WHO BUYS NeXT COMPUTERS?

	Computer technology is playing an increasingly important role in the competitive strategies of large corporations, creating greater demand for better networking, better applications and more desktop power to effectively run all parts of a corporation's business.  NeXT's UNIX-based professional workstations offer powerful solutions for corporate computing, and companies are turning to NeXT to quickly and efficiently develop mission-critical applications and to increase group productivity through interpersonal computing.
	NeXT's advanced object-oriented development environment, NeXTstep, allows organizations to develop custom applications in as little as one-fifth the development time required on other platforms.  Objects created for one application can also be reused in other applications, further reducing development times and cost.
	Interpersonal computing in the NeXT environment is made possible by the combination of NeXT features that include multimedia NeXTmail; built-in Ethernet, TCP/IP and NFS networking; the easy-to-use NeXTstep graphical user interface; seamless "drag-and-drop" file transfer between applications; and multitasking UNIX-based system software that allows many applications to run simultaneously.
	NeXT's customers are part of the emerging market for professional workstations.  Workstations were originally designed for technical users ± scientists and engineers ± to run a single main application, such as CAD, industrial process analysis or software engineering.  NeXT's computers provide the same power, networking, multitasking and sophisticated graphics capabilities found in technical workstations to "mainstream" business and professional 
users.   
	Market researchers at International Data Corp. (IDC of Framingham, MA), who follow the workstation market, first recognized the business/professional workstation segment in 1990.  That year, they report, 50,000 units were sold into this segment, accounting for about 13 percent of the total workstation shipments.  IDC expects sales of professional workstations to reach 35 percent of the total workstation market ± 720,000 units ± by 1995.  
	In developing a new market segment, NeXT has also had to create distribution strategies for its professional workstation products to meet the needs of all its customers.  More than 80 percent of NeXT's customers are in business or government, while the rest are at higher education institutions.  Business customers can purchase NeXT products through NeXT's network of independent dealers, from a value-added reseller (VAR) or directly from NeXT. Government customers can purchase directly from NeXT or through federal system integrators and the GSA list.  NeXT sells to its higher education customers through campus resellers (which include university bookstores and on-campus computer dealers) and directly.
	NeXT's professional workstations are currently being used for diverse applications such as financial services, publishing and graphic arts, education, customer support and real estate, as well as for general office productivity in medicine, law, advertising and government agencies.  Many NeXT customers write proprietary, custom applications for their organizations.  Others choose NeXT for the increased productivity offered by NeXTmail, Lotus' revolutionary Improv spreadsheet, WordPerfect's first WYSIWYG graphical word processor or any of the increasing number of applications that run best ± or only ± on the NeXT platform.
	The following profiles of a few NeXT customers indicate the range of uses to which these professional workstations are being applied.

Company:  O'Connor & Associates

Contact:  Carolyn Hurd, communications manager (312) 554-5624

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
While most financial trading firms aim new computer technologies almost exclusively at the traders, O'Connor & Associates, a Chicago-based options trading firm, took a technological view both broader and more strategic.  It sought a comprehensive office automation strategy that would improve communication among the company's managers, secretaries, accountants and lawyers, in addition to traders.

Number of NeXT Machines:  200 (includes NeXTstation, NeXTstation Color and NeXTcube computers)

Why NeXT?
The NeXT platform was able to blend the firm's existing mix of workstation and personal computer technology into a unified computer architecture, and it fit O'Connor's TCP/IP Ethernet network.  NeXTmail has already saved people significant time by allowing them to work together, such as on the same Improv spreadsheet, from different floors in the same building.  NeXTmail is also crucial for the company's communication internationally.  Despite emphasis on off-the-shelf productivity, O'Connor is also engaged in custom development:  Five in-house programmers wrote a fixed income trading system with NeXTstep in only two-and-a-half months.

Critical Applications:
·  Custom fixed income trading system
·  Lotus' Improv 
·  Frame's FrameMaker
·  Informix's Wingz
·  Lighthouse Design's Diagram! 
·  WordPerfect Corp.'s WordPerfect

Quotes:  "NeXT was the first machine to provide 80 percent of what PCs and Macs provide and 80 percent of what Sun workstations provide.  Also, the multimedia integration they're still talking about on the Mac and IBM is here today on the NeXT," said Robert Wilen, a vice president in O'Connor's Technology Division.

Company:  Northern States Power

Contact:  Gary Johnson, vice president, law (612) 330-7623

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:  
Northern States Power (NSP) is an electric and natural gas company with $2 billion in revenue.  It needed to find a computer system to increase the frequency and timeliness of communication with clients and among members of the NSP legal department.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  24 NeXTstation computers and 2 NeXTcube Servers

Why NeXT?
After two years, a team of attorneys, administrative and data systems staff at NSP identified NeXT computers as the best platform to meet their needs. 

NeXT computers, with their collection of bundled applications such as WriteNow and NeXTmail, improve the quality and appearance of written work by the administrative support staff.  For example, NeXTmail provides easy-to-use electronic mail functions that allow department staff to communicate quickly and efficiently among themselves and with other departments.  

NSP has discovered the additional bonus that the NeXT machines have actually enhanced the work environment for the staff by making it easier and more enjoyable to complete their tasks.  

Critical Applications:
·  Boss Law, a custom application built on top of the Boss Document Management System (BDMS) from Boss Logic, Inc.  (BDMS is a multimedia electronic document management application for networks of NeXT computers that provides tools for creating, revising, managing and tracking any type of document). According to Gary Johnson, " We bought NeXT because of Boss Law. We got a custom application from Boss Logic for less than what we would pay for products on other platforms that are available from commercial vendors."

Quote:  "User friendliness was a key factor in choosing NeXT; we wanted to make sure the system chosen would be usefully and fully employed," says Gary Johnson, vice president, law. 

Company:  Lehman Brothers

Contact:   Eric Spahr, vice president (212) 640 6992

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
The Sugar Department at Lehman Brothers sought to streamline its business with a computer that consolidated the functionality of the miscellaneous assortment of computers, terminals, fax and telex machines that clutter trading desks. 

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  one for every trader's desk

Why NeXT?
Lehman has achieved its dream of consolidation with NeXT's communications, image management capabilities, and the integrated development environment.

Critical Applications:
·  OTPalettes:2.0, a collection of custom object palettes available from Objective Technologies,Inc. 
·  Lotus Improv equipped with OTProvide from Objective Technologies, Inc. allows traders to access and query relational databases. 
·  FTX, also from Objective Technologies, lets them send and receive telexes and receive faxes. 
·  Quotron market data is available through Qterm, a Quotron emulator for NeXT. ·  Papersight from VISUS lets traders organize faxes and documents scanned with a Scan-X Professional from HSD Microcomputer, Inc. 
·  For training traders, Digital Ears and Digital Eye from Metaresearch, Inc. provide tools for creating multimedia training applications. 

Quote:  According to Eric Spahr, vice president, "NeXT computers replace the collection of terminals and machines our traders used to use and provides them with extraordinary communications capabilities. In addition, the NeXTstep development environment lets us quickly build analytic software in-house." 

Organization:  Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Contacts:  Rick Merrick, division chief of Technical Services division (213) 974-4501 or Claude Farris, captain of Data Systems Bureau (213) 974-4531

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, with 13,000 employees and an annual budget topping $1 billion, is the third-largest law enforcement agency in the country.  It needed a system for automating the entire Sheriff's Department's executive offices and the fiscal operations.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  130 already installed; the Department plans to purchase an additional 200 to 300 workstations

Why NeXT?
The Department demanded a system that was easily customized; dynamic and
responsive, as the nature of their business can change quickly as new state
legislation is passed; and that had a single, seamless environment with a set of
tools across the entire platform.  Their evaluation revealed that NeXTstep was
the only commercially available interface software that met the seamless
interface requirement.

Critical Third-Party Products:
· Custom applications built on Boss Logic's Boss Document Management System (BDMS).  "Boss Logic's approach to document management has resulted in a shrink-wrapped product that does things that no one else in the industry's product is capable of doing," Farris said.  
·  FrameMaker document layout program
·  Wingz spreadsheet, especially important for its scripting language
·  Oracle relational database.  

Quote:  "We needed something to assist these individuals' intuitive decision-making process, to allow them to get information better and in a more timely manner," Farris said.  

Company:  Marger, Johnson, McCollom & Solowitz, Inc.

Contact:  Jerry Marger, director (503) 222-3613

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:  
Marger, Johnson, McCollom & Solowitz, Inc. focuses its practice in intellectual property law for electronics, computer software and hardware, biochemical and other technology companies.  Faced with the need to better service its sophisticated clients and to improve office productivity, this group of patent attorneys, all of whom also have degrees in electrical or chemical engineering, put together a hardware and software wish list for the consummate legal workstation.  The combination of performance, the 2.0 version of the NeXTstep operating environment, powerful development tools and price determined the firm's purchase of NeXT professional workstations.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  19 NeXTstation computers: 15 for the office and 4 at remote sites.   

Why NeXT?
NeXT's integrated set of bundled applications and several key third-party applications enhance the quality of service Marger Johnson offers to its clients.  Using NeXTmail and Internet, lawyers communicate electronically with each other and with remote clients.  Digital Librarian allows them to index legal documents and do key word and key phrase searches, making Digital Librarian an indispensable litigation support tool. 

NeXTstep's object-oriented environment provides tools to build proprietary software.  In conjunction with In_Re Systems, a software development company specializing in the design of relational and object-oriented database management tools, Marger Johnson is developing intelligent docket tracking and client database software for legal applications on the NeXT. 

Critical Applications:
·  WordPerfect, the backbone application; for professional-quality documents.  
·  Diagram! from Lighthouse Design, Ltd. to create diagrams of product architecture required for patent applications and flow charts for complex litigation analyses. 
·  Lotus Improv, for time and billing, internal cost forecasting and budgeting. 
·  Custom intelligent docket tracking and client database software (being developed for legal applications on NeXT in conjunction with In_Re Systems)

Quote:  "...at the desktop level, the NeXT platform is the best equipped to serve our demands," says Jerry Marger, firm co-founder.

Company Name:  UBS Securities, Inc.

Contacts:  Hadar Pedhazur, vice president (212) 230-4626

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
UBS Securities, Inc. is a subsidiary of the Union Bank of Switzerland, the largest Swiss Bank.  Its critical need for multitasking and a networked multiuser environment demanded that it choose a UNIX platform for developing its trading technology.

Why Next?
UBS uses NeXT computers to develop proprietary equity derivatives technology that involves real-time proprietary trading applications, execution systems, historical databases and extensive communications.  In addition to UNIX, the NeXT platform's NeXTstep development environment and collection of object-oriented application development tools give UBS a distinct advantage.  For general business and communication, UBS uses bundled NeXT applications, NeXTmail and fax modems. 

Critical Applications:
·  Custom proprietary equity derivatives applications are crucial competitive tools.
·  Programmers create prototype applications using Mathematica from Wolfram Research and Informix Wingz.
·  Traders use FrameMaker to enhance documentation quality.
·  Diagram! from Lighthouse Design, Ltd. provides graphics and presentation tools for both programmers and traders.

Quote:  "NeXTstep provides an extraordinary development environment that wraps around UNIX and allows us to take programmers with experience on other platforms and make them productive in a very short time. Because development time is reduced considerably, NeXT is the most cost effective platform for our organization," said Ramy Goldstein, managing director, Equity Derivative Products. 

Organization:  San Diego Hospice

Contact:  Pete Vanderhaak, vice president of finance and CFO  (619) 688-1500 ext. 421

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
San Diego Hospice's 200 employees provide home health care for approximately 250 patients each day.  This home health care system requires extensive recording and storing of medical records, with information widely decentralized.  In addition, the san Diego Hospice runs a 24-bed hospital, the only hospice in California to have its own free-standing hospital.  The hospice purchased its NeXt systems from Oceania, a NeXT value-added reseller for the medical industry.  Oceania developed a network-based custom application for the hospice that enables nurses and social workers to note information about patients while in the patients' homes, often using a portable Notepad from NCR, that is downloaded to the NeXT computer system.  In this way, doctors, other nurses and social workers, administrators and others can gain immediate access to all patient information.  The system also reduces the non-productive hours that staff members spend driving to the office.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  48

Why NeXT?
The San Diego Hospice began its decision process with the software from Oceania.  It chose the NeXT platform for the workstations' real-time computing power combined with its audio, visual, fax and other capabilities within a network, as well as for its compatibility with the DOS operating system.  It was also important for the hospice to be able to connect the NeXT computers to its existing Banyan VINES network, used for the organization's financial system, for easy data transfer.

Quote:  
"We needed a fully integrated system here, and NeXT is solving all our needs.  We are pleased with the NeXT system Ð it offers lots of the pieces by itself, and also allows access to the Banyan system and three other stand-alone systems, which we do not plan to upgrade.  For us, it makes the whole picture consolidated and concise," said Pete Vanderhaak.

Organization:  Novell Corporation

Contact:  Peter Jerram, director of information delivery (408) 747-4962

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
Headquartered in Provo, Utah, Novell Corporation provides network server software that integrates desktop computers, servers, and minicomputer and mainframe hosts for information sharing.  In 1991 the company had more than $640 million in sales and 2,843 employees worldwide.  Novell's information delivery group in Sunnyvale, Calif. sets standards for the company's technical publications, which are produced in five groups across the country.  A task force was chartered with selecting a desktop publishing standard for use by all the groups; the goal was selection of software first, followed by hardware platform.  The requirements included choosing a single application that provided both text processing and page layout and that ran under the UNIX operating system.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  75

Why NeXT?
First, Novell chose Frame Technology's FrameMaker software because it had the features most important to the technical publications group:  indexing, table of contents generations, formatting, integrated text and graphics, and a friendly interface.  The company chose NeXT because "it is the best UNIX platform in terms of ease of use and shielding the operating system from the user.  It offers the power of UNIX combined with the friendliness of the NeXTstep development environment," said Peter Jerram, Novell's director of information delivery.

Critical Applications and Peripherals:
´ FrameMaker  
´ Lotus Improv for budgets
´ Diagram! from Lighthouse Design for creating organizational charts 
´ Dove Fax Modem
· Adobe Illustrator

Quote:  "The NeXT computer is the easiest system in the world to network," said Logan Harbaugh, system administrator.  "And in terms of supporting users, the NeXT computer is a breeze because the interface is so friendly.  Even employees who didn't attend the formal training on FrameMaker more or less just jumped in and began using the NeXT.  It's rare to find that kind of power in an interface that's so easy to use."
Organization:  Phibro Energy Inc.

Contact:  Vincent Annunziata, commodities trader (203) 629-7339

Organization's Description and Computing Needs:
Phibro Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Salomon Inc., is one of the world's largest energy traders.  It trades oil-related commodities and futures, buys crude oil for its own refineries and manages distribution of both crude and refined oil.  Previously, the trading room was a patchwork of computing equipment from various vendors, which forced traders to move information manually between different spreadsheet, options quoting, word processing and other software programs.  When the firm's volume increased, it became obvious that the fragmented computing resources were not aligned strategically to the way Phibro does business, and were in fact more of a hindrance than a help.  Phibro formed a task force to reassess its computing needs.

Number of NeXT Machines Installed:  more than 500 ordered

Why NeXT?
Because the oil industry is constantly changing, with new business opportunities always emerging, Phibro needed a computer system that would be flexible and strong enough to enable the firm to pursue new ventures without having to double its staff each time.  Phibro was impressed with the NeXT platform's object-oriented approach, and the resulting flexibility to create sophisticated custom applications with strong user interfaces.  By replacing the various systems previously in place with NeXT workstations, Phibro also feels its traders are less likely to make mistakes moving data between systems.

Critical Applications:
·  Various custom applications specific to Phibro's trading needs
·  Lotus Improv and other general productivity applications
·  Tools that access database information and coordinate data with Improv

Quote:  
"Basically, we had a bake-off here between the different computer companies [we were considering] and when it came down to the programming aspects, NeXT just left everyone else in the dust," said Vincent Annunziata, a Phibro trader and member of the task force in charge of selecting new computer systems.