July 20, 1995, SALINA, KANSAS - EAGLE Software, Inc., recently received the largest contract in the company's 14-year history when it signed a $340,000 deal with the U.S. Forest Service. Forest Service offices throughout the United States will use EAGLE's product, CABINET_CONVERTER, as they move from Data General Eclipse MV computer systems to IBM RS/6000 machines.
"This has been a three-year project with the Forest Service," said Dave Hiechel, president and CEO of EAGLE. "The sale to the Forest Service opens a whole new avenue of possibilities for EAGLE. Migration, moving from main frames to client/server, UNIX, and PC environments, is the buzzword of the 90s, and EAGLE is now firmly placed in that market."
CABINET_CONVERTER was developed by EAGLE to move Comprehensive Electronic Office (CEO) documents from the MV to UNIX, MS-DOS, or System 7 configurations. CEO is an office automation package for the MV Eclipse system.
The CABINET_CONVERTER purchase was coordinated through Kajax Engineering, Inc., in Arlington, Virginia. Kajax is a systems consulting firm, involved in a variety of projects "from hotlines and help desks to strategic planning," according to David J. Cole, senior engineer at Kajax. Kajax is the pilot phase oversight contractor for the implementation of the new systems. The Forest Service will be purchasing several RS/6000 models: 250s, 360s, 590s and C10s. This project is establishing a geographic information system (GIS) to enhance the speed and efficiency of all Forest Service operations, from research and land management to public information functions. Land managed by the Forest Service is about eight percent of all United States lands, and totals 191 million acres.
"One of the really big things we do is planning for ecosystem management. We develop plans for each forest as well as whole ecosystems," said Marty Longan, spokesperson for the Forest Service. "The GIS system will make the whole process a lot more efficient."
"We have estimated the new system will save 54% of staff years, or 78,000 person years over the next few years. This is a tremendous savings, especially when we're being asked to cut personnel by 25% or more," Longan said. "We have been using GIS in a limited way, mostly in our field offices. It (the new system) will be a tremendous asset."
The GIS system will be used by up to 30,000 Forest Service employees in the 876 sites throughout the country.
To make the migration as smooth as possible, EAGLE Senior Software Engineer Andy Kratzer did some customization of CABINET_CONVERTER. The customization helped automate the conversion process. EAGLE personnel will also be involved in a CABINET_CONVERTER training session as the project progresses.
"We have been working on this project for three years, and it will span another three years," Hiechel said. "It is now in the pilot phase, which will last about 6 months and take place on about 90 systems. Andy (Kratzer) will be heavily involved throughout the three-year project, supporting CABINET_CONVERTER during the move."
Hiechel also commended Jeff Burris, senior software engineer, for his part in the document conversion process. He added that the completion of this sale was a team effort by the technical and sales staffs of EAGLE Software.
EAGLE Software, Inc. was founded in 1981 to provide Data General computer users with system consulting and performance enhancing software. As many companies move to UNIX systems, EAGLE has expanded its products and vendor platforms to include Sun, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intergraph, Honeywell, and PC systems.
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