit and loss), and System can usually be growth. " relatively good profitability. But they need Da Since that time, several competing the capital to build up sales and marketing," moved from one machine Da packaged software firms have gone public, he explains. to another without several large services firms have merged, and Oppenheimer's Dyson agrees, noting mod ification°. Ma the idea of software being a key component to that marketing, support, and service will be at success in the hardware arena has come to the least as important as technological leadership p-System "the fastest-growing microproces­ DP forefront of the investor's mind, Kaufman in the intensifying software game. Even if a sor software development system in use to­ 1m, says. And, he adds, it's only just begun. "I company doesn't make it on its own, she day, with more than 30,000 end users and think 1981 will be seen as the year of the new says, "if it has a reasonably good product it dozens of microcomputer manufacturers and Str issue. More software companies will go pub­ applications developers as customers." should be a good investment because it will Sy: lic this year than at any time previously. Ham­ probably get bought up by a larger firm."~ There are several approaches to soft­ brecht & Quist alone plans to bring four or ware portability, said Julie E. Erwin, a vp at Sy: five firms public this year, and there will Soffech Microsystems. "One is to concen­ probably be an equal number underwritten by WANTED: trate on the program, carefully designing it to Pre others. " reduce the amount that will have to be rewrit­ DP "By the end of 1981 then," he says, SOFTWARE ten each time the program is moved to a new "there will be about 10 new ideas on the machine. Str market. " FORMleROS Another approach is to emphasize the 1m, Kaufman notes that in the past inves­ The success or failure of language used to write the program, assuming tors were unable to put their money into a microcomputer companies in that each machine can then be made to trans­ Thl "cross-section of investment-grade" stocks late these programs into the appropriate, within the software arena since there were this decade will be unique machine codes. Unfortunately, she only a handful of public companies. "Obvi­ determined by software. explained, any sizable applications program Se ously, the situation will now change," he will use resources of the operating system, 851 says, noting that as more firms go public, by Edith Myers particularly input and output, in ways that Pie analysts such as himself will be able to con­ "If you put a sign on the Pacific Coast High­ may be unique to the hardware for which it , ar struct better statistical models of software way saying you have user-proven applica­ was written. Thus portions of the program stock performance relating to such variables tions software (for microcomputers), you'd may need to be rewritten if it is to be moved to as the overall economy, the performance of have helicopters from the likes of Atari and a different system. NA hardware vendors, and competition. Radio Shack on your doorstep in no time." The approach used in developing the He points out that many software Dr. John Brackett, president of Sof­ UCSD p-System was to provide a portable soft­ AD companies have extremely variable quarterly Tech Microsystems, San Diego, Calif., was ware environment. When the p-System is es­ Til performance (some even make all their profits summing up what he sees as the most critical tablished on a computer system, it duplicates ec 56 DATAMATION ell I (1 (for once) was spe~£!111.~§~~ss:': RSTS PROFESSIONAL

To tell the truth, so are we. We DISKIT IS A DIRECTORY DISKIT LETS YOU WRITE knew DISKIT would amaze RSTS PROGRAM YOUR OWN DISK users, but, frankly, we were ButDISKIT is more than adisk HANDLING ROUTINES unprepared for the response. Phone structuring utility. DISKIT's Best of all, the very same routines calls, letters, and now the RSTS Macro-II directory program, used in DISKIT are included, PROFESSIONAL -- all saying DIR, displays directories 12 times with documentation, so you can what we want you to know: faster than before -- looking up write your own disk handling DISKIT is a remarkable files by name, extension, and date routines. In minutes. software tool! (with wildcards) at the incredible DISKIT IS THE FIRST Listen to WI, at else Dave has to rate of 250 files/second. SOFTWARE TOOLKIT FOR COMPLETE DISK say: And DIR is smart. It supports MANAGEMENT all standard DIRECT switches " ... using DISKIT, I created 130 The D I SKIT package provides accounts and fully extended their (including backwards, up to 1,000 files) with features you won't find all the tools and utilities you need centered UFDs in 3 minutes and to create and manage a well­ 40 seconds (ajob that usedto take elsewhere -like password lookup, UFD placement, and UFD size. structured disk. The entire DISKIT 4 to 8 hours.)" package, with extensive documenta­ "I then copied the full contents DIR even works as a diagnostic tion is available now for only $1250. of a 300 MB RM05 equivalent to tool on dismounted disks, detecting bad directory structures and DISKIT, Dave says, " .. .is this new 'well-structured' disk in the 'final solution' to structured 45 minutes,optimizing clustersize identifying them with comprehensive error messages. disks, eliminating all of the time and contiguity in the process ... " and complexity and reducing the DISKIT IS A DISK DISKIT IS AN OPEN FILES job to one of a SAVRES." DISPLAY PROGRAM STRUCTURING UTILITY What more could we say?- As Dave discovered, DISKIT's DISKIT's Macro-II OPEN disk structuring utility, D SU, is program displays open files by job fast. It also: - with complete job and file statistics. Once again, we've got the answer. • Optimizes file dustersizes It even has a" sleep switch", allow­ ing you to dynamically update • Places and pre-extends UFDs Software Techniques, Inc. • Performs transfers between information at any desired interval. unlike disks • Saves all accounting data • Allows manual file placement 5242 Katella Avenue. Suite 101 . • Provides full logging and Los Alamitos. CA 90720 statistics • Includes sophisticated error handling and recovery

CIRCLE 39 ON READER CARD I NTH ENE W S

all of the conventions of the UCSD p-System THE PROBLEM OF PROGRAM PIRATES on any other computer system. Therefore, applications programs written using the UCSD "I figure for every two licenses'we issue for p-System can usually be moved from one CBASIC, one copy is pirated, " says Gordon machine to another without modification. Eubanks, Jr., president of Compiler Sys­ Erwin said the UCSD p-System uses a tems, Inc., Sierra Madre, Calif. hypothetical computer concept commonly Eubanks, whose company is based called a pseudomachine, or p-machine. This on the licensing of CBASIC, a microcom­ p-machine is an idealized computer which puter language for business applications, executes a machine-independent pseudo­ was expressing a concern shared by many in code, or p-code. When an application pro­ the microcomputer software business to­ gram is written using any UCSD p-System lan­ day-a concern about program pirates. guage, the system compiles the program into One estimate has it that unautho­ p-code, appropriate for the p-machine, rather rized copying has risen from economic in­ than into the machine code for the real com­ significance to a problem that is costing the puter being used. A p-machine emulator, a $200 million a year microcomputer soft­ program in the native code of a machine, is ware industry from $12 million to $36 mil­ provided for each real computer on which the lion annually. p-System runs. When the application pro­ , . "They're (the pirates) stealing our gram is run, the p-machine emulator executes R&D dollars, "Eubanks says. "They're dis­ the p-code. couraging software development." Another company selling portable There are even programs on the mar­ language system technology is Language Re­ ket to make copying easy. "It's a problem sources, Boulder, Colo., a three-year-old of ethics , "Eubanks complains. HA lot who GORDON EUBANKS: "Applications It firm formed by five people from Intel and the do it (pirate programs) don't really think people are the bread and butter. Vniv. of Colorado. The company calls its they're doing anything wrong. Some of major offering Language Resources Pascal, them just share with their friends, but others Squires, Washington, D.C. attorneys, ar· which it describes as a machine independent, sell. " gue that unloading of object code from retargetable, software development system He tells of a salesman for a reputable ROMS is not a copyright infringement but is for general use. Its hosts can be conventional hardware manufacturer using a pirated soft­ unfair competitive practice. . computers or advanced microcomputers, and ware copy, seemingly unaware that there The case involves an electronic its targets can be conventional computers or was anything wrong in what he was doing. game controlled by object code loaded onto microprocessors, say its developers. Eubanks feels there is a big need to educate, a ROM. Its creator is alleging that a foreign The system has been made portable in "to make people realize that unauthorized competitor duplicated its ROM and put it into much the same way, they say, as a Pascal copying of software is wrong and that it is a competitive game that the company is applications software system can be made damaging to the industry. ,. exporting to the V.S. portable: it is completely modular; all basic There are protections. There are In a 37-page brief, Stern and Squires system modules are written in the standard hardware "locks" such as identification make the case against this act being copy,,:, Pascal language; all functions dependent on ROMs sold with the software. And there are right infringement, but they conclude ··by the host computer design are in separate mod­ the legal protections of copyright, trade se­ urging the Commission "to protect Ameri-:­ ules, and all functions needed for retargeting cret, and patents. The last of these is diffi­ can business from unjustified conduct, de­ also. are in separate modules. The system in­ cult, at best,· to obtain and the other two are·· spite the technical shortcomings of . the cludes a Pascal compiler, a macro assembler, hard to enforce. copyright laws. " program library, other software development The copyright. area is particularly It's a new industry with a new set of facilities, and an optional interpreter. The unclear and not well settled. In a case now good guys and bad guys. There seems to' be compiler translates standard Pascal into inter­ before the V .S. International Trade Com­ a problem in getting the roles straight. mediate code for execution on microcom­ mission, Richard H.Stern and Jeffrey L. ~E.M. puters containing the interpreter, as well as into the native code of target microproces- pose portable language systems should have Eubanks' CBASIC also supports Digital sors. been developed earlier. Had they been com­ Research's MP/M (a version which extends the Because the system is completely mercially developed when microprocessors facilities ofCP/M to more than one user simulta­ modular, said Bruce Ravenel, president of the began to be used in advanced applications neously and also gives access to very large disk around 1975, many of the problems of the files) and CP/NET (a Digital Resources operat­ By 1990, microprocessor 1980s could have been prevented. " And he ing system which allows many users to share software costs could believes these problems are serious. "At the expensive resources), and cpM/86 which sup­ constitute 90% of total rate microprocessor software costs are soar­ ports the 16-bit 8086s. CBASIC also supports system design costs. ing, they can increase from more than 50% to the Bell Labs Version (as well as others) of I more than 90% of total system design costs by U nix and TRS/DOS for TRS-80s. Soon it will firm, retargeting for a new microprocessor 1990." support Oasis, an operating system developed takes only a few months. Rehosting takes And, said Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., by Phase One Systems, Oakland, Calif. only a few weeks. So, Pascal programs can be president of Compiler Systems, Inc.,. Sierra Compiler Systems recently an­ moved to new microprocessors almost imme­ Madre, Calif., "applications people are the nounced CB 80, a compiler it has been devel­ diately, using whatever host equipment is bread and butter.' , Like Language Re­ oping for more than a year, and one which available in the future. sources, Compiler Systems is a firm spawned Eubanks said "bypasses the usual pseudo Ravenel believes that "general pur- by the need for microcomputer software. compiler and generates direct machine code.

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It really will be a multi-user product. " CB 80 a general purpose tool for one category of will run under CP/M initially but is expected to operations." An example would be operating PAIN AND be available soon for use under Oasis, Unix, software for word processing. CP/M 86, and other operating systems. Microsoft has created a special PLEASURE IN Eubanks is a strong believer in en­ branch of its new product division, headed by couraging applications programmers. Dr. Charles Simonyi who moved to the firm GOING PUBLIC "They're the people who can sell for us." His from Xerox Office Products Div. where he The hot topic in the comput­ company publishes a directory of software was manager of advanced systems. Simonyi er services community is: vendors that market products written in supervised the text editor project for Xerox's which company will go pub­ CBASIC. Its latest version listed some 50 ven­ Alto office system. lic next? dors with some 200 packages. The stated goal of his group is to pro­ The firm also encourages applications vide end user system software products such by Ralph Emmett developers to use its computer equipment for as a spread sheet simulator, that are function­ Leading software companies are beginning to development purposes. "We make our equip- al, easily-manipulated tools for new genera­ cash in on Wall Street's recent "discovery" tions of computer users. Says Simonyi, "The of the computer services business. "The software crisis is the user, of course, is concerned with an applica­ Suddenly, the main talk in the ser­ data processing industry's tion, with problem solving. We want to pro­ vices community is: "Which company will vide the substrate. " go public next?" catch-all term for a Besides the lack of good microcom­ Atlanta-based Management Science complex of software puter software applications packages, another America (MSA) has just completed its first obsolescence problems." problem is software obsolescence. Language public offering. Software AG, based in Res­ I Resources' Ravenel said, "the software crisis ton, Va., and Pansophic Systems, Oak ment and our expertise available to them," is the data processing industry's catch-all Brook, Ill., are currently in the process of said Eubanks. He said he believes that Digital term for a complex of software obsolescence going public. And other software concerns, Research is the only other microprocessor problems. It was caused by a slow advance in such as McCormack & Dodge, Needham software firm offering applications program­ software techology during the 1970s, while Heights, Mass., are expected to follow suit mers this kind of assistance. semiconductor technology advanced rapidly. this year or next. ' Eubanks sees programming veterans Software design, development, maintenance, While all of these companies have as a potential source for applications pack­ and upgrading remained very time-consum­ been viable entities for years, it's only now ages for the microcomputer market. "A cot­ ing, while microprocessors and other new that they have found the ideal investment cli­ tage industry can be developed." He was hardware devices drove down the costs of mate, say experts. Following the boom of the referring to employed programmers who equipment and created a proliferation of ap­ 1960s, the market over the last decade has could moonlight to their advantage and that of plications. " offered little opportunity for computer ser­ the microcomputer industry. Brackett of SoITech Microsystems vices companies to seek public funds. But by "Something has to be done to pro­ doesn't believe the hardware revolution is the time Massachusetts-based Cullinane Da­ mote software development," said Eubanks. going to slow down. "Hardware standardiza­ tabase Systems Inc. ended the years of famine He's got some ideas of what can be done tion is not very likely. We need solutions to by going public in '78, a window to public within his own company. The firm has two keep software from becoming obsolete." * investors had begun to open once again. facilities, one in Hawaii and one in Sierra Madre. The Hawaii facility is a house Eu­ banks owns and is used for development, "without distractions." He is thinking of HISTORY OF MERGER leasing a larger facility in Hawaii to be used as a development laboratory to which he could 100 AND ACQUISITION ACTIVITY attract people on a "year or two project ba­ (COMPUTER SERVICES INDUSTRY*) sis. " He sees Compiler Systems using it to get into applications tools "ina year or so. " The company listed by Creative Strat­ egies as dominant in the microcomputer lan­ guage market, Microsoft of Bellevue, Wash., has its own ideas about remedies for end user problems. "New customers are not very con­ 50 cerned about the inner workings of the ma­ chinery but they are becoming very sophisti­ 1980: RECORD cated about what they plan to do with it," CJ) TOTAL DOLLAR VOLUME: => says this company. a:« This, the firm believes, creates new $688 MILLIONS ::.::: C « .', demands in the marketplace, including a de­ 87 TRANSACTIONS a: « co mand for end user systems software and one a: for operating systems software that can sup­ « 0 co port as many levels of computer user sophisti­ 1970 1975 1980 co>- cation as desired. The company defines end f- user systems software as "a layer of software "BROADVIEW ASSOCIATES ESTIMATE «a: I between the user and the system that serves as () I

60 DATAMATION I NTH ENE W S

Last year's big profile boost for the in­ Dodge says there's hardly a software employees at book value prior to the public dustry, not only among analysts but also a­ company of any significant size that isn't offering. cross the general media, has put the seal of ap­ squeezed for cash right now. "The software In theory, any services company proval on this trend. Experts now tell us that industry is just growing so fast. " He points could seek out an underwriter and try to reap the "time is ripe" for public offerings. Last out that an added bonus from public funding the benefits of going public. But in practice, year, according to the Association of Data is one he's noticed in earlier offerings, like it's quite a different process. For one thing, Processing Services Organizations (ADAPSO), Cullinane and Shared Medical-the "added underwriters have certain basic requirements the index of computer services stocks ad­ visibility" those companies earned froJ:'"' the these "hopefuls" must meet. vanced 106%. This group of 40 stocks easily experience. "We're looking for companies with outperformed the 25.8% overall gain shown That point is also made by George the management, market niche, and size to by the various industry stocks on Standard & Grodahl of Broadview Associates, merger reach $100 million in sales," says Richard Poor's 500 performance rankings. Franyo at Alex. Brown & Sons, the oldest In addition, the average price/earn­ For those pioneers who investment banking firm in the U.S. Alex. ings multiple of these 40 services companies put their net worth into Brown & Sons is the underwriter for the MSA expanded significantly from 14 times earn­ raising seed money to and Software AG offerings, and earlier han­ ings to nearly 25 times earnings over 1980, start their companies, go­ dled such companies as Shared Medical and ADAPSO reports. SEI when they went public. Software and services companies are ing public offers instant But there is an even bigger stumbling lured into public offerings for a number of fluidity-real money for pa­ block for the fledgling public corporation reasons. For those pioneers who put all their per value. than this, Franyo points out. "The company net worth into raising seed money to start their should have a minimum $15 million to $25 u::: companies, it offers instant fluidity-real and acquisition specialists based in Fort Lee, million share base for a typical initial public ~ money for paper value. And for those com­ N.J. "Going public has great PR value, " Gro­ offering of some $6 million." ~ pany founders who want it, going public also dahl says. "In addition, it is a great endorse­ And how does one reach this $15 mil­ CD offers the chance for a profitable exit from the ment for the company's marketing force. The lion to $25 million critical mass? According ~ business altoge~her. whole experience is an exciting event that can to researchers, the average price/earnings ~ "Most of us are in this business for the stimulate the entire company. " multiple is 14 times to nearly 25 times earn­ « long term-not just to make a killing, " says Another key reason for going public is ings. That means that today's "prospect" ill Frank Dodge, co-founder of McCormack & a little more subtle. "The company can use should have achieved earnings of $1 million 6 Dodge. "Though some are just looking to stock options as a lever for both keeping and or more this year. ~ cash in-and it's nice to have that option­ recruiting key personnel," Grodahl says. In the computer services business, ~ most software companies are really looking to If, for example, the company plans to pretax earnings are currently averaging out at ~ the public for additional capital to meet sell its stock to the public at 20 times book around 10% ($950 million earned from a mar­ ~ growth requirements." value, it can offer a block of the shares to its ket currently estimated at around $10 billion

SPECIAL REPORT 61

-----_.... __ ._-_ .. ------...... :----...- ...... _------":,"\

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\ \ I NTH ENE W S

in sales). So, to be earning $1 million, our that you still remain in control, " Elias says. seemingly silly and unexpected things. "Like hopeful would have to be turning over $10 "But are you really in control?" the calls that one executive kept getting from million or more in sales this year to qualify. He points out that the public company a new shareholder with 10 shares who com­ As Franyo points out, only 150 com­ immediately runs into a welter of SEC (Securi­ plained that the company's exhibit stand at a panies in the whole computer services indus­ ties and Exchange Commission) regulations. rec~nt show had been untidy. " try are presently registering such sales. , 'You've got 8K monthly reports to fill out if "The public often makes a poorer par­ Experts note, however, that those something significant happens. There's your ent than a multinational or big corporation," companies which haven't yet grown to the top annual 10K report disclosing your most inner Elias claims. tier needn't despair. With the industry pro­ He contends that a parent corporation jected to grow from $10 billion to $35 billion "The company should can be capricious, arbitrary, and demanding. by 1985, as ADAPsoestimates, there is plenty have a minimum $15 mil­ "But in each case, the public is more so. A of venture capital around. parent can be talked to and a capricious deci­ "Banks are showing themselves will­ lion to $25 million share sion chang\!d. But the public is harder to ad­ ing to lend at favorable rates to those services base for a typical initial dress and takes a lot longer. " companies with lower pie mUltiples, say 10 to public offering of some $6 Elias adds that though both' 'parents" 15 times earnings," says one observer. million." require specific performance on a continuing According to Franyo, this option is a basis, the public is less forgiving when things good one because of the speed with which a secrets to the entire world. Then, of course, go wrong. "They are less prone to accept company can get money. "When it all comes you'll have to contend with the quarterly 'R&D quarters', " he jokes. down to the bottom line, running your own IOQ, a little mini report of private things. And But assuming that a company opts for private company is still the best tax shelter. " finally, that old bugbear, the annual report­ control by the public, there are still more Another advantage to going it alone, salaries, insurance benefits, perks, etc., etc., concerns beyond the pie multiple and share claims Steve Elias who heads up acquisitions out for public scrutiny. " base. Experts point out that the firm must strategies for Itel Corp. 's commercial oper­ Elias adds that there are other regula­ have its house in order-and that, for some ations, is the "total independence it gives tions relating to the buying and selling of companies, could mean putting in place their you." stock which crimp management's control first real management structure. "You might think that after you go even further. Then too, he says, there's the "Software companies are usually public by selling 10% to 30% of your stock matter of management being niggled by built around one or two entrepreneurs, " says

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CIRCLE 46 ON READER CARD SPECIAL REPORT 63 Now. . the fastest:growing industry . In the world has its own newspaper.

The software industry, already a massive market, will be one of coverage of application packages, systems software, program the premier growth industries of the 1980's and it deserves development aids, language processors, data bases, productiv­ more than just an occasional article or a department or a ity enhancements, user ratings and surveys, data and software column. It deserves a publication of its own. Introducing security, software legal issues, job opportunities and much Software News, the monthly computer software newspaper. more. Software News is published by'Technical Publishing, a Software News has a controlled circulation with a company known for its responsiveness to the DP market and its guaranteed minimum of 50,000 software buyers and specifiers: information needs. Technical publishes Datamation, the qualified subscribers are accepted only on a direct request monthly information source for the EDP professional. basis. The editorial staff of Software News will save readers For information and a complete media kit, call Jean time and money by collecting, researching, analyzing, catalog­ Gallant (617) 562-9308. Be part of the excitement of the ing, and reporting on the products now being offered by more software industry's first newspaper. than 3,000 software producers. And they'll bring incisive Technical pubhshlng a mmpany of DB The Dun &"Bradstreet Corporation 5 Kane Industrial Drive. Hudson. MA 01749 • (617) 562-9308 I NTH ENE W S

one software executive, "and simply aren't organized to go public." An example, he AN EXCEPTION says, is the company built up by John Culli­ nane, which he originally planned to take TO THE NORM public in 1974. "But Mr. Cullinane wisely While the services industry held off until he'd built an organization as a whole strives to eke around him. " out a mere 100/0 pretax Software AG even put in place a whole new board of directors before its recent public profit on sales, Cullinane offering, observers point out. continues to more than Other housekeeping chores a com­ double that margin. pany may need to do could include cleaning up its arrangements with other companies and by Ralph Emmett even smoothing out earnings. "Remember On balance, there aren't too many negative that everything will go in the prospectus, so things you can say about Cullinane Database you have to be a tight s'hip to float well," Systems Inc. comments one consultant. The Massachusetts-based company is McCormack & Dodge has been wide­ so successful that, in the words of one observ­ ly expected to be the next link in the string of er, "It's almost boring. " Dataware can provide public offerings. "But this won't happen, " Once again this year the company will the software and says Frank Dodge. "We've looked into it" have exceeded its (admittedly) conservative and we've decided to wait. " He concedes that target of 20% to 22% pretax profit on sales. "turnkey" services to now is certainly the time for' 'hot issues, " but (This is more than twice the average pretax meet your plans says his company's not quite ready. Maybe percentage for the industry.) The bottom line for the 80's next year. is that Cullinane will register a $6 million While Dodge wouldn't elaborate on profit on some $28 million in sales. (Any) COBOL to (Any) COBOL what he meant by not being' 'ready, " sources What's more, at a time when the aver­ Circle 250 on Reader Card say that he and co-founder Jim McCormack age revenue per employee sits at $40,000 a may want to let out the reins a little on the year, Cullinane is managing in excess of RPG/RPG II to COBOL company and perhaps put in a new manage­ $80,000. Circle 251 on Reader Card ment team. Other facts are even more incredible. AUTOCODERISPS to COBOL If these arguments against going pub­ This relatively small 350-man company went Circle 252 on Reader Card lic aren't convincing and you're still gripped public in 1978-the first software company to by the lure of an offering, the folks at Alex. do so in 10 years-and now has a book value PL/1 to COBOL Circle 253 on Reader Card Brown & Sons offer one final piece of advice: of $200 million! "If you are contemplating an offering next Since putting together its initial seed RPG IRPG II to PLl1 spring, " says Franyo, "get to work early. " money of $500,000 in the late 1960s, the Circle 254 on Reader Card "You'll need to start talking to an company has had no debt. And now, accord­ EASYCODER/TRAN to COBOL underwriter in the fall, and put your own team ing to senior vp and number two man, Robert Circle 255 on Reader Card together in December," he says. "Then by Goldman, the company has $22 million in the next February, you would need to be doing bank-close to 1980's total turnover! BALI ALC to COBOL your 'numbers'." So how did Cullinane get to be one of Circle 256 on Reader Card "You definitely will need a good na­ the most financially successful software com­ FORTRAN to FORTRAN tional accounting firm to audit the numbers," panies in the nation? Circle 257 on Reader Card Franyo adds. "There is a tremendous vari­ "There's no big secret," says Gold­ ance between computer services companies man. "You just have to know yourself and Call or write today. in such things as bookings, sales, purchasing know your market. " products, and writing off R&D, In many cases, Knowing yourself has long been the completely new accounting procedures will domain of the company's founder and guid­ have to be imposed before the company can ing light, John Cullinane. Though clearly a mm go public. " leader in his own right, he prefers the "fam­ Franyo also advises picking an expe­ ily" approach, say colleagues. An example rienced banker for what he can do for you of this came just before the company's public _illfMrrm after the deal. "And you definitely will need offering when Cullinane offered all his em­ an sEc-oriented legal counsel to clean up your ployees 20% of his holding at book value to minutes and your charter," he warns. increase employee incentive and company When the whole package is ready, and identity. Mtu one month before the date of the offering, the To maintain balance, and perhaps be­ budding public corporation must file with the cause the company carries his name, Culli­ SEC nane tends to take a back seat, associates say. If you're still eager, remember one "He prefers to let his staff express what Cul­ GtIDilll~~ more thing-with or without an offering, the' linane (the company) stands for by the way it whole process will cost you a bundle. Legal, performs," says Goldman. "He's always Da~aware, Inc. 2565 Elmwood Avenue accounting, and printing fees could run any­ been very liberal and very fair. " 10 Buffalo, New York 14217 where from $150,000 to $250,000. Goldman himself is known within the Phone (716) 876-8722 TELEX: 91519 H~~o~ri~! 0 company as "The Brain," and he seems to

SPECIAL REPORT 65 I NTH ENE W S

do this when the market for your product packages to these machines. begins to reach the saturation point. And this The trend is there at Cullinane. Re­ is what happened with the company's bread cently the company spent some $1.1 million and butter software package, IDMS. of its cash hoard to buy a manufacturing ap­ This product was launched in 1973 as plications package from the Rath & Strong the first Codasyl database management sys­ consulting firm in Boston. tem (dbms) for IBM computers. By the late The purchase of databank companies 1970s a number of other competitors had to add even greater applications width can joined in, selling head to head against IBM. also be expected from Cullinane over the next The market was getting crowded. couple of years, Goldman confides. "We took a good hard look at the Another area where the company will nature of database software and we decided spend heavily is on new data centers to build our marketing approach was wrong, " admits up its on-line service and support operation Goldman. for all the applications software in the field. "It's important to realize that custom­ The next result of the company's ers only buy a dbms so they can develop "conservatism" and anticipatory actions is applications more easily, " he said. that it can now do all the things that other Though a customer might buy IMS, "smaller" software companies cannot do­ System 2000, IOMS, or any other dbms pack­ usually the things needed to survive. A pro­ age, what he is really looking for is something gram of significant acquisitions, broader mar­ that will integrate the dbms into his setup and keting, economies of scale, and increased fi­ which will drive new applications in an on­ nancing are now all comfortably within the line environment. company's span, say observers. ROBERT GOLDMAN: "We were the first Cullinane had already developed such Another bonus for the company in the company' that formed to sell software a tool in its Integrated Data Dictionary (IDO), years ahead is that its management should be products exclusively." as well as other software aids for easy access spared the frustrations of takeovers it doesn't and security, says Goldman. "But rather than court, "After all," says one observer, "a have a reputation for clear and incisive think­ basing our marketing thrust around this, we $200 million splash would be a strain on any­ ing. were still pushing our dbms against someone body's pocketbook. " ~ "It really all comes down to common else's dbms. sense and careful positioning," Goldman "So two years ago we began asking says. IBM'S users whether they had a dictionary for He notes it is not by chance that the control, or if they had report generators, or a FEDS FIND company sits squarely in the middle of the query system, etc." The answer was a re­ SOFTWARE fastest growing sector of the software busi­ sounding no. "What they did have," Gold­ ness-packages. "We were the first com­ man says, "had all been written by other THE PROBLEM pany that formed to sell software products users, not by IBM. And it didn't work well exclusively. " with IMS." Two-thirds of all federal edp Nor is it by accident that the company The net result of all of this is that spending is for software and has positioned itself in the commercial mar­ Cullinane has managed .to redefine both its related services-but seldom ketplace where profits are highest, rather than product and its market so that at this time the is it money well spent. in the government, quasi-government or reg­ company is largely competing with itself. ulated market sectors where profits are low­ This push into being an applications­ by Willie Schatz est. driven company also shows great foresight It was a typical series of government software Two of the industry's "giants" pro­ for another reason, say observers. IBM and development contracts. Nine, to be exact, the vide a good example of this. According to benefits of which were to be scattered among 1981 estimates from Wall Street analysts at It is not by chance that several agencies. Projected cost: $3.7 mil­ Salomon Brothers, Computer Sciences Corp. Cullinane sits squarely in lion. Projected development time: 10.8 years. will only manage a 9% pretax margin from the middle of the fastest That was before buyer and seller $600 million in sales. ADP (Automatic Data began. They did double time to the finish. Processing), in stark contrast, is expected to growing sector of the Combined cost: $6.7 million. Combined de­ post a 16% pretax margin on comparable software business-' velopment time: 20.5 years. Usable software: sales of $560 million. Unlike ADP, which packages. 50 percent. Usable as delivered: $119,000 mostly sells standardized products to the worth. commercial sector, Computer Sciences has other computer manufacturers have begun to "That happens all the time," ac­ three-quarters of its customers in the lower integrate dbms functions into their general know ledges Frank Carr, commissioner of the margin government area. purpose mainframes. Examples of this are General Services Administration's Automat­ "This accounts for the difference in IBM'S Systeml38, Hitachi's vas/3, and Fujit­ ed Data and Telecommunications Service profitability," says Cullinane's Goldman. su's as Iv/F4 system. (AOTS). The figures, released in a recent Gen­ Another point to note is that there is According to one study by Strategic eral Accounting Office report entitled ''Gov­ less competition in the commercial sector. Inc., San Jose, by the middle of the 1980s, the ernment-Wide Guidelines and Management , 'You get more chances to choose your cus­ dbms will be just an operating system func­ Assistance Center Needed to Improve ADP tomers and define your market," Goldman tion sold with the machine. By that time, Systems Development, " were confirmed by explains. those software companies that have planned Carr at the last meeting of the Computer Law According to Cullinane, you can even ahead will be positioned to sell applications Association.

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Budget cuts may have gutted some the agency's information-and software de­ ed for long periods, resulting in failure to parts of the government, but software invest­ velopment-policy. meet objectives." It recommended that GSA ment is hardly hurting for cash. Two-thirds of The first dollar has yet to be autho­ and the National Bureau of Standards develop all federal ADP spending is for software and rized, however, for a chartered, federal ADP government-wide standards for defining and related services-an estimated $25 billion a service center which GAO recommended be measuring software maintenance, particular­ year. But only one-third of those funds is developed in a 1979 report to Rep. Jack ly in terms of cost. spent developing new software; the remain­ Brooks (D-Texas), chairman of the House Even GSA has joined the fray. In an der is used for maintenance and conversion. Government Operations Committee. "What attempt to stem the all-too-familiar cost over­ "We are frequently offered the opportunity to we see as most desirable is to create a new runs and delays on software development perpetuate the errors of yesterday with the federal ADP service center reporting to the contracts, and possibly allow agencies to technology of tomorrow," Carr admits. Director of OMB and financed by the ADP sometimes get what they need as well as It was not always thus. A long, long fund," GAO wrote in its management assis­ want, GSA two months ago promulgated new time ago-perhaps a decade, give or take a tance center rep'ort. The center would assist regulations implementing specific require­ few years-the public sector's ADP inventory agencies in planning, designing, and acquir­ ments for contracting and telling agencies to and acquisition methods were standards for ing ADP systems, independently review and private industry to emulate. Not in these evaluate agency ADP plans, and assist OMB The first dollar has yet to times, although some observers maintain that and GSA by providing independent assess­ the private sector has no reason to pat itself on ments, suggesting alternatives, and validat­ be authorized for a federal the back either. ing requirements and economic analyses for edp service center, which "In the federal government the ten­ major information system budget and acquisi­ GAO recommended. dency is to think the problem is the acquisi­ tion proposals. I tion process," Carr says. "If you speed it "That's a bad idea," says Carr, ensure that' 'the major portion" of their over­ up-which means sole source contracting to whose Office' of Software Development, be­ all systems engineering budgets are awarded the incumbent-then everyone thinks their gun in April 1980, is responsible for the soft­ on the basis of fixed-price contracts for speci­ troubles will be over. They don't realize that ware exchange program and for assisting fied fixed products. "Only in unusual situa­ their difficulties will have just begun." agencies through language compiler valida­ tions" should more than half of an agency's In more than 60 reports in the past 10 tion and conversion of computer systems and budget be contracted for on a cost-reimburse­ years, GAO has identified management weak­ software. ment basis. nesses in the design and development of "It's unnecessary right now," Carr , 'That means the government is going large, complex federal dp systems, which it insists. "And why did they suggest putting it to have to be more precise in what it wants, says have led to the waste of more than $300 in OMB? That's a weird place for it." more diligent in stating its requirements, and . million. And that's just for 10 systems. For Perhaps the man knows whereof he more disciplined in monitoring," explains those taxpayers wondering where their dol­ speaks. There has been no rush in the legisla­ Joe Petrillo, a government contracts attorney lars went, GAO has three answers: no fully tive and executive branches to break ground for several leading computer clients. defined or standard structured framework for for the center. GAO'S suggestion probably will "They're really saying to the vendor, 'we managing systems development within the meet the same fate as many of its others­ haven't been able to do this ourselves, so you government; lack of sufficient and effective death by being ignored. Shortly after lobby­ do it for us. ' They're trying to thrust more risk top management involvement and direction ing for the center, the agency, bloody but on the vendors, which may not be a bad idea and a strong central office to facilitate agen­ unbowed, issued another report which dem­ in the long run if they do it slowly so vendors cy-wide planning, coordination and control onstrated that the failures in systems develop­ can adjust. If they do it quickly it will only be of ADP resources; and top managers who lack ment and acquisitions always come home good for the lawyers." the required knowledge and expertise to ef­ again. "The regulations are pretty well fectively control systems development. At least $1.3 billion per year is being done, but they reflect a naivete that software spent on maintenance of the government's can be done on a fixed price basis," says The situation has improved software inventory, according to GAO's cal­ Terry Miller, a leading procurement special­ slightly with the culator. The agency described that mainte­ ist. "Fixed price can only be done if the nance as "largely undefined, unquantified, government knows exactly what it wants. It's establishment of the Office and undermanaged." To prove its point, GAO good for five percent of the co'ntracts, but for of Softwar~ Development. visited 15 federal dp installations and sur­ the rest it's absurd. If you force a vendor into I veyed more. than 400 others. It determined a fixed price, he has to cut comers. If you The situation has improved slightly that COBOL applications programs last an don't have tight specifications, he'll give less with the establishment of GSA's Office of average of 5.4 years, FORlRAN programs an than you asked for because he won't be Software Development and the institution of average of 4.8 years, and the life of the oldest around tomorrow if he doesn't. . information resources management (IRM) as a application programs at responding sites an "Everything GAO says is true, but it's mandatory government concept (June 1981, average of 9.4 years. GAO found inconsistent no better when it buys for itself. Neither side p. 71). In addition to the IRM requirement definitions of maintenance within one agen­ understands the procurement system. The from the Paperwork Reduction Act, that piece cy, lack of sufficient information given to government has unrealistic expectations, and of legislation also established an Office of management, an absence of cost records, the vendors don't understand which risks to Information and Regulatory Affairs within goals and standards, and failure of manage­ take and which not to take. It's like two blind the Office of Management and Budget and ment to obtain a comprehensive picture of its gladiators slugging it out. The problem is that commanded each agency head to appoint a installation's total software maintenance. the procurement system is difficult to begin "senior official" responsible for all informa­ "Without such a picture, it is impossi­ with and software doesn't re.ally fit into it. But tion activities within the agency. That official ble to measure performance;" GAO conclud" there's nothing in it now that can't work. It will report directly to the agency director, ed. "If performance cannot be measured, just takes superstars." thereby purportedly giving s!Jme direction to poor utilization of resources can go undetect- Those folks are in terribly short sup-

68 DATAMATION Xerox interactive software for Digital hardware. Xerox Computer Applications Services is now· are written in ANSI marketing Praxa Cobol and run on Software-proven PDP-11 and in na- applications soft- tive mode onVAX. ware for manufac- But software is turers and distrib- only as good as the utors specifically people who stand designed to run on behind it. And at in-house Digital Xerox, we have over PDP-11 and VAX eleven years experi- hardware. ence installing and Praxa has a supporting inter- wide range of integrated applications. active systems. Our branch offices are Inventory Control, Purchase Order, in major cities nationwide. And in Order Entry and Invoicing, Sales Europe, too. So we're there when you Analysis, Material Requirements Plan- need us. ning, Capacity Planning and Schedul- For more information about Praxa ing, Factory Order Control and Cost, Software, call toll-free (800) 323-2818. Engineering Data Control, General In Illinois call (800) 942-1166, or send in Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts this coupon. . Payable, and Payroll. And see how much Digital hard- And the applications can be used ware can do with Xerox software. independently or together to form a complete system. Praxa is flexible, easily expandable, Xerox Computer Services and simple to use. c/o Ron Rich, 5310 Beethoven St., Los Angeles, CA 90066. I want to know more. Please send me your brochure The interactive systems immedi- about Praxa Software. ately update all files affected by each Name/Title ______transaction. And data input at termi- nals can be promptly edited for total Company accuracy. It's perfect for distributed data Address ______processing at multi-location companies. City/State/Zip, ______

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ply. With college computer science graduates ballpark. There are not many places where the starting at $20,000 when they take off cap and figure is higher than 25% or 30%, but many gown, who wants to waste away in mid-level companies have no outside personnel. ADP jobs in a monolithic agency? Most gov­ Informatics' Paul Connolly does not ernment software shops are terminally in disagree with this observation, but he sees the arrears; their personnel is overworked, under­ figure moving to a 50-50 ratio by the end of informed, and unable to take time off to at­ this decade, saying that basic economics will tend conferences or shows that might update force the move. "There are a fair number of their mental, ifnot physical, states. Even with organizations that I think are getting close to exceptionally skilled technicians, conversion the 25% figure in the use of outside services comes slowly when one is trying to interpret a right now, " he says. This is only in the large program written seven years before. It's hard corporations, such as banking firms. Some to think five years ahead when you're con­ use a single outside services company, others stantly five years behind. use multiple sources. "All the proposals are vendor-driv­ Connolly thinks it makes sense to rely en," says Dan Brooks, secretary-treasurer of on mUltiple vendors, adding that the avail­ the Computer Law Association. "The unso­ ability of numerous sources is "absolutely phisticated folk in the government get caught necessary if this growth is going to take up in state-of-the-art rather than what they place. " If there's a good, strong services in­ really need. So they buy Cadillacs when PAUL CONNOLLY: "Most of the pro­ dustry providing the choice to user organiza­ Fords would be fine." fessional services companies are now tions, he believes, then the shift to outside "There are periods when an agency coming to the realization that they services will take place faster. gets it together for a year or two, then the guy have to start training people." While people such as Connolly and responsible for it leaves," Miller says. "Still, Courtney talk only about large companies and it's better than it was five years ago. I don't companies to provide that service. governmental units, the use of professional see private industry doing that good a job. It's a more economically viable way services is not restricted to the nation's largest The worst ones there are worse than any gov­ to do project-oriented work, says Paul J. Con­ firms. It just turns out to be more economical ernment agency. On the average, the govern­ nolly, vice president and general manager of for them to target such users, rather than go­ ment compares favorably." the Professional Services Operation West at ing after a contract to provide one program­ . .No way, insists GAO, which recently Informatics Inc. Professional services is the mer or analyst for one month to work on a wrote that "in far too many cases, sound name applied to the supplying of program­ management principles were not followed mers and analysts to work at users' sites. And Input says spending for and systems were not successful. Inadequate Connolly likens his business to construction management controls and planning were pri­ work, saying they're both project-oriented. outsid.. e software services mary causes of failure in these ADP system: Users are being troubled by a shortage grew by 27% in 1980 over development efforts and these failures wasted of programmers, the high salaries they com­ the previous year, reach­ hundreds of millions of dollars." mand, and the high rate of turnover among ing almost $3.5 billion. "You've got to address the long­ them. What's needed are people who will stay I range software problem," Carr says. "Then on a project until it is completed. And here the small computer. And while Computer Task you can address the immediate problems. Too professional services company offers more Group does no government business, Infor­ many managers get diverted from long-range stability. matics has been heavily involved with the planning, and then it's someone else's prob­ Thus, while the construction business government, having recently ended a major lem in three years. Finally there's a recogni­ has been slow in recent years, the profession­ 13-year contract with NASA. But Connolly tion that software is where the problem is. al services business has been booming . Ac­ says state and local governments also see the We're getting people turned around and look­ cording to researchers at Input, the Menlo appeal of using outside personnel and cites ing at it." ~ Park, Calif., research organization, spending the case of a northern California county that for outside software services grew by 27% in recently stopped hiring inside programmers, 1980 over the previous year, reaching almost choosing instead to rely on contractors. Uni­ $3.5 billion. And the number of companies versities, too, are said to be among client BODY engaged in professional services grew to al­ companies, both state campuses and private most 1,000. institutions like Stanford. SHOPPING , One of them, Computer Task Group Some of. the professional services IS BIG BIZ Inc. of Buffalo, N.Y., finds this business companies have begun to specialize in applica­ Troubled by shortage of growing at upwards of 40% a year. The com­ tions for a specific industry, like banking, a pany's Jack Courtney says it is forecasting according to Vince Hamill of Input. Paul programmers, users are turn­ total revenues this year of some $35 million, Connolly confirms that. some groups special­ ing more and more to pro­ of which $30 million will come from profes­ ize in IMS or in CICS for IBM users and that a fessional services compa­ sional services. The company, which has few specialize in accounting applications, for nies. some 650 people engaged in this activity, example. But he says in this respect the anal­ focuses its marketing activity on the largest ogy of the construction company is not a by Edward K. Yasaki corporations in manufacturing, banking, and perfect fit; you don't find companies with When a company outgrows its facilities, it other industries. And it finds that at a typical their particular niches. "Not yet," he adds. does not employ its own personnel to con­ client company, from 10% to 20% of the "Maybe by the end of this decade." struct an office building or a new factory. programmers are from the outside. But Court­ Until now, the client companies have Instead it relies on architects and construction ney adds that this figure varies all over the insisted on retaining management responsi-

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CIRCLE 57 ON READER CARD professional services, in which professionals would be sent to developing countries. Al­ ready Informatics has undertaken a job in San Francisco for software that is to be installed in Brazil. While the Japanese have begun using programming teams in Taiwan and in Korea for jobs assigned from Japan, Connolly doubts whether the market is quite ready for that. "Right now the psychology of the buyer is that he wants it done at his site." The reason, he adds, is that few people know how to write the specifications in adequate detail and organize the work properly to allow its implementation at some distant location. It brings Connolly back to the con­ struction work analogy. He talks of that in­ dustry's development of standards, materials, and tools by which to get the work done, and says the information processing industry must do the same. "Instead of laying down code one line at a time, I think we're going to learn how to build reusable modules, very small functions that are the equivalent of a 4 x 8 foot piece of bility for jobs, even company can control a project. plywood, and be able to put systems together though 75% to 90% of the He says there are two parts to the much more quickly and at lower cost in the people on a project might be sup­ business. One is figuring out what has future. And we have to develop better materi­ plied by an outside firm. "Now there is to be done, determining the client's real infor­ als and better tools for putting systems togeth­ a shift to where the client companies want to mation processing needs-and this should be er. " He thinks some of this work is being give project responsibility to the software done by the client. But taking a preliminary done by the professional services industry, company, " observes Connolly. This suits spec and turning it into a detailed spec, imple­ observing that Informatics has proposed to a him fine, says the Informatics exec, for he menting that system, getting it tested-he large user the development of a reusable code needs an upward career path for his em­ thinks the professional services industry is library. Hopefully, it could reduce signifi­ ployees who want to grow into management stronger at that. cantly the amount of programming effort now positions. Besides, professional service com­ Over at Computer Task Group they being expended. ~ panies are beginning to develop a stronger recently surveyed their client companies and opinion on how a project should be run. A found that about 60% of the work being done company might train its people to do things a was maintenance programming, not only in certain way and if the client is. managing finding and removing bugs but more in things and has the software company's people enhancing existing systems. Thus it would doing things differently, friction can develop. behoove the industry to learn how to build Computer Task Group's Courtney systems 'with better maintenance capabilities INFORMATION agrees. "We feel it's an additional service we in them, systems that require less mainte­ ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS can bring to the client," he says of the man- nance. And Informatics' Connolly believes this is a task cut out for the professional ser­ What is holding back the vices industry. "The guy who learns how to growth of the professional do it best in our business is going to have a services business is the billion-dollar business by the end of the de­ cade," he says. same problem facing the All ideals aside, however, the fact re­ user community-the mains that what is holding back the growth of shortage of skilled, quali­ the professional services business is the same fied programmers. problem facing the user community. And that is a lack of skilled, qualified programmers. == agement responsibility. "Secondly, it allows "Most of the professional services companies B us to have more of an influence on the mix of are now coming to the realization that they ~ people assigned to the project." have to start training people," says Connolly. ~ Connolly notes, too, that the industry And this is what the large vendors are doing. o has matured to the point where users are not Computer Task Group is said to be spending ~ insisting on a fixed-price contract. He says a about $2 million a year on the training of its >- client is willing to settle for a time-and-mate­ personnel, both in the enhancement of exist­ ~ rials contract if the client can be shown a way ing skills and in the training of newcomers to 8 of reporting costs, budgets, how the money is the field. ~ But it is thought that by the end of this being spent, how much progress is being ©DATAMATION <3 made on a project, and how well the software decade there could be a big export business in

SPECIAL REPORT 73 I NTH ENE W S

UNIONIZATION ------_._----- OFDP DEPARTMENTS Like it or not, a number of dp departments are being forced to become dues­ paying union members. by Jan Johnson Coerced but not controlled. That is how the programmers and analysts at Western Air Lines Inc. have emerged from their prece­ dent-setting bout with forced unionization. "We've got a contract, but it's basi­ cally a skeletal agreement with nothing in it, " said Jim Carolan, director of data processing planning and passenger/flight control infor­ mation systems and a 13-year veteran of Western's dp department. The contract· is actually part of the overall agreement negotiated between the company and the newly-installed indepen­ dent employees union, ATE (Air Transport Employees). It was negotiated separately with management by the labor relations de­ partment specifically for dp. "The agreement gives us all the flexi­ bility we need to do our jobs," said Carolan. "There are no fine lines that sayan analyst can't pick up a coding sheet. There are no fine lines that say a senior programmer must be given an assignment before ajunior program­ mer. There are no things that say you are promoted to the next level based on seniority. There is no time clock, no provisions for overtime, and the firing policy has not been changed. "The situation from the department's point of view is unchanged. We are allowed to continue to function as. we have always functioned, " Carolan concluded. But for other dp departments in the airline industry, the situation has most cer­ tainly changed, say some labor experts. A precedent has been set by the supreme ruling body of the labor world, the National Media­ tion Board, which proclaims that program­ departures can be attributed to the unioniza­ my department think of themselves as profes­ mers and analysts at Western do indeed be­ tion issue, said Carolan. "The same day we sionals and identify with management be­ long to the clerical office craft and class. And got the news about the board's decision, the cause of the type of work they do. Many they didn't just now become eligible; they head of dp lost his job, for completely unrelat­ people have said they would quit if they had to always should have been there says the NMB. ed reasons, " explained Carolan, who became pay union dues," said one dp manager with a 0 This decree came as a shock to many-at West­ acting head for the interim. midwestern railroad. "Whether they really ~ ern and the ATE union, both of which testified Now, almost a year later, the depart­ would quit remains to be seen," he added. ffi against including dp professionals in a cleri­ ment's turnover has settled down to about a Another dp manager with a midwest- ~ cal union. 10% level, which is a more normal rate when em railroad believes it would be difficult to :> After Western's dp department compared with the estimated industry average hire people into a union shop. "I can't call it (§ learned of the decision, 12 to 15 people out of of about 15% per year. resistance, but I would say there seems to be ~ 110 left the department within a three-month Several dp managers in the airline and some reluctance to get involved with a union ~ period, recalled dp director Carolan. If that railroad industry believe there would be mas­ shop." ~ rate had continued over a 12-month period, he sive turnover in their departments if a union Asked if unionizaion might change g figured, "we would have had a 40% turnover came in. the way people move up into management, he 3 rate for the year. " However, not all of those "I feel pretty certain all the people in replied: "I'm sure it would change, but I'm ~

74 DATAMATION Micro computer software company gets macro results.

"Software is the hottest segment of managers about its frrst product ness publication with an entire the personal computer industry. -an electronic mail pack- editorial section, Information After all, it's the software that solves age for Apple™ computers Processing, covering events problems. And Business Week has precisely the type of readers who called Micro-Couriet™ Not and trends in the computer are looking for solutions to the only to managers who already industry. Every week. kinds of problems we solve. Top and have Apples,TMb~t to the fast­ As Microcom found out, middle management of corpora­ tions. That's why right from the growing market of managers in one of the best times to link start we committed a substantial corporations who are thinking up with' Business Week is right portion of our marketing budget of buying personal computers at square one. But for small to advertise in Business Week. And we're very pleased with the to help them and their staffs companies or large companies, results. Since our first insertion, do a better job. Business Week gets big-time our monthly sales have more For Microcom's Jim Dow, advertising results. Call your than doubled:' James M. Dow, President Business Week brought his nearest Business Week Microcom, Inc. market into focus. Business representative today. Week has a take-action audi­ ence of over 6 million cor­ BusinessWeek When Microcom began porate decision makers. And in 1980, the Boston-based they look to Business Week to manufacturer of personal com­ keep them informed on com­ puter software wanted to puter developments. Business spread the word to corporate Week is the only general busi- Source: MRI (Spring, '81)lPub. est.

CIRCLE 58 ON READER CARD I NTH ENE W S

not sure how. It would depend on whether being challenged by upstart ATE, a group of slaught of organization activity? "Well, it programmers and analysts would be part of seven former BRAC union officials who was a precedent-setting case," say sidestep­ BRAC (Brotherhood of Railroad and Airline formed their own independent union. In a last ping labor lawyers. The case could be used to Clerks) or some other union. I guess it might ditch effort to stall for time and sidetrack support an organization effort, most lawyers depend on the type of organization they were ATE'S takeover attempt, BRAcchallenged that concede that much. Of the two industries, part of." other groups, such as the dp department, were airlines and railroads, it appears that railroads "No one has any idea why they (the entitled to union representation. Thus, ATE and their dp departments will be hardest hit NMB) included the dp department as part of a needed dp's vote of support to win the war. since they present the weakest target. clerical union," admitted Fran Norris, presi­ That bit of intelligence came out dur­ dent of ATE local #3, the local which repre­ The National Mediation ing a conversation with the mediation board sents the dp department. "They were not a Board ruled that about another case of uninvited unionization part of the craft and class covered by the in the dp department, this one involving the previous union, BRAC. They simply were not programmers and analysts staff at the Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, union employees; they were not contract peo­ at Western Ai r Li nes Neb. ple. " belong to the clerical Unlike Western, this was not a case of Never mind what was or what should office craft and class. the company claiming that the dp staff was have been, once the mediation board has part of management. The company had al­ spoken there appears to be no route for ap­ While BRAC won the question of who ready conceded that point in earlier talks. peal. "They cannot vote themselves out, it's was to be included, it lost the war to ATE. Management was on record saying that the dp not allowed. They had no choice, no place to Forced by the mediation board to join the staff was not part of management. The only appeal. Now there is no' way out," is how union, the dp department voted to support reason the dp department had not been union­ Norris explains dp's plight. ATE. ized prior to the 1980 talks was that manage­ The reason the question landed in the "Case closed" says the mediation ment had secured for them an exempt status, lap of the NMB had more to do with a power board. So now it's up to the dp departments which means the union promised it would not play between two warring unions than with and the unions to wrestle with the problems of make dp professionals a dues paying part of the issue of who belonged where. The right of folding a technical group into a clerical union. the union. the Brotherhood of Railroad and Airline Does this mean, then, that dp depart­ But BRAC changed its mind and in the Clerks to represent Western employees was ments should brace themselves for an on- most recent round of talks announced it want- The· CICS User's Security Blanket Call us today .. fora GUARDIAN brochure. GUARDIAN, the on-line security system for CICS users. Comprehensive. Flexible. Easy to use.

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CIRCLE 60 ON READER CARD I NTH ENE W S

ed to include these people in its union as dues were out to expand their union ranks and the are supposed to protect, he added. paying members. The issue became a negoti­ number of dues paying members. It didn't "BRAe has been working for quite ating point-a point the company lost. So, the matter that the people they were including did some time to bring more and more people dp people had to join BRAe. not want to be represented by BRAe or, in under its agreements. Most are covered by Angry and upset with this turn of most cases, any other union. exceptions right now, " observed NMB official events, the employees brought their case to No wonder dp staffers are shaking Cohen. . the mediation board. But it was a lost cause their heads in disbelief when they learn they BRAe is in the process of eliminating from the start. are the victims of an arbitrary negotiating those exceptions and has made some progress "Since the company had already system that reflects little or nothing about the among the very large railroads, such as Burl­ agreed that these (dp) people were not man­ desires of the people it "represents." The ington Northern and Union Pacific, Cohen agement officials, the employees could hard­ added. ly argue that they were, " explained hearing Several dp managers What does BRAe have to say about officer David Cohen. They didn't have a de­ believe there would be this? "Programmers and analysts are part of fense. the craft and class. As such, we have an "We did not rely on the Western deci­ massive turnover in their obligation to represent them and they have an sion for the Union Pacific case, " Cohen add­ departments if a union oblig~tion to join and pay dues," said Jack ed, "because the railroad industry, to a much came in. Fletcher, executive director of disputes and greater extent than the airline industry, re­ I procedures for BRAe. "However, railroads placed manual work with computers and dp concept of unionization certainly takes on a have been successful in the past in persuading people." He agreed this circumstance meant different meaning when the deal that is struck our people to permit certain classes to be railroads have a weaker case when fighting requires the "union member" to pay dues, excepted from contract or the union. " unionization of their dp departments. but does not require the member to give up No more, Fletcher indicated. "We are This fact didn't slip by BRAe either. any of his or her non-union status, noted a actively pushing to eliminate such excep­ Taking the route of least resistance, BRAe, for railroad dp manager whose domain was under tions. " the better part of the past 10 years, has been serious attack from just such a BRAe threat. It John Cook, a dp manager with Burl­ concentrating its efforts on railroads and makes one wonder why such unions function ington, is well aware of the fate that hangs unionizing their programmers, analysts, and and for whose benefit. It also makes one ques­ over his group and the circumstances leading anyone else they could lay claim to. They tion the labor laws and just who or what they them into such a position. "I guess in the heat DEC RSTS SOFTWARE MOVE THE GOODS. _f€.t&>'r:- ~fQtD ... "Ill.\ \ ~~NIT[U~~~~di A~~~

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of battle when negotiating union contracts, Of course, there is always that one sometimes concessions are made. The gener­ indisputable defense in blocking a unioniza­ SOFTWARE FOR al supposition among railroads, and certainly tion effort-prove that the people in question the theme song here, is that you always know have "managerial authority. " THE VERTICALS you are going to lose. It's only a question of Briefly, the NMB defines such author­ Microdata sees applications how much." ity as the power to fire and hire and to initiate software as a means of Cook figures that BRAC will soon chip policy. zeroing in on specific at the edges of his department, starting at the At Western, Cohen recalled, "it basi­ markets. secretarial level. "The people (who get cally boiled down to the fact that they weren't pulled into the union in this manner) would be managerial employees in respect to the au­ by Edith Myers protected with all management benefits. thority they had in the company's operations. Microdata Corp. is getting into applications They'd still be treated as management indi­ Although their jobs are important, they are software in a big way. viduals. Anyone drawn into the union would not managerial jobs. Also, their role is a ser­ At the National Computer Confer­ be forced to pay union dues, but he would not vice role. They accept assignments to do pro­ ence, the Newport Beach, Calif., mini maker lose any of his non-union status at alL" grams and to develop computer systems that introduced AD PAK, a software system de­ According to Cook, Burlington's dp will handle the functions, rather than having signed for advertising agencies. And that's staff is not in the dark about this possibility. the power to implement policy on their own. " just a first step, said Carl Jeremias, group vice "We don't talk too much about it around Data processing managers disagree president, marketing/sales. ' here, but I have brought all my people in in that their people have little authority or deci­ "Applications software is the key to separate groups and told them what is happen­ sion-making power. While most admit that the '80s," he said. Microdata wants to get a ing and let them fire away. " not everyone in the dp department is be­ grip on that key. Meanwhile, airline unions, like ATE stowed the power to fire and hire, many "Few people realize that we have our also wonder who the laws are protecting these younger staff members do enjoy some of the own software development operation," said days. They disagreed with the mediation fruits of being a supervisor. As project lead­ Jeremias. Diversified Computer Technology, board's ruling and, as a result, did a little ers, they are rotated through temporary jobs Union, N.J., was acquired by Microdata in precedent setting of their own. for part of their training and informal evalua­ 1975. DCT has 24 people who Jeremias de­ The ruling states, according to media­ tion. These programs are similar to what a scribes as "high quality applications pro­ tion official Cohen, that in terms of "the first-line supervisor or management trainee grammers. And we plan to expand on that." general working conditions, the office envi­ might expect as part of his training and evalu- AD PAK was the result of a joint effort ronment in the dp department is similar to that ation. by DCT and Basso & Associates, Microdata's of people like accountants, who have histori­ One dp manager with a national air­ advertising agency. "They (Basso) put a cally been included in the clerical group. line explains how his program works. "After computer in last January," said Jeremias, "If the data processing field had de­ a new hire has been here awhile, that person is "and we have been refining AD PAK since that veloped to the point where there were clear, asked to run a project; he is in charge. It's up time." to the project leader to do the planning, sched­ He said the company has identified There's one indisputable uling, meet deadlines, coordinate people, all 2,576 advertising agencies "and 765 ofthem defense in blocking a those things. They encourage this. We like it; can use dp equipment." He said the new unionization effort-prove they like it, and it gives them a chance to get Microdata package "totally integrates the some management type experience. functions of the accounting, creative, account that the people in question "It gives us a chance to evaluate for services, public relations, traffic, media, and have "managerial management talents and see how that person other agency departments, allowing better ac­ authority. " reacts under pressure. If we lost this method count control and resulting in better service to of measuring an individual's ability because clients. " unambiguous differences that made them to­ of unionization, chances are promotions into tally unlike office clerical people, then the supervisory levels would come much slower board might have taken a different view and and not always from the inside, the source of split them off from other office employees, " most upper level positions at present. " he added. According to other dp managers, the The ATE, taking things into their own dp professional is not always the passive re­ hands, split dp off from the rest of the bar­ ceiver of assignments. In some cases, particu­ gaining unit and negotiated a separate con­ larly in those departments that have been or.:. tract for that department. This action, in ef­ ganized to mesh with other sections and divi­ fect, was a de facto decree that all parties sions of the company, the dp person works concerned believed the board had grossly with a particular section for an extended peri­ missed the mark. od of time and comes to understand some of The action may serve as evidence for its problems and operations. Suggestions for future cases that a "clear and unambiguous improvement or how to solve certain prob­ difference" already exists between dp profes­ lems then begin to flow in the other direction. sionals and clerical and accounting people. The question of ' 'making policy" "ATE decided that dp should not be a part of then becomes a little fuzzy, say some dp man­ the rest of the bargaining unit because they are agers. Where does a technical decision end a technical division, using different proce­ and a policy decision begin? The answer may dures to train, evaluate, and make salary become even more difficult if the trend to­ raises than the rest of the unit, " agreed local wards integrating the dp person more tightly CARL JEREMIAS: "Applications soft­ president Norris. into the decision-making loop continues. ~ ware is the key to the '80s."

80 DATAMATION SOFTWARE BRIEFS Volume 2 No.1

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'JI_< ~'~; ______II __ ._ .. _...... 1'Wexa;t'fr•. a.... ~'rhD(!A-:n:S~sDult--sit~;..;0a-ra~gAAeOdin~inanl~-S(0~tr~d()ef-rldya1atan~d~tse-tflfilI(clti.erne-t .. -.-...... -.. -.--.--.-_-_---ac;V°aimil~Pill>leJte-e-fcr)l:ep_ourtiS(·:,.n_g~0lC:f:e-spuatciltezautKsemdt-'..wjsPtlalicne __ ·-;:;":, I main on disk while those infrequently referenced are datasets and volume utilization. The user can #~,i'--_____+l ___ ... _.. _. __o~~.~n.~ .. _.~:':~~~ ______--=al=s:.::.o-=s:.:::el=ec:.:::t=-t=h.:.::e:....:~:..::o:.::rm=a:.:..t ..=an=d-=s:.:::o.:,.:rt=-=':::::J..u:::.::.:en:.::c:::.;:es:.::..:.-. __ _ ....t ~~.. -----...... - .. -----H-I~l~;-~:ttl;k~~~D'~rAi\1;~Dr~F~~it~~s;hii-___----1j!nlot!De.Jgrna-'tiL°sinnO~fle3ml~uLtltial·-lCSlSys.et,~em __ D_A __ S_D __ in_~_o_rm_a_- __ movement to take place in a pre-requested mode - Dynamic allocation of files under MVS. groups. ". used soon. Requests to be restored come from TSO or batch commands. Alternatively, in the event a dataset is - Movement of all data in a volume. to tape place automatically. and the job continues normally. management systems.

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© 1981 Computer Associates International, Inc. CIRCLE 65 ON READER CARD I NTH ENE W S

The package is made up of nine major leaders. The practice is widespread, although modules: accounts payable, accounts receiv­ IMPORTING not something companies are likely to brag able, payroll, general ledger, production ex­ about. It's a "low-profIle activity," as one penses/materials, labor/time keeping, traffic, SOFTWARE recruiter puts it. and mail list management. The demand for software personnel in Jeremias said the software was TALENT the V.S. is at an all-time high, particularly in designed "to give stafflevel agency manage­ International recruiting has organizations requiring expertise in such ment immediate access to information neces­ become one way to solve complex areas as database systems, transac­ sary to control and manage virtually every the ch ronic shortage of tion processing, and operating system inter­ agency operation. It permits agencies to get qualified programmers and nals. The shortage of such people has prompt­ down to business. For the fIrst time, a soft­ analysts in the U.S. ed some of the country's largest users­ ware package has been designed specifIcally banks, manufacturing companies, and even to help agencies-large or small-to improve by John W. Verity some large computer vendors themselves-to account control and client service." When Monchik-Weber, a New York comput­ 'seek help from foreign shores where person­ In general, Jeremias explained, ocr er consultancy specializing in fInancial and nel can often be procured in greater abun­ will develop applications software for Micro­ business applications', was looking for sys­ dance and at less cost than in the V.S. itself. data, then it will be turned over to a group tems analysts earlier this year, it found what But there are problems. headed by Warren Blossom, vice president, may be a partial solution to the chronic short­ Countries with large bodies of Eng­ domestic marketing, for "productization." age of qualifIed, experienced software tal­ lish-speaking people, such as the v .K., South In Blossom's words, this means making the ent-international recruiting. Africa, India, and even Hong Kong, are said software more user friendly and more attrac­ "With the high turnover rates and to gain the most attention from V.S. fIrms tive from a documentation standpoint. people jumping all around, it was obvious seeking software people abroad. Israel, Aus­ When "productization" is complete, that a new pool of people was needed," re­ tralia, and Western European countries are the application goes back to Dcr for distribu­ calls Lorraine Visovsky, director of person­ next in ranking. The need for profIciency in tion and support. nel at the Wall St. area fIrm. "We already had English is obvious, but in some cases a strong Blossom sees applications software as several people from abroad, so it was natural background in a particular system like IBM'S a means for narrowing down markets" as fIne for us to look overseas. " IMS database package can make a foreigner as you can. Prospects decrease in quantity but Monchik-Weber is clearly not alone attractive enough for an American fIrm to go your success rate increases. We plan to pur­ in its search for good software talent. Nor is it through the trouble of bringing him or her sue markets on a sub-industry rather than on alone in looking outside the country for pro­ through the tangle of immigration. an industry standpoint." grammers, systems analysts, and project And a tangle it is. According to Philip He expects an even bigger market for AD PAK than Jeremias does. Blossom says there are more than 8,000 advertising agen­ cies listed in the Red Book, an industry direc­ tory. Microdata has 14 direct sales offIces, and Blossom said the company would train two people from each branch in both AD PAK and the fIne points of the advertising agency business. "As we come out with more verti­ cal products, different people will be trained until everyone in every branch has a vertical responsibility. " And then there's Pro, a concept that came out of Data Technical Analysts (DTA) in Honolulu (April, p. 64) and for which Micro­ data is one of fIve licensees. The concept, which involves storing pre-coded common elements in a computer and then linking them via a special algorithm to perform an applica­ tion based on specifIcations input by the user, z w has been given a variety of names by its li­ ~ censees. But Microdata hasn't named its of­ ~ ::> fering yet. II) Blossom said recently that he thought ~' a: w someone in the company had come up with an II) ideal name, but he wasn't willing to disclose ~ S2 it "until we have unanimous agreement inter­ >­ nally. " II) z Jeremias is excited about what the o concept can do to help get Microdata into a a:~ variety of vertical applications markets. I- 00 ::> "We've got a two-year jump on everybody ...J else." ' * ~----~------=~------~~~~~

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J. Kleiner, an attorney specializing in com­ over for Manufacturers Hanover assignment. puter personnel immigration at the New York We pay ACS a consulting fee." ITS NAME law firm Barst & Mukamal, the paperwork Often, LaBelle explains, foreign soft­ and legal hassles are by any measure the big­ ware people brought here under such circum­ IS ITS BUSINESS gest problem encountered by V.S. firms stances are offered full-time employment The young National Commis­ when importing software talent. Getting the with the bank after a year or so of consulting­ proper visas, immigration papers, clearance based work. So far about 15 have been hired sion on Software Issues in by the Labor Department, and other bureau­ by the bank under this arrangement, he says. the '80s already represents cratic details squared away can take the better He notes that the bank is "investigat­ more associations than any part of a year unless the proper pressure is ing the possibility of changing its policy" of other industry body. applied to the various government agencies not sponsoring foreigners, but no definitive involved, Mr. Kleiner claims. The reason for plans have been made. by Willie Schatz much of the delay, he thinks, is an under­ Barry Shaxted, director of ACS Inter­ There can no longer be any doubt that soft­ staffed Immigration and Naturalization Ser­ national in New York, declined comment ware has arrived as a serious topic of discus­ vice which he says suffers from a lack of when asked about his firm's dealings with sion. The subject is being studied by a com­ funding. Manufacturers Hanover and said his firm mission. "It's often easier to get a foreign piece "does not operate as a middleman. " He said Vnlike almost all similarly-titled bod­ of hardware into the country than it is to get in ACS imports some 75 people a year, primarily ies, the National Commission on Software the people required to support it," Kleiner from England. Issues in the '80s is completely non-govern­ remarks. Industry sources claim ACS Interna­ mental. Founded last summer by the Associ­ It seems, however, that the demand tional is one of the most established consul­ ation of Data Processing Service Organiza­ for software personnel is so strong that V. S. tancies hiring software people abroad, joined tions (ADAPSO), the Computer Law Associ­ by Starlex Systems & Services, Inc., also of ation (CLA), the Association of Educational Manufacturers Hanover New York. Starlex's Mike Starr says his firm Data Systems, the EDP Auditors Foundation, has imported as many as "always has the client sign the petition" for a and the Data Processing Management Associ­ visa, even though that means sometimes los­ ation (DPMA), the commission's goal is to 50 people from England ing business' 'to Brand X, " meaning another examine the entire range of issues affecting through the consulting ser­ consulting company with less stringent re­ the industry. Its name is its business. vices of ACS International quirements. The commission's mission is "to pre­ Systems in New York. Starr adds that his firm brings "40 to sent critical and objective reports airing the 50 people" a year from the V.K., most ·of social, economic, technical, and leg&.l issues user organizations and the recruiting firms whom work on a temporary basis. He de­ arising from the development, distribution, they use can benefit from "bending the clines to identify his clients. and use of computer software during the com­ rules," as one recruiter put it privately. In­ The field has drawn several other par­ ing decade." Its immediate tasks are to de­ stead of waiting for work visas, foreigners are ticipants, including the Harvard Management scribe the history and trends of the industry, often brought in on tourist visas and given Group, New York, which, according to direc­ define software, and explore such delicate work quickly while the necessary paperwork tor Steve Green, places only a handful of and important issues as privacy, productivity , is filed to have their visas changed to work foreigners each year rather than moving protection, standards, and government com­ status. This is done quietly, according to re­ bodies en masse. He recently helped Max petition. cruiters, who repeatedly decline to speak for Bichunsky of South Africa find work in West­ Growth has been prolific enough to attribution about their practices. chester County, N. Y ., as a consultant with make the commission appear to be a govern- Another practice used to bring aliens Automated Concepts, Inc. Bichunsky entered in is to have so-called computer consultan­ the V.S. as a tourist but immediately upon Status reports from task cies, operating out of sparsely furnished of­ finding work sought to have his visa upgraded fices, go abroad on hiring trips with V.S. to H status, or a work visa. As long as his forces a. re expected at the clients who interview potential hires for their papers are in the works, says Bichunsky, he's commission's first sympo­ specific needs. The hirees are "sponsored" legally able to be employed in the States. sium, scheduled for for visa purposes by the consultancy, which How does work here compare with Oct. 5-6. also pays them, but they work on the client's what he left at home? "I think I'm doing I premises. This method, those close to the about equivalent to my last job in South me"nt bureaucracy. The original five founders situation point out, enables large V.S. firms, Africa. If anything, I'm actually making a have signed up an additional 17 member orga­ such as banks, to avoid criticism for hiring little less here because of the high cost of nizations, including the Information Industry abroad during times of high V.S. unemploy­ housing," he says. He adds that he may stay Association, the Computer Society of the In­ ment. permanently in the V .S. depending on his stitute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers Dave LaBelle, vice president in experiences over the next year or so, but he is (IEEE), and the Independent Data Communi­ charge of human resources for the Operations concerned that the new Administration will cations Manufacturers Association (IDCMA). Division of Manufacturers Hanover Trust in tighten up immigration laws. i The Association for Computing Machinery New York, said he has imported as many as Industry obs"ervers generally agree (ACM) has expressed an interest in joining and 50 people from England through the services that money is no longer a major incentive for its decision was expected sometime this sum- of ACS International Systems, Inc., a New Britons in particular to come to the V.S. for mer. York computer consultancy connected to a software jobs because the salary gap between As with most groups, the real work of British firm of similar name. "We interview the two countries has narrowed considerably the Commission is performed by task forces. people over there (England) and we'll select in recent years. Those first four bodies are charged with in­ the number we want and make offers. We tell However, jobs here can often provide vestigating software protection, education the consulting company, which brings them more satisfaction, observers claim. ~ and training of software professionals, soft-

86 DATAMATION CIRCLE 67 ON READER CARD • I: I• I'

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ware taxation, and standards. "We chose paper to ACM, AFIPS, or some other organiza­ to avoid the higher operating costs. those issues because they seem to be the most tion like that," Brooks explains, "and ask Fortunately, users have some sophis­ • relevant and pressing," says commission them to fund us for $30,000 to $40,000. I ticated software defense mechanisms to help chairman Daniel Brooks, a Washington attor­ want to show them that this is the kind of work them lower monthly phone bills for both • ney. "We have several other task forces we can do and the time we can do it in. Then voice and data applications. Network opti­ planned, but we thought these were the sub­ we hope to hire someone from a leading busi­ mization packages have been available for a jects that needed and deserved the most im­ ness school, give him or her a tuition credit, number of years from firms specializing in mediate attention." and let that person be our legs for future telecommunications network design and con­ Each task force has a mission state­ findings. SUlting, and users are now afforded consider­ ment, which in addition to describing specific "We've been very, very pleased with able choice. duties requires that public comment be sought the overwhelming response of support for this Most of the optimization packages use on the assigned subject. Members of the soft­ unique project. It's only about a year since a some type of computer database which is up­ ware protection group will "seek public com­ handful of people got together in Washington dated or modified whenever the tariffs ment from interested parties in order to define to discuss how to prepare for the coming change. Even without major upheavals in and report on the issues and controversies decade of technological innovations. I don't interstate charges, the configuration of corpo­ affecting proprietary interests in software, in­ think any of us thought we would come this rate networks is a special science, and opti­ cluding copyright, patent, .trade secret, and far this fast. Now we have a formal organiza­ mization (or least monthly cost) often re­ other forms of protection of computer soft­ tion representing more associations and di­ quires the help of outside experts. ware." Panelists in education and training verse interests than any other industry body. " Just this year users have faced a will define and report on issues involving "composite 35% private line increase," ac­ development of model education curricula, cording to David Rubin, director of network validation of competency, development of design services at Network Analysis Corp. continuing education and training programs, NETWORKS (NAC) , Great Neck, N.Y. This increase is and developing ethics and recognition for important because the average private line net members of the profession. The tax people NEED FINE has between 60% and 80% of its costs tied up will analyze issues arising from the applica­ in line facilities. "That's the monthly tele­ tion of local, state, and federal tax laws to TUNING phone bill, so if you can cut even 1% of that computer software and transactions, includ­ Rapid fire rate hikes have cost and still maintain your performance, you ing researching model tax provisions for any sent telecom managers can save a lot of money, " he said. or all of the above. The standards members scrambling for ways to cut In a data network, terminal response must define and report on issues related to back on network costs. time is one of the most crucial parameters. A developing standards applicable to software user may want two-second response time but and its uses, including the advantages/disad­ by Ronald A. Frank it may cost an additional $100,000 per month vantages of setting such standards from the This has been a difficult year for any business compared to living with a three-second re­ developer's, vendor's, and user's perspec­ that regularly uses the telephone or a data sponse time. And most operators don't really tives. Their area extends to ANSI (the Ameri­ terminal. Rate increases in Fcc-approved in­ detect much difference in response time until can National Standards Institute) specifica­ terstate tariffs have been coming fast and furi­ it gets up above six seconds, Rubin ex­ tions, FIPS (Federal Information Processing ous, thus frustrating users. Most telecom­ plained. Standards) and other governmental pro­ munications managers have been hard The NAC software for data nets is grams, and other specific industry concerns. pressed to absorb the rapid-fire rate hikes and called Modular Interactive Network Design­ Status reports are expected from each many have been sent scrambling to find ways er, or MIND. The company advertises that task force at the commission's first sympo­ sium, scheduled for October 5-6 at the House of Representatives office building in Wash­ ington. That affair is the full commission's first venture into the outside world. It has been actively seeking public participation in its task force endeavors, and hopes for signifi­ cant input during plenary sessions on the pan­ els' reports. The task force on education and training will present a white paper on its sub­ ject, while the other groups, not quite so far along, will reveal whatever they have learned to that point. Chairman Brooks hopes the education and training report is worth far more than the paper on which it is printed. The commission thus far has been operating on token dona­ tions of $250 from some members and kind but modest contributions from others. If the paper is successful, Brooks plans to walk into several organizations, paper in hand, and at­ tempt to persuade them to lend a few dollars to the cause. "The long-range plan is to show the

88 DATAMATION re 5 meett •Ir

Las Vegas is the place, COMDEX is the show, More than 500 exhibitor companies will be where thousands of ISOs (Independent Sales there, all eager to expand their ISO marketing Organizations) will meet hundreds of channels. They will be displaying and demon­ exhibiting vendors. Purpose: Find new product strating small computer and word processing lines to sell; learn some "survival tips" for the systems, peripherals, software packages, 1980's; see what the competition is showing. media, supplies, and many other products and That's what COMDEX is all about. services of interest to ISOs. The Show That Had To Happen Gearing Up For The Challenge COMDEX is a unique conference and And, once again, COMDEX will offer a compre­ exposition in its third year that has defined hensive Conference program, 45 sessions in and brought together the world of the ISO-­ all. Geared to the special business interests of the key marketing .. -...... :;:-;c,,' the ISO. more than 100 channel for the com­ of the nation's leading puter industry in this experts will discuss how decade. Dealers, dis­ today's difficult business tributors, commercial climate poses both chal­ OEMs, systems houses, lenge and opportunity. software packagers, Now you know why a turnkey vendors, manu­ leading industry publi­ factu rers' reps, com­ cation called COMDEX puter retailers and the show that "had to office machines/product happen." If it had to dealers - they make happen last year with­ COMDEX '81 the na­ out you, make sure that tion's second largest this year it will happen com puter event! with you!

November 19-22, 1981 • Las Vegas Convention Center For further information, write to COMDEX '81, 160 Speen Street, Framingham, MA 01701. ' Or call us toll-free: 800-225-4620 (in Mass., 617-879-4502). Another Conference and Exposition from THE INTERFACE GROUP Producers of: INTERFACE, FEDERAL DP EXPO, COMDEX. COMDEX/SPRING. THE COMPUTER SHOWCASE EXPOSITIONS I NTH ENE W S

MIND can save up to 30%, which in theory form of measured (dial-up) service, he ex­ the numbers are large. As an example, mem­ would make it possible for a user to overcome plained. bership in the International Communications most of the line increases that have occurred Despite the growth of data, voice traf­ Association is restricted to users who have a this year. fic is still as much as 80% of the average yearly phone bill of at least $1 million. And Rubin does not make such claims. In­ company's phone bill, and that is why there there are more than 400 members in the ICA, stead, he talks about the changes that MIND have been so many voice related tariff in­ the largest U.S. telecommunications user or­ might suggest for lowering costs. creases, Rubin feels. ganization. "One obvious way is to use less lines. One specialist who works to bring Getting back to our optimization spe­ By taking advantage of multipoint tech­ voice phone bills into manageable limits is cialist, Zingler enters all relevant user infor­ niques, which means putting more terminals Barbara Zingler, senior technical consultant mation into the Top database and a series of on the same line, you are sharing the facili­ with the DMW Group Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich. reports and recommendations are then gener­ ties, " he explained. But more terminals oper­ Zingler works exclusively with a DMW pack- ated for the user to consider. Typically the ating on the same line can also lead to degrad­ user may be advised to change the current mix ed performance based on traffic and other The Aries Group has a of Wats "bands" which are pegged to geo­ operating variables. That is the type of analy­ program which optimizes graphic callingareas. Or the software simula­ sis that MIND will handle. only data nets based on tor may suggest that the user reduce Wats and In a similar manner, the network an. analy~is of terminal re­ rely instead on foreign exchange (FX) lines to might be reconfigured using concentration or sponse time. certain high usage calling areas. Also intra­ higher speed lines. The software package can state Wats service might be considered or also evaluate more extreme changes such as a Iage called the Teletraffic Optimizer Program alternative services from other carriers such change in protocol. It is sometimes possible (Top), which she describes as a "discrete as MCI, etc. to achieve economies by switching from Bi­ event simulator. " The optimization process is often a nary Synchronous Communications (BSC) to With increased competition these give-and-take that can last several months for High-level Data Link Control (HDLC), but days from companies such as MCI, Southern large, nationwide users that have complex that would involve major changes in network Pacific Communications, and other carriers, nets, Zingler explained. operations, he stated. as well as a variety of options from the phone Sometimes a change in long haul in­ To fully apply MIND to a network company, Zingler stresses that the user must tercity trunks or satellite links are involved, could take up to four weeks and might cost determine network goals and performance but there are usually options. from $5,000 to $15,000, which includes what levels before outside assistance can lead to And even without tariff changes, Rubin calls "sensitivity sessions" with the meaningful results. But assuming that a cor­ many user networks have such fluid traffic user. The most important element in the anal­ porate communications manager has such patterns that optimizations have to take place ysis is building a database of network para­ critical parameters well in hand, then opti­ on a regular basis. NAC and the DMW Group meters. Once the database is in place, it is mization can lead to significant improve­ are only two of the firms that help users in this only a question of paying for cpu time to do a ments. area. Another is Telco Research Corp., Nash­ further optimization. The procedure described by Zingler is ville, Tenn. The consulting company has a For voice nets, Rubin sees a different representative of the manner in which such software package called the Network Opty­ problem. With the latest rate hikes, tandem software is applied; it also serves to explain mizer/2 that promises' '3% to 25% immediate nets, CCSA, and similar offerings may no lon­ the complex options that are involved. Before ger be cost effective. With Telpak discounts the Top database c~n be brought into the pic­ The DMW Group is so cer­ gone and Wats rates in many instances "get­ ture, the user must provide one month's oper­ tain it can provide signifi­ ting very close to DDD charges, " a voice net- ating data for analysis. Typically this data is cant cost savings that its included in phone company supplied Station Most network optimization Management Detail Recording (SMDR) data. fees are pegged to the ac­ .packages use some type This is a complete breakdown or'calls accord­ tual monthly savings that ing to destination, calling number, cost, and result. of database which is up­ other vital data that provides important net­ dated or modified when- work traffic patterns. In addition to'SMDR savings on long distance expense, regardless , ever tariffs change. data, which is supplied in magnetic tape, of the equipment presently being used. " I many users have intelligent PBXS or other Pricing for network software can work by itself may not be justified anymore. devices which collect similar information. vary. The Aries Group, Rockville, Md. , has a But in a few years, Rubin predicts, alternate Once the quantitative data has been program which optimizes only data nets voice/data use will be more popular on private studied, Zingler sits down with the corporate based on an analysis of terminal response lines, and then these nets will be more cost . telecommunications manager and determines time. It is available at a cost of "$10 to $20 effective. the vital parameters that cannot be exceeded. per multipoint circuit," according to a NAC has a voice optimization package But even with such vital constraints, spokesman. called WATSAN-PLUS which has shown that there are usually savings. In fact, DMW prom­ The user looking for ways to improve there are some things that users can do to ises savings of 10% to 30% with a four month his monthly phone bill has many options. He lower voice costs. Rubin calls Foreign Ex­ pay-back. can select from an optimization service, in­ change (FX) lines, for example, a very hot The company is so certain it can pro­ stall an in-house package, use voice-only or number right now. vide significant cost savings that its fees, data-only programs, etc. And many software Also cost effective are private line which for Top can range from $12,500 to products are available. . clusters where a series of private lines $34,500, are pegged to the actual monthly The key to proper product selection might be used to hub on a particular node. savings that result, a spokesman said. requires the user to know where he wants his' Long distance traffic from that node might While this may sound like marketing network to go and at what level he wants it to then be most cost-effective using some hype to those who don't live with networks, perform.

90 DATAMATION A Datacorp Productivity Report.

''T~day, there. are four ways Datacorp can IDlprove your office productivity with micrographics!'

Say your office is presently using a computer with a 4. The Datacorp 2000 Office Microfilmer is our newest prod­ standard paper printout system. A conversion to Computer uct. It's a complete source document microfilm camera­ Output Microfilm (COM) can effectively put 90 cents out of processor, small enough to fit on a desk top, and as easy to every dollar you've be~n spending back in your pocket in the use as a paper copier. At the touch of a button, the Datacorp form of savings. Savings on paper costs, storage, mailing 2000 quickly transfers paper documents to ready-to-use charges, collating and retrieval times. microfilm strips, right in your office. That's a 900% return on your investment. Micrographics will improve your office produc­ And that's the point we want to make. Look at tivity. Future Datacorp Productivity Reports will discuss the potential of micrographics with the same considera­ the advantages of micrographics in detail. For the com- tions you'd use tojudge any investment. You're looking , plete story on micrographics for business, for a solid return on your money. Micrographics delivers. write us or call. At Datacorp, we offer four significantly dif­ ferent services to our customers, each one keyed to improving qffice productivity. 1. COM Service is a simple, cost effective to transfer information from your com­ puter tapes onto microfiche, with an out- side service center doing all the work. In 1980, we produced over 12.6 billion pages of COM, for thousands of cus­ tomers across the country, through our 39 service centers. 2. Datacorp a-COM provides the best solution for the company that wants to bring its COM production in-house. Making the move to in-house COM involves a signifi­ cant investment. Datacorp's U-COM eliminates risk by providing the customer with a complete analysis of his operation, selection of the right equipment, installation of the system, training, and on-going support. 3. We're also a leading supplier of Micrographic Equipment and Supplies. We thoroughly evaluate micrographics products in our service We'll centers, then offer our The following comparison free copy of "Miicrc)onaof customers a wide selec- shows an 11 to 1 reduction in Solutions to Information the cost of producing a 10,000 tion of the most reliable page report in four copies, with Problems:' brands of film, chemistry, three copies mailed to different At Datacorp, we readers and other _Io_c_at_io_n_s. ____---:-:-_ put micrographics to work to combat the rising equipment. Our experi- Paper ~~~ cost of producing, distributing, storing and ence as the country's using information. Computer largest COM producer print/format provides us with a unique time $ 205 $ 12 Paper cost 390 advantage when it comes COM service 107 to selecting the proper Decollating, A DSI Corp. Subsidiary products for our bursting, etc. 17 5075 S.w. Griffith Drive, P.O. Box 2000 customers. Mailing 552 5 Beaverton, Oregon 97075, (503) 641-7400 Storage 250 2 TOTAL $1,414 $130 Jim Lewis Executive Vice President

CIRCLE 69 ON READER CARD I NTH ENE W S

THE FLOPPY ISHERE If the floppy disk lives up to expectations; Media Systems Technology expects its busi ness to boom. by Edith Myers Al Alcala, president of Media Systems Tech­ nology, Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., foresees a day when a developer of an applications pro­ gram can walk into a computer store with his program on a floppy disk, say that he wants 50 copies, walk out and go about other busi­ ness, and come back in less than an hour to pick them up. MST is in the business of supplying automatic floppy disk duplication and initiali­ zation systems. And if Alcala's· prediction proves true, it could mean big business for the firni. . "There were 50 million floppy disks sold last year. There will be 140 million sold this year, and 600 million by 1985," said the MST president. "The floppy is here. " MST was started in 1978 by Alcala, Eric Kadison, now vice president, and Dr. AL ALCALA: "The microprocessor has opened up a whole new world for us." Peter Roots who has international marketing rights to the company's products through his modify their own diskette fonnats which then diskettes each, can be configured within the Inverdata Buerotechnik, GmbH & CO. KG, can be used to process new fonnats. "It per­ system, each operating concurrently and in­ West Gennany. The company's aim was to mits modification of encoding mode, sector dependently under MST'S initializer/control­ design and develop automatic processing size, sector count, identification m~lds, and ler. The system is built around a Computer equipment for diskettes. gap/sync fields and allows users to define Automation LSI 4/10 computer with a 1,920 Its first product was the System 800 their own fonnats without revealing the con­ character display tenninal. automatic diskette initializer system, intro­ tents to others. If required; all fonnats and data can be duced last year. It is capable of simultaneous­ The Fonnat Manager is menu-driven downloaded onto an 8 in. Winchester hard ly processing floppies of different formats, and supports both 5 14 in. and 8 in. diskettes, densities, and media under multitasking soft­ single or double sided, single or double densi­ MST's newest product is ware. Both 5IA in. and 8 in. floppies can be ty. loaded, initialized, and sorted at a maximum "Our customer base has traditionally the model 824 automatic rate of 80 per hour. been made up of very large companies, " said Ifloppy disk copier system. The system can run unattended, said Alcala. "But now we see a new business Alcala. "Manual initialization requires con­ coming." He said they're now talking to new disk. In addition, the systell) provides for stant attention, and time is the most valuable kinds of customers like Lifeboat Associates simultaneous verification of copied fonnats thing we h~ve in our business. " and other software publishers. "There's a lot and data. of hardware out there and not enough soft­ The way it works now, a user sits Some 140 million floppy ware (in the microprocessor market). The mi­ before a crt and puts the system first into croprocessor has opened up a whole new master duplication mode. In this mode, an disks should be sold this world to us. " image of the floppy to be copied is transferred year, and 600 million by And he sees as their key to this world to a Winchester disk which also contains data 1985. the company's newest product, the model 824 on a wide variety of formats. It is from this I automatic floppy disk copier system which image and this data that the copies are made. The company's first customers were handles both 5V2 in. and 8 in. floppies. It uses The system disk itself is a floppy, and Ka­ 3M and Verbatim. "Since then we've ex­ MST'S automatic media loader as a copy sta­ dison hopes that one day they will be able to panded nationally to where we serve every­ tion and provides simultaneous copying and eliminate the Winchester and have the system body (who produces floppies) but CDC." But verification of copied fonnats and data. floppy handle everything. he believes Control Data will eventually Throughput speed is as high as 163 copies per The company has installed two sys­ come into the fold, too. hour, per station for 5IA in. single-sided disk­ tems to date, one at its own site and one at an In March of this year, MST announced ettes and 116 copies per hour for single-sided undisclosed customer site. an enhanced software option called the For­ 8 in. diskettes. Double-sided diskettes also And it's a proven technology. MST has mat Manager for its Series 800 and a later can be copied. been doing floppy disk copying as a service version, the Series 820 diskette processor. A maximum of four automatic media for about a year. Burroughs Corp. is among Kadison said this allows users to create and/or loaders, featuring a stacking capacity of 50 the companies being provided the service,

92 DATAMATION

I NTH ENE W S·

said Alcala. maker of industrial and commercial floor "When we deal with a service cus­ UNDOING maintenance equipment, recalls what he tomer, " Alcala explained, "we first sign a found when he took over in 1977: "There was non-disclosure agreement. Then they send us THE PAST very little user involvement in the system their specs and two diskettes. We copy them Along with the proliferation of design process. " and send them 10 for inspection. " terminals has come a dra­ Manufacturing was the exception, he Non-disclosure agreements also will matic change in the way said, and users were "deeply involved" be incorporated into sales of the System 824 there. But in other areas of the company, it since each system delivered will have to be data processing departments was just the opposite. modified for customer formats and other spe­ operate. "Nothing was being done. The order cial features of customer generated software. by Jan Johnson processing system, for instance, went back to Alcala, who is a worrier about soft­ Dp managers that functioned like feudal lords the late '60s and mirrored the manual method ware piracy, emphasizes that if the day ever are dying out. it replaced. " comes when copiers are installed in computer So says John Stevenson, manager of Few dp departments emerged from stores, they will copy only disks which have data processing for Valspar Corp., one of the the '70s without tarnish on their service repu­ formats that are in the public domain. He also top 10 paint manufacturers in the U.S. tation and serious plans for reorganization. looks for a day when formatted disks will be "There has been a change in dp's attitude. Some of that tarnish will linger for years. displayed on counters. People who were territorialists are leaving. The culprit: lack of documentation. The MST president said he has been They are being pushed down the ladder, mov­ Thorsen explains why: "Programmers contacted by "pirates. "They want to know if ing off to a different sized department, or worked· alone and did not write programs us­ MST can copy this or that vendor, "thinking to moving out and starting up one-man shops. " ing a standard approach. The way one pro­ make a lot of money for themselves. I tell Their successors worry about team­ grammer performs a function in one program them about our non-disclosure agreements work, structured systems development, and might be performed a different way by anoth­ and advise them to contact the vendors direct­ building credibility among users. Programs er programmer. " ly. " are not meted out like favors to fiefs; they are However, unraveling a program to fix He said proprietary formats can pre­ group efforts, with special attention to "user a problem is easy compared to unraveling an sent substantial obstacles to people contem­ input. " undocumented system. No road maps were plating unauthorized copying. He believes New forms of on-line, interactive ter­ left behind in many dp shops explaining how "there's no way to completely eliminate soft­ minals have put an end to old methods of dp­ the programs fit together. "If we have some­ ware piracy. We can cut it down but we can't dom. Now that the computer has become a one around who knows how the programs fit stop it anymore than the recording industry tool for the masses, "the control of informa­ together, then we can get on with solving the can stop people from buying records and tap­ tion is no longer handled by a centrally locat­ problem, " said Thorsen. Tennant is lucky, he ing them for their friends." ed, high-level few, " observes Sandy Rosen, added; it has had a relatively stable staff, president of Communication Sciences Inc., "which has been a real savior. " Proprietary formats can Minneapolis, and a computer industry con­ When such a nightmare hits, the first present substantial sultant since 1972. priority for most managers is to get back on a New wave dp bosses see themselves· normal operating schedule. People are pulled obstacles to people as professional managers, not technical ex­ off new projects until the problem is solved. contemplating perts. Their shops are beginning to resemble a Of course, to users and management waiting unauthorized copying. manufacturing production facility, rather for the new project, this gives the appearance I than a loosely run research lab where people of a poorly managed operation. "We've nev­ But, he believes, a lot can be done push and shove their way inside the door and er been able to communicate to management such as incorporating unique address marks to place their requests in the hands of the first just exactly how bad the old systems were," identify the start of the fields that can be used programmer they see. said Thorsen, who estimates it will be 1983 to store data. And there are more sophisticat­ In short, they are out to undo what has before all the troublesome systems are re­ ed techniques such as using analog keys at the been done for years. "Three years ago people placed or upgraded. beginning of each track and using analog-to­ would come down and run their own pro­ digital converters in the controllers. grams. Users and programmers didn't talk to Standard Oil of Indiana MSTprotects its own control software. each other much, and software development rotates its· middle Formats are handled by proprietary floppy for computer products was done on the same disk drive controllers. MST diskettes run on system that supported manufacturing," re­ managers through the another controller simply won't work. The calls Trond Jakobsen, director of Manage­ position of general controller developed by MST can handle from ment Information Systems for NCR Comten, manager of information one to eight diskette loaders simultaneously. Inc. services. MST'g automatic diskette copier sys­ "As for documentation, there was none. It tem, the Model 824, is priced from $35,000 was only last year that we got a handle on Meanwhile, project management to $70,000, depending on configuration and that. " techniques and standard design and program­ options. Delivery time is 90 days. Comten's customer service area had ming practices have gone a long way in pol­ Alcala is excited about the new 3th in. been so badly mistreated that it was reluctant ishing dp's poor reputation. "When priorities floppy disk introduced by Sony at the NCC but to let MIS do anything. It took Jakobsen, who were set by people lining up at my door," is waiting to see if he will modify his equip­ became director in 1978, two years to con­ recalls Valspar's Stevenson, "things tended ment to handle this smaller diskette. "We'll vince them to move from a manual system to to get chosen politically. Now, once the pro­ wait to see what acceptance there is in the an in-house computer. jects have been selected and voted on by an marketplace before addressing development Michael Thorsen, director of systems upper-level management committee, ,every­ dollars that way. " I/l: for the Tennant Co., a Minneapolis-based body knows where everybody else stands. If

94 DATAMATION I"~ -' -'"''-''' "\ _;--."~:--" •. ". co ";;--::~:" .'''''''' -"--"-""'~'"'~-'----'-''' .,,-----...... -~-. -----"'-,,_-('

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~lost companies discover the proven cost co 11 t rol alld IC'O],( IlT­ evils in their computer library ing procedures-plus 1l111lh IllOIl'_ qllite by accident. Strallge things start happening. Your computer record" are slICldenlv full of inac­ curacies. Shipments' are delayed. The cornerstone of Your customers grow unhappy, Graham's Media and you lose valued business. Management Program The ecollomic im pact Oil your is the Inspector IV MPe business also includes costly computer why we created the Graham Media downtime, while you try to unr;we\ i\Janagement Program, Tape Evaluator/Cleaner. the mystery This fourth-generatioll, micro­ The GIVII Media Manage­ processor-controlled system isclesiglled Graham IVlagnetics can ment Program can be to pinpoint tapes so seriously deh'Tadcd with permanent errors that t hey help you solve the mystery. quicldy implemented. should be removed Ii'om your libl";.llY ~lany computer problems begin This special tape library mainte­ And it restores the others to all accept­ with tapes that ha\'e been used too naIlce program enables you to estab­ able pert()rmance level. much or abused too l1luch:Elpes with lish a quality threshold for accepting For h.u-ther inf()rmarion cOlltact dirt and oxide debris-and so much or rejecting tapes that meet your the Graham Magnetics Disuihuto)' potential for error-t hey should never standards. It helps you successfully in your country or send a telex to be mounted on a drin'. reduce costly errors associated with Graham Magnetics' International The big problem is how to iden­ using sub-standard magnetic com­ Marketing Director,"Ielex No.6H2906H tif\' these problem tapes. And that's puter tape. And it provides you with GRAFW u,tV Fort Worth, Texas.

CIRCLE 71 ON READER CARD Distributor/Agent Inquiries Welcomed I NTH ENE W S

someone's project is not being worked on, director at the Great Lake Program Service These profiles detail the purpose of the report, everyone knows why. If they don't like it, Center in Chicago. source of its information, length of report, they tell their frustrations to their boss, who is Most companies are still on the first frequency of report, who will receive it, and involved in the selection process, instead of rung of the ladder that takes the computers out what it will look like as a printout. haranguing the programmers." of the dp center and into the hands of the user. "When the users finally get the re­ Dp managers are discovering another Most dp managers are still wrestling with the port, it's what they want. If it isn't, they have positive spinoff to having upper-level man­ effects of this first move, which, in many no one but themselves to blame," Sisinni agement involved on a regular basis (presi­ cases, has been to send a dp person out to said. "If they do come [to complain], they'd dents and vice presidents often sit on project work with user groups, directly. better look out. We take them to task royally. selection committees). The exposure seems "Users will say 'yes, that is exactly We haul out the original documentation and what I want,' but later find out they didn't ask them if that is their signature. It's only Valspar Corp.'s dp group understand what the dp person was giving happened once," he said. is hiring systems analysts them," said Valspar's Stevenson. "Unfortu­ Larry Wood, manager of special-pur­ nately, when this happens the dp person de­ pose computing for Deere & Co., Moline, who'll spend most of their livers the product, then all the user has to say Ill., said he is seeing fewer users coming back time with specific user is that it wasn't what he wanted-that takes at the tail end of a development project want­ groups to anticipate their about 10 seconds. Now, you are off with two ing to add this or that, but he attributes those dp needs. months more work on the same project. " instances to familiarity. "I think it's because Stevenson's group is in the process of users are better users. It's not their first sys­ to be fostering a better understanding of what hiring systems analysts who will be expected tem. They know what they can get out of the dp means to the health of the company. to spend most of their time with specific user computer, and they can discuss more of the Standard Oil of Indiana, Chicago, for groups, attending their staff meetings and design criteria with dp people. " instance, rotates its middle managers through learning to anticipate their problems. "Ifthe User documentation is another over­ the position of general manager of informa­ analyst is in effect a part of a certain division, looked activity that is receiving special atten­ tion services. The practice was started two then he should be able to perceive some of tion these days. Again, the rapid dissemina­ and a half years ago, said present IS manager their problems and understand what would be tion of terminals into the workplace and the William Hutchinson, the second manager to needed," said Stevenson. need to explain how to use these terminals has be circulated through the slot. Prior to the IS Basically, those are the expectations pulled this activity out of the closet. post, Hutchinson was vice president of plan­ of most dp managers who have started some Clear and precise, easy to understand, ning and economics for Standard's minerals type of liaison program. user documentation is a strong protective company. But a method is only as good as the measure against a user mistake that could, in "Managers have trouble understand­ people who use it. Standard Oil found this extreme cases, bring the whole system down. ing exactly what systems analysis and pro­ out. "The way it was supposed to work," With the programmer or analyst writing docu­ gramming is and why it takes so many people said Hutchinson, "was that the user represen­ mentation, as is the case at most companies, and costs so much," Hutchinson admitted. tative (the liaison person between dp and the there is serious question as to how easy to He agrees that the trend toward more manage­ functional departments) would go to the actu­ understand the material is. ment involvement will go a long way in de­ al users and describe what was going to be "Problems occur when people try to mystifying this business of systems develop­ done, then ask if it fit their requirements. do something with the system that it was ment. Sometimes, though, people were busy and never intended to do because the documenta­ And demystify, dp must. It's inevita­ gave their replies only a passing thought. Peo­ tion doesn't tell them they can't do it, " cau­ ble. Standardization and new, tighter man­ ple were not spending enough time at the tions Tennant's Thorsen. agement practices are only the first signs that design phase to think the thing through. Lat­ While some input mistakes will be dp has been forced out beyond its protective er, they say, 'Gee, why didn't you ask caught by error notes and prompts pro- doors. me?' " The explosive growth of terminals in Bob Sisinni, director of Thermo King Communication Sciences every facet of the company's operation fore­ Data Center, says he's found a way that cuts has hired a philosophy of tells of even more dramatic changes to fol­ down on that sort of back flow and makes low. The ideal situation for this new age is to users responsible for their actions. Thermo language graduate as its have users do their own applications. Moving King, based in Minneapolis, is a maker of staff ed itor to cut down on toward that ideal are new concepts in database transport refrigeration units and is a wholly dp jargon. management and high level, powerful lan­ owned subsidiary of the Westinghouse Corp. I guages that will allow a person at a terminal to Like many dp managers, Sisinni's grammed into the software, software is not to compile and manipulate computer informa­ systems analysts or project leaders are as­ the point yet where user manuals are not need­ tion on his own. signed to work with a specific functional area, ed. "About the only people who grew up with But that's down the road a few years such as marketing, engineering, or manufac­ that kind of software support are those who for most companies. Some organizations, turing. After working with these groups, the did CDC's [Control Data Corp. 's] Plato sys­ such as the Social Security Administration, analysts write a project description that is sent tem, " said Communication Sciences' Rosen. are just emerging from the dp cave. Social out for approval to all concerned supervisors, "A great percentage of that programming is Security has only recently progressed to the managers, and on up. "This describes the things that help you when you fail. This is not stage of sending an analyst into the field to project, what it will do, how it will work, and true with most programs." talk directly with users in an effort to improve what it will cost," said Sisinni. Each manager Memory costs also playa role in how communications and the types of programs signs off on this project approval request. much "help" can be included in the computer and systems that are turned out. "We just As the project progresses and certain system. It's still too expensive to indude ev­ started this on a large scale a couple of months phases are completed, report profiles are writ­ ery possible situation, pointed out Rosen, ago," said Albert Marshall, an assistant dp ten and sent to each user group for approval. whose company specializes in writing clear,

96 DATAMATION • t, Success IsA Matter Of Performance In today's computer environment, formance is Where Service and STAM/SDSI - Integrity systems systems are so complete . . . and so Software Come Together . .. More supporting the multiple CPU dynamic ... that attempts to maintain than a slogan, SMM believes service is shared tapel disk environment. in-house development of systems soft­ a commitment to provide our customer ware are becoming counter-productive. with marketing and technical support Software products serviced 'and The fundamental fact, that has been ac­ that will continue to advance their lead­ marketed by SMM. Call, telex, or write cepted by successful data processing ership standards. today for a free thirty-day evaluation, center operations; is that not every cen­ or additional information. ter has the capacity to produce each and . . . When you have a product from every software tool that the present SMM, you can count on three things­ Call toll free 800-824-8512, except expanding hardware utilization allows. Productivity, Service and Performance. Calif., Alaska, & Hawaii call collect (916) 441-7234 The "communication age of the '80's" SMM products support OS/ VS 1, establishes a data processing society, MVS, MVS/SE, MVS/SP operating that calls for a formal, yet workable, systems on IBM and compatible main­ Where Service and Software come mode of operation. frames. together DMS/OS - The disk mana~ement Hardware capability has given way to system that optimizes the use of Software Module Marketing software performance as the criteria for DASD resources. Crocker Bank Bldg./Penthouse .tdI• 1007 Seventh Street successful data processing operation. Sacramento, CA 95814 ACEP - The Conversational On­ Telex 377314 At Software Module Marketing, per- Line Time Sharing System. ~• SMM/UK - London, England

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CIRCLE 72 ON READER CARD I N THE NEW S

comprehensive user documentation and train­ will have 'out here." By the end of the year, dp,' and dp is up to its ears, anyway. The ing companies how to do their own user docu­ Target will operate 150 stores and roughly president lets him go out and get his own mini mentation. 4,000 point-of-sale terminals, Norman esti­ or micro or rent some time. Pretty soon, you Jargon is another pitfall. "It's the mated. have this fragmented, disjointed thing," curse of every specialized industry, " said Ro­ In addition to demanding clear and While user-friendly languages direct­ sen. "Programmers could communicate to precise language in user documentation, Ro­ ly address the overload problem, they are too other programmers using that shorthand, but sen is adamant about explaining to users how new to have had an impact on the dp opera­ it doesn't work anymore when you get be­ they fit into the total systems picture. "Since tion, say several dp managers. Meanwhile, yond the computer room. If you are putting major systems often involve people from sev­ the independent use of micros and minis is terminals out in the hands of almost everyone, eral areas of the company, it helps if they increasing and it's creating new wrinkles for you've got to get out of jargon. " understand where they fit in and what their those who manage corporate information. Rosen's company recognizes this part in the total system is. " He also recom­ "I don't think there is any question shortcoming in the use of language and has mends including some history about the sys­ that micros can be a very positive force in hired a philosophy of language graduate as its tem and what it replaces. "Most user docu­ staff editor. This person translates into plain mentation doesn't tell you what happens to The independent use of talk the copy written by industry experts. the old ways of doing things, which methods micros and minis is in­ One indication that a company's user are kept and which go." creasing and it's creat­ manuals may need some simplifying is the • Without question, dp has its hands full number of times users call on dp for help. Don simply coping with all the changes to its old ing new wrinkles for Norman, vice president of information sys­ ways of operating. While such things as struc­ those who manage cor­ tems for Target, a company that operates a tured systems development and project man­ porate information. chain of discount stores, has noticed that us­ agement techniques have gone a long way in ers "do come to dp for help q~ite often." streamlining operations, the department still augmenting the things a user can do, but there There, user manuals are written by dp mem­ faces the age-old dilemma: how to deal with a are dangers if they are not managed right," bers and sent to a special group in personnel seemingly infinite demand with finite re­ cautioned Tennant's Thorsen. , charged with user training. "They are sup­ sources, All requests for changes, enhance­ Among the issues that concern dp posed to put it [the manual] into understand-·· ments, and new tools cannot be answered. managers are securing data on independent able English but, in reality, they do very little Some get passed over and someone gets frus­ systems, duplication of functions and data to our text, " said Norman. Target is a wholly trated. that are on a system elsewhere, loss of data to owned subsidiary of the Dayton-Hudson More and more, this frustration is re­ the corporation, and an askewed representa­ Corp., Minneapolis. solved with the purchase of a micro or mini­ tion of computing costs to the corporation. Norman's operation is considering the computer or time on a timesharing service. Like most departments within a com­ use of computer assisted instructions (CAl). The scenario might go something like this, pany, the dp department is subject to con­ "None of our operations are done like this as relates one dp manager: "You have an influ­ trolled growth. When a group adds its own yet, but we are looking at it, particularly be­ ential vice president pounding on the presi­ machine, however, more programmers are cause of the number of on-line systems we dent's desk saying 'I can't get anything out of often introduced. "They may not be called programmers," noted Deere & Co. 's Wood. "They may be called engineers. So on the one side you have management telling the dp de­ partment they can't hire any more program­ mers, while users go off and bring in more programming talent. " What needs to happen, said Wood, is that the overall attitude toward computing should change a bit. "If dp would accept smaller computers they would end up with control of those machines. But too often they say: 'I'll stick with IBM and anything else is not mine.' " . Many dp departments have already taken the offensive and set up special infor­ mation centers or simply let it be known they will help other departments that have comput­ ers. That is one way of· insuring that estab- ffi lished programming and documentation 8 methods will be applied throughout the com- ~ pany, and also helps the dp manager keep an ~ eye on the type of information and functions u.i being used. [5 According to Thorsen, who is very ::!j concerned about compatibility among all fu computers used in his company, the "real z benefits" to the office will come with the 8 ability to link everything together via commu- ~ nications links. ~ 0

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Computer Associates For more than a decade E'Z'PERT systems have been helping International, Inc...... 81 hundreds of larger aerospace and industrial companies, engineering/construction contractors and government agencies Condata ...... 36 turn unwieldy tabular reports into easy-to-use project manage­ ment graphics ... automatically. Now E'Z'PERT II makes Cullinane ...... 79 automated project graphics available to companies of all sizes. E·Z·PERT II HIGHLIGHTS • Produces networks and barcharts management can DASD ...... 59 understand. • Compatible with PAC II, PC/70; N5500 and other scheduling Datacorp ...... 91 programs. • Universal input and output-operates on IBM main frames. Data General ...... 24,25 • A plotter is the only additional hardware needed. Dataware ...... : ...... 65 • The same output that's used to print tabular reports is also used to plot E'Z'PERT II graphics. Dennison Kybe Corp...... •...... 72 • English language commands make it easy to use. Duquesne Systems ...... 34 • Updated and revised graphics can be made in hours, not days. • Human errors are virtually eliminated. • For most applications E·Z·PERT II will pay for itself in a matter of months. EPS ...... •.••...... •••...•.....•...... 47 If you're struggling along manually producing PERT/CPM charts-or trying to get along without graphics at all-because you thought automated project graphics was too expensive ... check out E'Z'PERT II, it's affordable! Call or write for more Gejac Incorporated ...... •...... 36 information today. Graham Magnetics ...... 95

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CIRCLE 74 ON READER CARD SPECIAL REPORT 99 Raise your '~Programmer Johnson Systems, Inc...... 9

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Data Communications for Minicomputer Users

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