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OS/2 aids utility's record-keeping
 12/16/91
 Desktop Computing
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 Desktop Computing


 The Arizona Public Service Co. recently installed an IBM OS/2-based
 employee identification system  that will help it keep tabs on the
 thousands of contractors who work at the organization's three nuclear
 power plants.

      The system will replace  separate software and manual systems
 that kept information  including employment history and drug-test
 results  on contractors. Arizona Public Service operates the Palo
 Verde nuclear-generating stations.

      The new system will also allow the company to issue badges at
 various security checkpoints.

      ``Prior to this, we had a number of stand-alone-type systems:
 from [keeping information on] yellow legal pads to mainframe
 systems,'' said Stephen Lightfoot, supervisor of distributed system
 development.

      So far, six OS/2 workstations, running on  IBM Personal System/2s
 and clones, have been installed. The OS/2 systems can access employee
 data on either the OS/2 Database Manager or a host database.

      One workstation is running the Edicon Management System from
 Eastman Kodak Co.'s   Edicon Systems Division under OS/2, which can
 assemble the information required to be displayed on a badge and then
 produce the badge.

      A workstation user will be able to call up a complete package of
 information about a contractor before he can enter the facility.  This
 data, which resided in numerous systems, is being poured into IBM's
 DB2.

      OS/2 was selected because ``we were really attracted to the
 reliability of it,'' Lightfoot said. ``We didn't want to have a lot of
 administrative support for this group.'' Lightfoot, currently running
 Release 1.3, said he hopes to move to the much-anticipated Release 2.0
 next year.

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 How leading firms lend a little help
 11/11/91
 Executive Report


 Executive Report


 Charles Schwab Corp. in San Francisco has outsourced personal computer
 support for its 2,000 users in 120 offices around the country. The
 nation's largest discount brokerage firm has contracted with Computer
 Hand Holding, a San Francisco consultancy, to provide hands-on
 technical support. The contract requires the firm to handle Schwab's
 front-line telephone support, identify problems and make house calls
 when needed. The consultancy also routes calls to IBM, which handles
 hardware maintenance. Company officials say benefits so far include
 better productivity, elimination of 24-hour waiting periods for
 callbacks and the equivalent of $150,000 in staff savings.

 Sears, Roebuck and Co. in Chicago has installed a new help desk system
 aimed at providing faster and more uniform credit approval. Company
 officials say 55 million accounts and 175 million annual attractions
 severely taxed an old Cobol system. Half of all calls had to be
 referred for final approval. Sears says it expects the system to
 provide $1 million in annual cost savings and an increase, to 30% or
 40%, in the number of applications that can be answered immediately.

 The UK Department of Social Services recently completed a large help
 desk project that unites some 28,000 workstations in 500 local offices
 to a single, centralized help desk. More than 100 ``problem managers''
 stand by to answer questions and provide technical support. Andersen
 Consulting in Chicago directed the project at the department, which
 runs what it claims is the largest Open Systems Interconnect network
 in the world.

 The John Harland Co., the nation's second largest printer of checks,
 has replaced the paper flow of operator incidence reports. The
 6,000-employee company, located in Decatur, Ga., opted for the Keys
 automated help desk management software from Software Engineering of
 America in Lake Success, N.Y. Company officials say the entire support
 center staff and 140 operations programmers have access to the Keys
 database. Callers with problems receive an identification number. If
 no answer is given in one hour, the caller can access the Keys
 database and check on its status. The overall result is fewer calls to
 distract operations programmers, company officials say. Plans are
 under way to expand the system to automated change administration and
 job scheduling.

 JC Penney Co. replaced an older expert system to help reduce customer
 support phone time and better utilize staffers handling 750,000 store
 hot line calls a year. The nation's fourth largest retailer installed
 Apriori help desk software from Answer Computer, Inc. on a Sun
 Microsystems, Inc. 4/70 server on a 50-user IBM Token Ring network.
 The company says the percentage of problems solved on the first call
 has risen to 65%  and as high as 98% in some areas. Overall,
 problem-solving efficiency increased by 24%, according to Gerry
 Monday, manager of corporate systems services.

 3M Co. in  St. Paul, Minn., has implemented a computerized document
 management system in its product information center. The diversified
 manufacturer hopes to provide improved response to customer queries
 about the company's more than 194,000 products. Company officials say
 the full-text and image system has not only boosted customer
 satisfaction but also helped interdepartmental information sharing.

 C&S/Sovran Bank  a $50 billion financial institution serving customers
 between Washington, D.C., and Florida  installed PC-based software to
 downsize its help desk operation from an IBM mainframe to OS/2-based
 PCs on a LAN Server Token Ring network. Support personnel logging and
 tracking problems from 13,000 PC users now use Quetzal software from
 Workgroup Systems Ltd. in the UK and Corporate Software, Inc. in
 Canton, Mass.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Fruitcake
 12/16/91
 Viewpoint


 Viewpoint


 The holiday's a time for joys,

 So now let's make some festive noise

 For folks whose antics far and wide

 Keep headline writers occupied:

 For Gates, whose lights upon his tree

 Spell out Windows N and T.

 On Christmas morning, Bill asks just

 that no one mention antitrust.

 For  IBM, whose shifting missions

 Give users OS/2 conniptions.

 For VP butts of Akers' ire,

 If you can't beat him, then retire.

 With Ashton-Tate upon its shelf

 Borland must  Dbase itself.

 Two databases tend to bring

 A Paradox in marketing.

 Under Compaq's chairman's tree

 A note of thanks from AST;

 And Dell and friends think it's real nice

 The postman's lately ringing twice.

 For NCR and ATT,

 A toast to merged bureaucracy

 And product lines without a match

 Even with each other, natch.

 For ATT in years ahead,

 Phone lines that can't be sev-er-ed;

 Lotus hopes its mistletoe

 Is filled with bugs in Quattro Pro.

 Wang Labs' gift for all to see:

 A stately Big Blue Christmas tree.

 Sun's gift list is an easy mark:

 Deck the halls with boughs of Sparc.

 ``Don we now CA apparel,''

 Goes Pansophic's Christmas carol.

 When CA merger wells run dry

 It's 'cause there's no one left to buy.

 Consulting firms sing Christmas cheer

 With just one word: re-engineer.

 But IS only wants the chance

 To cut the cost of maintenance.

 At EDS, the halls will ring

 With jingle bells of outsourcing.

 But IS sites aren't always joyous

 When the boss has no employees.

 The OSF would think it's great

 Just to be called legitimate.

 Consortia will end all woe

 `Round 1996 or so.

 Recession's grip we need not fear:

 We're coming on election year.

 So fatten budgets, pad your purse

 In '93, it might get worse.

 Paul Gillin, Executive Editor


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

access to the Keys
 database. Callers with problems receive an identification number. If
 no answer is given in one hour, the caller can access the Keys
 database and check on its status. The overall result is fewer calls to
 distract operations programmers, company officials say. Plans are
 under way to expand the system to automated change administration and
 job scheduling.

 JC Penney Co. replaced an older expert system to help reduce customer
 support phone time and better utilize staffers handling 750,000 store
 hot line calls a year. The nation's fourth largest retailer installed
 Apriori help desk software from Answer Computer, Inc. on a Sun
 Microsystems, Inc. 4/70 server on a 50-user IBM Token Ring network.
 The company says the percentage of problems solved on the first call
 has risen to 65%  and as high as 98% in some areas. Overall,
 problem-solving efficiency increased by 24%, according to Gerry
 Monday, manager of corporate systems services.

 3M Co. in  St. Paul, Minn., has implemented a computerized document
 management system in its product information center. The diversified
 manufacturer hopes to provide improved response to customer queries
 about the company's more than 194,000 products. Company officials say
 the full-text and image system has not only boosted customer
 satisfaction but also helped interdepartmental information sharing.

 C&S/Sovran Bank  a $50 billion financial institution serving customers
 between Washington, D.C., and Florida  installed PC-based software to
 downsize its help desk operation from an IBM mainframe to OS/2-based
 PCs on a LAN Server Token Ring network. Support personnel logging and
 tracking problems from 13,000 PC users now use Quetzal software from
 Workgroup Systems Ltd. in the UK and Corporate Software, Inc. in
 Canton, Mass.


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--------------------------------------------- OS/2 development tool upgrade bows
 12/09/91
 Desktop Computing
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 Desktop Computing


 GPF Systems, Inc. began shipping an upgraded version of its
 development tool for the IBM OS/2 platform last week.

      The launch of GPF Version 1.3 marks a restart for the company as
 well. GPF Systems had been a division of MicroformaticUSA, the
 U.S.-based development and distribution arm of Microformatic SA in
 Paris. Late last month, the division was spun off as an independent
 company and officially began business as GPF Systems last week.

      The development tool allows users to design the user interface
 component of an OS/2 application in an interactive, point-and-click
 development environment. The tool will generate C code, and developers
 can test prototypes of their designs before compiling code.

      The new version will allow developers to create programs for a
 32-bit environment.

 Windows to come

 The company has developed a Windows generator that would allow GPF
 developers to produce Windows applications, but it is not yet
 available, said Stefan Kent, director of marketing and sales. ``It's
 going out on a beta basis, but we have no firm schedule'' for general
 availability.

      GPF Systems said it also plans to release a GPF version designed
 specifically for OS/2 2.0 ``early in the first quarter'' of 1992, Kent
 said.

      The company, as a division of Microformatic, had sold between 200
 and 300 copies of the earlier release of GPF, Kent said. The prior
 release was introduced in November 1990 and began shipping in volume
 this past March.

      The new company will sell the upgraded development tool for $995,
 which represents a huge drop in price from the previous $3,500 license
 fee. Kent said the company found long sales cycles to be the norm
 when selling the $3,500 product in the corporate market.

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

blems receive an identification number. If
 no answer is given in one hour, the caller can access the Keys
 database and check on its status. The overall result is fewer calls to
 distract operations programmers, company officials say. Plans are
 under way to expand the system to automated change administration and
 job scheduling.

 JC Penney Co. replaced an older expert system to help reduce customer
 support phone time and better utilize staffers handling 750,000 store
 hot line calls a year. The nation's fourth largest retailer installed
 Apriori help desk software from Answer Computer, Inc. on a Sun
 Microsystems, Inc. 4/70 server on a 50-user IBM Token Ring network.
 The company says the percentage of problems solved on the first call
 has risen to 65%  and as high as 98% in some areas. Overall,
 problem-solving efficiency increased by 24%, according to Gerry
 Monday, manager of corporate systems services.

 3M Co. in  St. Paul, Minn., has implemented a computerized document
 management system in its product information center. The diversified
 manufacturer hopes to provide improved response to customer queries
 about the company's more than 194,000 products. Company officials say
 the full-text and image system has not only boosted customer
 satisfaction but also helped interdepartmental information sharing.

 C&S/Sovran Bank  a $50 billion financial institution serving customers
 between Washington, D.C., and Florida  installed PC-based software to
 downsize its help desk operation from an IBM mainframe to OS/2-based
 PCs on a LAN Server Token Ring network. Support personnel logging and
 tracking problems from 13,000 PC users now use Quetzal software from
 Workgroup Systems Ltd. in the UK and Corporate Software, Inc. in
 Canton, Mass.


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--------------------------------------------- Client/server business is booming
 12/09/91
 Integration Strategies
 Radding, Alan

 Integration Strategies


 By the time the Olympic torch is lit July 25 in Barcelona, Spain, the
 massive client/server-based scoring system will have been put through
 the testing paces at more than 100 events.

      The Results Information System, developed by Electronic Data
 Systems Corp. in  Dallas, will link more than 9,000 computers,
 bringing news of the international competition almost instantly to 3.5
 million live spectators and more than 3 billion people in more than
 100 countries.

      Now being tested, the system will include two IBM Enterprise
 System/9000 computers, one Application System/400, 3,800 Personal
 System/2s and OS/2 software  all donated by IBM, a joint partner of
 the Olympic Games  as well as computer equipment donated by the
 Spanish national telephone company and Apple Computer, Inc.

      ``The real challenge was thousands of different outputs and
 linking many systems: OS/2, DB2, [IBM's Advanced Program-to-Program
 Communications], mainframes, minicomputers and PCs,'' says Juan
 Bennassar, EDS' technical manager in Barcelona.

      After studying the computerized results systems at the previous
 four Summer Olympics, which had experienced inaccurate results, the
 Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee  wanted to do better.

       ``We want a single integrated system where every sports venue
 operates independently but where only one system produces results for
 everyone,'' explains Josep Bertran, a committee member.

      The organizing committee decided it wanted a fast, accurate,
 fault-tolerant system that could generate instant, real-time results.
 The system also had to be simple enough to be operated by trained
 volunteers.

      The committee selected EDS for the $28 million contract on the
 basis of its client/server proposal, expertise and reputation, Bertran
 says. EDS won  the Summer Olympics contract in December 1989 and went
 to work immediately.

      The initial EDS design comprised a classic client/server
 architecture consisting of PS/2s on a Token Ring local-area network at
 each event site (sports venue) linked to a central DB2 database, which
 would serve as a giant server for clients at each location. LAN-based
 personal computers would collect scores or measurements and pass them
 to the remote central database, which would com

 pile the actual results. This design did not work, however. ``We could
 not meet the speed requirements for TV and the scoreboards,''
 Bennassar says.

      Instead, EDS modified the plan so that  LANs, running
 applications EDS developed using Netbios primitives, would handle all
 input, processing and output of results.

      A PC-based LAN at each event location will communicate through a
 subsystem with an IBM mainframe host. Each event site is equipped with
 a client/server and several PCs. One PC will handle host communication
 while other PCs on the LAN collect data from judges, timers or various
 measurement devices.

      Additional PCs will take scoring data and generate results for
 output to stadium scoreboards, worldwide radio and television networks
 and the press center (see chart). Small sites may have a few  PCs on
 their LAN; large sites will have 40 or more PCs.

      A communications subsystem links all the sports venues and
 nonsports locations, such as the international broadcasting center and
 the main press center, with the central host, an ES/9000 running CICS,
 MVS and DB2 that manages a common database for all the local systems.

      Within the LAN, applications communicate using Netbios protocols.
 Communication from the LAN to the host, or other locations waiting for
 the results, uses IBM's Advanced Program-to-Program Communications
 protocol, including LU6.2 and related protocols.

      The system supports 34 results work groups, with more than 20
 groups operating simultaneously. These send results to eight end-user
 groups, such as the various media outlets, via approximately 8,000
 report formats.

      Building the results system required 500,000 work-hours of
 applications programming for calculating and validating the results
 for each event, EDS says. Bertran estimates the value of the system,
 much of which is donated, at $24 million to $40 million.

      The overall scheme is classic client/ server, but ``we have gone
 even a step beyond client/server,'' Bennassar declares. This is done
 by putting the multiple clients and servers for each sport on their
 own LAN and integrating the LANs into a single client/server wide-area
 network. Each node is capable of both independent and cooperative
 processing, and none has total control of others, he adds.

      ``This design has a lot of flexibility,'' Bennassar says. A level
 of fault tolerance is achieved through redundant backbone networks and
 an architecture that allows local independence and easy substitution
 of PCs on the LANs.

      The local PCs on the LAN handle data integrity. EDS developed
 multiple levels of data validation to ``ensure that all the output
 computers have the same results,'' Bennassar explains.

      With only a single system generating all the results output for
 each event, the organizing committee hopes to avoid the  inconsistent
 results that plagued previous Olympics.

      The system is also fast. ``We can process the results and provide
 the output to TV or a scoreboard in 1.5 sec. or less from the time we
 get the information from the Seiko timer,'' Bennassar says.

      The event's organizing committee sees the results system as more
 than just something for the games, which end Aug. 9. EDS will train
 more than 10,000 volunteers, ranging from technical students to
 technophobes, to operate the system.

 CLOSE-UPCompany: Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee

 Goal: Create a single, fast, integrated, fault-tolerant system to
 process data from various measuring devices and produce accurate,
 real-time results.

 Strategy:  Develop massive client/server-based Results Information
 System.

 Payoff: Near instantaneous processing and transmission of more than
 100 sports scores and results to various media servicing more than 3
 billion people in more than 100 countries.

 Systems integrator: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

 Special to CW; Radding is a free-lance writer in Newton, Mass

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Utilities use CASE to build billing application
 09/09/91
 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Johnson, Maryfran

 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Three Northwest utility companies have become cross-border
 compatriots, banding together in a user consortium to share the
 agonies and the ecstasies of building a new mainframe-based customer
 service application.

 Determined to keep expenses down, Portland General Electric Co. in
 Oregon, Puget Power & Light Co. in Seattle and Canada's Alberta Power
 Ltd. in Edmonton are relying on personal computer-based applications
 development using computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools
 from Knowledgeware, Inc.

 "This is new for us, using CASE tools to build a system in a really
 big project," said Doug Averill, information systems manager at
 Portland General Electric, which, like Puget Power, is a traditional
 IBM mainframe shop. "In a utility, all your revenues come from this
 billing system, so it's an important piece of everything we do."

 The CS/2, or Customer System/2, project aims to deliver by early 1994
 a utility billing and customer information system rich in the kind of
 customized services and features made possible by relational database
 technology. One such feature is summary, or consolidated, billing,
 which would allow the utility to give a multisite commercial customer
 a single, comprehensive bill instead of the dozen or more it must now
 deliver.

 "CS/2 will allow us to provide a single information repository that
 keeps track of customers and their needs over time," Averill said.

 IBM's DB2 relational database manager and the mainframe MVS operating
 system are the most likely hosts for CS/2, but the utilities are
 delaying a final choice of hardware platform until later this year,
 during the physical design phase.

 "We're looking at cooperative processing, and we want to push new
 technologies," said Bob Collins, manager of customer systems at Puget
 Power.

 Knowledgeware's CASE tools build only host-based applications at this
 point, but the vendor has a stated direction toward client/server
 environments.

 Three-way effortThe utilities, which serve a combined customer base of
 about 1.4 million in the Northwest, are splitting the project cost
 three ways and using their own IS staffs for most of the work. An
 outside consultant, Axiom Information Consulting, Inc. in San
 Francisco, is managing the project.

 "We are putting a lot of time, money and our top people into a large
 system that needs to last for a long time," Averill said. "We wanted
 something where the knowledge was developed by and stayed with the
 utilities."

 An application of this size can cost a utility $20 million to $50
 million to develop, industry sources said.

 The Axiom consultants provide a variety of services geared to IBM's
 AD/Cycle applications development environment. Axiom's own CASE
 methodology is integrated with Knowledgeware's Application Development
 Workbench software, and IBM has adopted Axiom's methodology for its
 own internal development use.

 The AD/Cycle connection is crucial to the utilities because it
 promises migration to future technical platforms, said Tim Dilley,
 director of West Coast operations at Axiom. "These companies never
 want to go through this again -- redefining business rules and
 redeveloping data models as they're doing now," he said.

 The consortium is spending 15 months in the planning and analysis
 phase just documenting the utility companies' intricate business
 requirements.

 "We haven't designed one screen yet, and we won't even get to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible PCs running OS/2.

 Working around some of the logistical problems of three development
 teams in two different countries has been a challenge. Federal Express
 cannot provide overnight delivery to Canada, Dilley pointed out, and
 different holidays and labor laws play havoc with scheduling.

 The teams communicate -- somewhat awkwardly -- via telephone, fax
 machine and PC file transfer over 9.6K bit/sec. modems. "It's kludgy,
 but it gets the job done," Averill said.

 Every Friday, the week's work from the Portland and Edmonton sites is
 downloaded at the Seattle site. Then the Axiom consultants work over
 the weekend to get all of the changes and additions in sync for the
 next week's work.

 "What's exciting to me is how the CASE tool is helping us capture all
 the data and keep it manageable. Flexibility is what we're emphasizing
 here," Collins said.

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 have the same results,'' Bennassar explains.

      With only a single system generating all the results output for
 each event, the organizing committee hopes to avoid the  inconsistent
 results that plagued previous Olympics.

      The system is also fast. ``We can process the results and provide
 the output to TV or a scoreboard in 1.5 sec. or less from the time we
 get the information from the Seiko timer,'' Bennassar says.

      The event's organizing committee sees the results system as more
 than just something for the games, which end Aug. 9. EDS will train
 more than 10,000 volunteers, ranging from technical students to
 technophobes, to operate the system.

 CLOSE-UPCompany: Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee

 Goal: Create a single, fast, integrated, fault-tolerant system to
 process data from various measuring devices and produce accurate,
 real-time results.

 Strategy:  Develop massive client/server-based Results Information
 System.

 Payoff: Near instantaneous processing and transmission of more than
 100 sports scores and results to various media servicing more than 3
 billion people in more than 100 countries.

 Systems integrator: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

 Special to CW; Radding is a free-lance writer in Newton, Mass

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 How open is open?
 12/02/91
 Spotlight
 Robins, Gary

 Spotlight


 Few LAN operating systems are purchased today without the buyer's
 asking whether the system works in a heterogeneous computing
 environment. Increasingly, vendors are answering that question with a
 resounding  yes.

      However, behind that positive response are varying definitions of
 how open the operating systems are.

      The following is a sample of where the differences lie among
 leading vendors:

 Perhaps the most ``open'' LAN operating system is Sun Microsystems,
 Inc.'s ONC/Network File System (NFS)  technology, which was released
 to the public after it was developed in 1985, allowing any vendor to
 incorporate it into its product offerings. This strategy helped
 ONC/NFS become a de facto standard for Unix connectivity and may help
 it become a threat in the DOS market, in the absence of other
 standards.

      According to Sun, the ONC/NFS implementations for DOS-based PCs,
 including Sun's PC/NFS, are now installed on 750,000 units. The
 technology has also been endorsed by the X/Open Consortium Ltd. and
 the Open Software Foundation.

 DEC's Pathworks is open to the extent that it offers users a choice of
 clients (Apple Computer, Inc.'s Macintosh, DOS, OS/2, Microsoft's
 Windows) and a choice of servers (OS/2 on Intel  processors, Ultrix on
 reduced instruction set computing  systems and VMS on the VAX).  In
 addition, Pathworks conforms to a variety of network operating system
 or file and print service protocols today, including Microsoft's LAN
 Manager and Apple's Appleshare. The firm also offers a Novell Netware
 coexistence product.

 Apple's Appletalk network products are supported in Netware, LAN
 Manager and Banyan's Vines, and as part of the alliance with IBM, they
 will be incorporated into OS/2. The products can be purchased through
 DEC and from AT&T on some of their Unix systems.

      Even with these support agreements, LAN operating system products
 are still tied to proprietary protocols. ``Their native mode is
 essentially proprietary,'' says David Passmore, a partner specializing
 in network consulting at Ernst & Young's Fairfax, Va., office.

      For example, Netware relies on IPX/SPX, Apple uses the Appletalk
 Filing Protocol on top of the Appletalk protocol stack, Banyan runs
 its own version of Xerox Corp.'s Xerox Network Systems, and LAN
 Manager uses a set of Netbios protocols.

 Robins is a free-lance writer based in Northfield, Minn

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n cost a utility $20 million to $50
 million to develop, industry sources said.

 The Axiom consultants provide a variety of services geared to IBM's
 AD/Cycle applications development environment. Axiom's own CASE
 methodology is integrated with Knowledgeware's Application Development
 Workbench software, and IBM has adopted Axiom's methodology for its
 own internal development use.

 The AD/Cycle connection is crucial to the utilities because it
 promises migration to future technical platforms, said Tim Dilley,
 director of West Coast operations at Axiom. "These companies never
 want to go through this again -- redefining business rules and
 redeveloping data models as they're doing now," he said.

 The consortium is spending 15 months in the planning and analysis
 phase just documenting the utility companies' intricate business
 requirements.

 "We haven't designed one screen yet, and we won't even get to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible  Delay tactics
 11/18/91
 Viewpoint
 Hopp, Gregory R.

 Viewpoint


 While reading your article ``IBM insists OS/2 2.0 worth the wait''
 [CW, Oct. 28] regarding IBM's ``refusal last week to dwell on its
 decision to delay . . . OS/2,'' it struck me why it keeps pushing back
 the release date.

      The author quotes IBM executives who swear OS/2 will be ``the
 center of it all.'' This is IBM's way to generate pent-up demand,
 hopefully making consumers rush out and plunk down $195 for OS/2.

      As the economy continues to crawl around in the recession, IBM
 knows we're perfectly willing to put up with Windows and our DOS
 programs. By postponing the release to first-quarter 1992, IBM can
 avoid soft sales caused by a sluggish economy. Maybe it knows we're
 not about to spend $200 on a luxury like OS/2, more RAM, more hard
 disk, ad infinitum . . .

      Instead, IBM holds off, hedging its bets that by next March, the
 economy's pulse will thump with a healthier heartbeat. And, if it
 doesn't?  Well, October always looks good.

 Gregory R. HoppMicro support specialistColumbus, Ohio


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

rs, Ultrix on
 reduced instruction set computing  systems and VMS on the VAX).  In
 addition, Pathworks conforms to a variety of network operating system
 or file and print service protocols today, including Microsoft's LAN
 Manager and Apple's Appleshare. The firm also offers a Novell Netware
 coexistence product.

 Apple's Appletalk network products are supported in Netware, LAN
 Manager and Banyan's Vines, and as part of the alliance with IBM, they
 will be incorporated into OS/2. The products can be purchased through
 DEC and from AT&T on some of their Unix systems.

      Even with these support agreements, LAN operating system products
 are still tied to proprietary protocols. ``Their native mode is
 essentially proprietary,'' says David Passmore, a partner specializing
 in network consulting at Ernst & Young's Fairfax, Va., office.

      For example, Netware relies on IPX/SPX, Apple uses the Appletalk
 Filing Protocol on top of the Appletalk protocol stack, Banyan runs
 its own version of Xerox Corp.'s Xerox Network Systems, and LAN
 Manager uses a set of Netbios protocols.

 Robins is a free-lance writer based in Northfield, Minn

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n cost a utility $20 million to $50
 million to develop, industry sources said.

 The Axiom consultants provide a variety of services geared to IBM's
 AD/Cycle applications development environment. Axiom's own CASE
 methodology is integrated with Knowledgeware's Application Development
 Workbench software, and IBM has adopted Axiom's methodology for its
 own internal development use.

 The AD/Cycle connection is crucial to the utilities because it
 promises migration to future technical platforms, said Tim Dilley,
 director of West Coast operations at Axiom. "These companies never
 want to go through this again -- redefining business rules and
 redeveloping data models as they're doing now," he said.

 The consortium is spending 15 months in the planning and analysis
 phase just documenting the utility companies' intricate business
 requirements.

 "We haven't designed one screen yet, and we won't even get to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible  IS puts new spin on service
 10/28/91
 News
 Booker, Ellis

 News
 Whirlpool uses imaging, WANs for cutomer assistanace


 KNOXVILLE, Tenn.  Home appliance giant Whirlpool Corp. inaugurated two
 sophisticated customer assistance centers last week that blend
 electronic document imaging, advanced wide-area networking and expert
 systems.

      The multimillion-dollar facilities, located here and in Benton
 Harbor, Mich., will more efficiently handle the 1.6 million calls
 Whirlpool expects to receive this year, according to company
 officials.

      ``We're constantly looking for technologies that improve
 service,'' said Gary Lockwood, director of consumer assistance at
 Whirlpool's North American Appliance Group.

      Using IBM as the prime systems integrator for the project,
 Whirlpool invested in excess of $20 million  to create the two centers
 and to deploy the various technologies, Lockwood added.

      Indeed, 80-year-old Whirlpool has a history of investing in
 customer service technology. In 1967, for example, its ``Cool Line''
 was one of the nation's first toll-free customer assistance lines.

      The imaging system, from Online Computer Systems, Inc. in
 Germantown, Md., gives the company's 100 customer representatives in
 Knoxville access to 20 years of service and product manuals.

      This information  representing more than 150,000 pages  is
 accessed from IBM Personal System/2 workstations, running IBM's OS/2
 and Presentation Manager, that are linked to 10 compact disc/read-only
 memory  drives as well as Whirlpool's 3090 mainframes.

      Agents who in the past had to consult printed manuals or
 microfiche from a nearby library can now call up text or detailed
 product schematics from their workstations, typically in under two
 seconds.

      Lockwood acknowledged,  however, that the conversion from paper
 to digital was a formidable task.  ``It's a major job,'' he said.
 ``You really have to be committed.''

      A variety of AT&T hardware, software and long-distance services
 route incoming phone calls, balancing the work load between the two
 customer service centers. The calls arrive over AT&T's Megacom 800
 Service with Info-2, AT&T's Integrated Services Digital Network
 product that forwards the calling party's area code and phone number
 to a private branch exchange (PBX).

      When these numbers arrive at the PBX, they are handed off to a
 processor from Aristacom International, Inc. in Alameda, Calif., which
 scans a customer file from a DB2 database on one of Whirlpool's IBM
 3090 mainframes.  If a match is found, both the call and the
 associated customer file are sent to a customer service agent.

      Among other features, the Aristacom system can also route
 subsequent calls automatically to the last agent the consumer spoke
 with.

      Finally, an expert system from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aion Corp.
  is available to help agents diagnose the specific cause of a
 customer's equipment trouble and recommend a solution.

      In the future, Whirlpool said, it may add a remote-access feature
 to the centers, enabling field repair personnel to log on and use both
 the expert system and the product literature databases.

      Lockwood said the three technologies were picked in response to a
 detailed survey Whirlpool conducted in 1988 that asked consumers to
 define ``excellence in service.''

 CW Staff

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 to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible  AD/Cycle partners offer AIX development tools
 10/28/91
 News
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 News


 IBM's AIX applications development strategy gained  substance last
 week as two AD/Cycle business partners announced tools for the IBM
 Unix platform.

      In addition, an IBM executive said, the company plans an
 AD/Cycle-like announcement for AIX that will more clearly outline a
 Unix applications development strategy for both technical and
 commercial software development as well as identify a key set of
 business partners.

      Last week, Intersolv, Inc. released an AIX version of its
 configuration management software, and Micro Focus, Inc. announced a
 set of Cobol development tools for AIX. IBM said both companies'
 products will play a key role in the future AIX computer-aided
 software engineering (CASE) strategy.

      ``Over time, we see AIX CASE playing the same kind of role as
 AD/Cycle and addressing both the technical and commercial [development
 ],'' said Jon Hemming, a manager of market strategy at IBM's
 Programming Systems Group.

      Intersolv's announcement positioned its PVCS configuration
 management software as a potential standard CASE tool for work groups
 with a mix of IBM AIX, PC-DOS and OS/2 platforms, said Kevin Burns,
 Intersolv's chief executive officer.

      An OS/2 version of the same tool set was announced last month.

      The Intersolv product set provides management and control
 mechanisms for software development, including version control, tools
 that  track distributed project components on a network and facilities
 to rebuild applications to reflect changes made in individual modules.

      Burns said the AIX version of PVCS Version Manager and
 Configuration Builder were designed to look like the DOS and OS/2
 versions.

      ``It gives the customer a way to standardize the configuration
 management discipline across heterogeneous workstations,'' Burns said.

      He added that IBM and Intersolv would jointly market the PVCS
 Version Manager and PVCS Configuration Builder.  Version Manager is
 priced at $600 per seat, while Configuration Builder carries a
 $250-per-seat license.

      Micro Focus, meanwhile, said it would sell its Cobol compiler
 tools for the IBM AIX/6000, AIX Personal System/2 and AIX/370
 environments. IBM plans to sell the products as well.

      Micro Focus and IBM will now be marketing Micro Focus Cobol for
 AIX, Cobol with Toolbox for AIX and Cobol Run-time Environment for
 AIX. Licenses start at $1,000.

 CW Staff

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alls automatically to the last agent the consumer spoke
 with.

      Finally, an expert system from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aion Corp.
  is available to help agents diagnose the specific cause of a
 customer's equipment trouble and recommend a solution.

      In the future, Whirlpool said, it may add a remote-access feature
 to the centers, enabling field repair personnel to log on and use both
 the expert system and the product literature databases.

      Lockwood said the three technologies were picked in response to a
 detailed survey Whirlpool conducted in 1988 that asked consumers to
 define ``excellence in service.''

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible  Novell, Kodak plan imaging software
 10/28/91
 News
 Nash, Jim

 News


 PROVO, Utah  Following IBM and Lotus Development Corp., Novell, Inc.
 last week disclosed that it will work with Eastman Kodak Co. to make
 imaging an integral part of its networking software.

      Novell and Kodak are collaborating to give Netware users the
 ability to store and manipulate images across local-area and
 enterprise networks.

      Kodak's Desktop Document Imaging Group will work with Novell to
 develop image processing, mass storage and object management
 technology to add to Netware.

      Kodak will also provide Novell with application programming
 interfaces and Netware loadable module tools that will allow Netware
 to handle images more efficiently.

      Specific product information and pricing will be released at a
 later date, both companies said.

      The partnership is expected to provide a major boost to Kodak's
 so far unsuccessful imaging strategy, since Netware is far and away
 the leading installed personal computer network environment, according
 to analysts.

      Despite a lack of specifics about the partnership, information
 systems managers expressed enthusiasm about the Novell/Kodak
 partnership.

      ``We'd love to see Novell do something with'' imaging, according
 to Nancy Raley, IS director at Calfarm Insurance Co. in Sacramento,
 Calif.

      Acknowledging the immense paper-shuffling job done daily at
 Calfarm, Raley said she has been keeping an eye on the technology for
 some time. ``If I want to put imaging workstations on my desktops
 today, I'd have to put together a separate network to do it,'' she
 explained.

      Richard Retin, senior technical analyst at San Francisco-based
 Wells Fargo & Co., agreed. Networked imaging could grow to at least
 match optical character recognition technology available today, he
 noted.

 Get the pictureAfter numerous unsuccessful tries at cracking the
 document imaging market on its own, Kodak is counting on strategic
 partners to help pave the way.

 Lotus: Working with the applications software giant to add imaging
 capabilities to its Notes groupware product.

 IBM: Strengthening the imaging functionalities of the industry
 leader's Imageplus product for OS/2.

 Novell: Helping graft imaging capabilities to Netware.

 CW Staff

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 - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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alls automatically to the last agent the consumer spoke
 with.

      Finally, an expert system from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aion Corp.
  is available to help agents diagnose the specific cause of a
 customer's equipment trouble and recommend a solution.

      In the future, Whirlpool said, it may add a remote-access feature
 to the centers, enabling field repair personnel to log on and use both
 the expert system and the product literature databases.

      Lockwood said the three technologies were picked in response to a
 detailed survey Whirlpool conducted in 1988 that asked consumers to
 define ``excellence in service.''

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 to that
 until next year," Dilley said. "The companies are deliberately
 spending a lot of time talking about the business because it's
 changing so much."

 Since July, each utility has had a 10-person IS team on-site in
 Portland, Seattle and Edmonton working on different pieces of the data
 model. The teams work with the Knowledgeware tools on IBM or
 IBM-compatible  Pen-based computers poised for Comdex debut
 10/21/91
 Desktop Computing
 Daly, James

 Desktop Computing


 After months of lofty promises, pen-based personal computer makers
 will finally strut their stuff at this week's Comdex/Fall '91, and
 users are taking note.

      Although many of the devices will not be available until early
 next year and some are still only  working prototypes, users will
 finally be able to get their hands on the ballyhooed machines.

      Many users are already excited about the prospect of working with
 machines that use an electronic stylus to enter data. ``People look at
 pen-based machines and go `Wow'  I've been in this industry for 21
 years and that's the first time I've heard that,'' said Norman
 Vincent, vice president of data processing at State Farm Mutual
 Automobile Insurance Co. The insurance giant is testing pen computers
 among its claim adjusters who would use them in making damage
 assessments.

 Pens on parade

 Among the pen-based models on display will be the following:

 Dauphin Technology, Inc. in Lombard, Ill., will show two pen-based
 portables. The first weighs under 5 pounds, features an Intel Corp.
 80386 chip and includes 1M byte each of random-access memory and flash
 memory. The second model is a higher powered unit boasting a 60M-byte
 hard disk, 4M bytes of RAM, flash memory and an external keyboard,
 mouse, floppy drive and external monitor. The machines will be
 available in the first quarter, but no prices have yet been set.

 PI Systems Corp. in Portland, Ore., could establish itself as the
 frontrunner in providing the lightest and lowest price pen-based PC
 entry with the Infolio. The machine is expected to weigh less than 3
 pounds and

 cost less than $2,000.  Scheduled to ship in the first quarter of
 1992, it will be based on Motorola, Inc.'s MC68331 processor and a
 proprietary operating system.  The battery life is estimated at 15
 hours.  The initial emphasis of Infolio is on vertical markets in
 medicine, accounting, finance, insurance and transportation.

 Grid Systems Corp. will put a new version of its Gridpad pen-based
 computer through the paces. The 5-pound GridpadSL,   unveiled last
 week, uses Intel's speedy 20-MHz 80386SL chip, which was specifically
 designed for portable computers. Pricing is expected to range from
 $5,000 to $7,000 when the machine becomes available in the second
 quarter of 1992.

 Samsung Information Systems America, Inc.'s Penmaster will  also be
 based on the 386SL chip and will offer a backlit IBM Video Graphics
 Array screen. It can support up to 20M bytes of RAM and has a
 120M-byte hard disk; it will weigh less than 5 pounds and sell for
 under $5,000,  Samsung officials said.

 IBM is expected to show two machines offering pen-input capabilities.
 The first will use a 20-MHz 80386SL microprocessor and run the
 Penpoint operating system from Go Corp. Sources said it is expected to
 offer a reflective screen with a backlit option forthcoming, weigh
 approximately 5 pounds and be available next year. Batteries should
 provide  four to eight hours of operation, depending on configuration.
 IBM may also show a tablet PC that runs OS/2 and recognizes pen input,
 sources said.

 Momenta Corp. will exhibit its  namesake machine ($4,995), which has
 the dimensions of a three-ring notebook and uses the 80386 chip. The
 Momenta  includes a spreadsheet from Penware, Inc. in San Jose,
 Calif., as well as a word processor, a presentation graphics program,
 a built-in fax and a data modem.

 DFM Systems, Inc. in Des Moines, Iowa, will show its Travelite, a
 hybrid between a pen-based PC and a traditional notebook model. The
 Travelite uses a touch-sensitive screen for limited functions, but a
 pen-based model is planned. The 5-pound model is powered by an 80286
 chip and costs $3,250.

 Hyundai Computer Corp. is also expected to show a pen-based prototype
 that is based on the 20-MHz 80386SL and runs Go's Penpoint.

      Analysts said these products are only the  first splash of a
 product wave that will break over the industry next year. Market
 research firm Computer Intelligence/Infocorp estimated that annual
 sales of pen-based computers will hit 3.4 million units by 1995, up
 from approximately 51,000 units this year.

      Today, however, sales of pen-based systems are slow. Grid, one of
 only a handful of  firms now shipping pen systems, only sold 10,000
 machines in 1990,  Grid President Alan Lefkof said. That figure is
 expected to rise to 30,000 this year, he added.

      Improvements in handwriting recognition, display technology,
 durability and pricing are expected to spur business and  drive
 pen-based computers from vertical markets into broader horizontal
 business. The electronic stylus is also expected to serve as the
 foundation of systems ranging from travel reference companions that
 pop up on-screen electronic maps to portable offices equipped with
 faxes and modems.

      ``Pen-based systems do not necessarily mean handwriting
 recognition,''  said Bill Lempesis, editor and publisher  of
 ``Penvision News.''

 CW Staff

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e system is also fast. ``We can process the results and provide
 the output to TV or a scoreboard in 1.5 sec. or less from the time we
 get the information from the Seiko timer,'' Bennassar says.

      The event's organizing committee sees the results system as more
 than just something for the games, which end Aug. 9. EDS will train
 more than 10,000 volunteers, ranging from technical students to
 technophobes, to operate the system.

 CLOSE-UPCompany: Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee

 Goal: Create a single, fast, integrated, fault-tolerant system to
 process data from various measuring devices and produce accurate,
 real-time results.

 Strategy:  Develop massive client/server-based Results Information
 System.

 Payoff: Near instantaneous processing and transmission of more than
 100 sports scores and results to various media servicing more than 3
 billion people in more than 100 countries.

 Systems integrator: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

 Special to CW; Radding is a free-lance writer in Newton, Mass

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 The many hats of Unix
 10/14/91
 Large Systems
 Bozman, Jean S.

 Large Systems


 The Unix server is growing up. Once the anchor for scientific
 workstations alone, it is taking on new roles, including that of
 database server for personal computer local-area networks, repository
 for corporate data and substitute for the old, proprietary
 minicomputer.

      Users say Unix is proving to be more of an industrial-strength
 operating system for their PC LANs than is IBM's OS/2. One Unix
 machine can play many roles: file server, database server, network
 node and central processing unit. Its multitasking abilities far
 outstrip that of OS/2, users at many large sites report, boosting
 Unix's image among IS managers.

      Dave Alessandro, manager of technical services at Textron
 Financial Corp. in Providence, R.I., is running a LAN with PCs from a
 single Sun Microsystems  Sparcstation II. But the rest of the system
 is IBM-compatible: All the workstations on the LAN are IBM-compatible
 PCs running OS/2 and Presentation Manager.  And the end-user
 applications route their database queries through the Unix server to
 reach a corporate IBM 3090 mainframe in far-

 away California.

      Why did he design the system this way?

      ``In a PC network, every time you want to add something to your
 network, you have to buy another box,'' Alessandro said.  ``You might
 want an [electronic mail] server, a fax server or a database server.
 By using a Unix server, I can put all my applications in one box, and
 that reduces the overall complexity.''

      One more reason for using a Unix server is capacity: Textron
 Financial's local database takes up 600M bytes of disk drive capacity
 quite a lot for a PC to handle.

      Several vendors have packaged Unix servers as  appropriate
 anchors for PC applications; prime among them are The Santa Cruz
 Operation and Interactive Systems. More are on the way. For example,
 Gupta Technologies, which makes IBM Systems Application
 Architecture-compatible client/server software,  is building a series
 of Unix database servers for resale with NCR's Cooperation series of
 office systems.

      Chronic concerns about Unix security in corporate offices may
 fade over time as software vendors include security features with
 their operating systems. Unix System Laboratories (USL) recently said
 it would ship a secure version of Unix System V Release 4. Database
 vendors such as Sybase and Oracle already ship secure versions of
 their database software for Unix machines.

      Further, most independent database vendors have gateways that can
 link Unix servers with the two predominant types of corporate hosts:
 IBM mainframes and DEC VAXs. Most PC-LAN databases for OS/2 machines
 do not yet have that level of connectivity.

      Even as Unix servers help to ``upsize'' PC-based LAN
 applications, they will become a platform of choice when mainframe
 applications get ``downsized'' to departmental business units. Unix
 transaction processors are  a cost-effective alternative to more
 expensive mainframes, especially in terms of ratios of cost per
 million instructions per second.

      A number of high-end Unix servers  such as those made by Pyramid
 Technology, Sequent Computer Systems and AT&T's NCR  subsidiary  can
 handle mainframe-size jobs. That much was made clear by Hyatt's recent
 switch from an IBM 4381 to a set of four AT&T System 7000 computers,
 which  are based on Pyramid machines.

      It could turn out that the industry has come full circle when it
 comes to departmental computing. The minicomputer of the '70s was
 rejected by the PC boosters of the '80s. But the work load of multiple
 server tasks has, in many cases, proved to be too great for some of
 the best outfitted PCs  requiring lots of megabytes of main memory and
 lots of disk storage for large databases.  The result has been slow
 response times and poor performance of database applications.

      In effect, the open Unix servers on the market may be stepping
 into the niche long held by those proprietary minicomputers of old. If
 that happens, it will only lend emphasis to IBM's Sept. 11
 announcement that heralded the ``Integration of the Enterprise.'' Even
 IBM had to concede that most IS shops are multivendor shops and that
 the key corporate data is being scattered throughout the enterprise,
 even to Unix servers.

 CW Staff; Bozman is Cmputerworld's West Coast senior editor KI

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omputers from vertical markets into broader horizontal
 business. The electronic stylus is also expected to serve as the
 foundation of systems ranging from travel reference companions that
 pop up on-screen electronic maps to portable offices equipped with
 faxes and modems.

      ``Pen-based systems do not necessarily mean handwriting
 recognition,''  said Bill Lempesis, editor and publisher  of
 ``Penvision News.''

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

e system is also fast. ``We can process the results and provide
 the output to TV or a scoreboard in 1.5 sec. or less from the time we
 get the information from the Seiko timer,'' Bennassar says.

      The event's organizing committee sees the results system as more
 than just something for the games, which end Aug. 9. EDS will train
 more than 10,000 volunteers, ranging from technical students to
 technophobes, to operate the system.

 CLOSE-UPCompany: Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee

 Goal: Create a single, fast, integrated, fault-tolerant system to
 process data from various measuring devices and produce accurate,
 real-time results.

 Strategy:  Develop massive client/server-based Results Information
 System.

 Payoff: Near instantaneous processing and transmission of more than
 100 sports scores and results to various media servicing more than 3
 billion people in more than 100 countries.

 Systems integrator: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

 Special to CW; Radding is a free-lance writer in Newton, Mass

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 File-Aid/PC to ease application tests
 09/30/91
 Large Systems
 Lindquist,
 Christopher

 Large Systems


 Compuware Corp. has announced a product it claims will help developers
 who need to move mainframe data to personal computer development
 platforms for testing.

      File-Aid/PC is the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based firm's PC
 version of its File-Aid and Xpert products, which are currently
 installed at more than 3,000 IBM mainframe sites.   It is intended to
 ease the transfer of mainframe test data to PCs for use by the Micro
 Focus, Inc. Cobol/2 Workbench and Stingray Software Co. IMSVS86
 development environments.

      ``I think they're going to find a very receptive audience,'' said
 Andy Mahon, senior analyst of advance software development at New
 Science Associates, Inc. in Southport, Conn.  He added that companies
 in the mainframe development tool market need to be looking at
 PC-based development, and File-Aid/PC was an indication that Compuware
 is aware of that fact. ``It's a strategic necessity,'' Mahon said.

      Developers transfer data using File-Aid/PC with
 File-Aid/Hostmanager and mainframe File-Aid or Xpert.  Sequential,
 VSAM and IMS data are sent in a format that can be accessed by the
 Micro Focus and Stingray products.  EBCDIC-to-ASCII conversion can
 also be performed during the transfer.

      File-Aid/PC lets developers create, copy, browse, edit and print
 test data.  Data can be analyzed and edited on a PC through the use of
 Cobol record layouts.  Editing can be performed in either EBCDIC or
 ASCII formats.

      Users of File-Aid for mainframes will reportedly find
 File-Aid/PC's interface consistent with the previous product.
 File-Aid/PC follows IBM's entry-level Common User Access interface
 guidelines.

      System requirements for File-Aid/PC include an IBM-compatible
 80286- or 80386-based PC running MS-DOS 3.3 or higher or OS/2 1.1
 Extended Edition or higher. The Micro Focus Cobol/2 Workbench is also
 required.  Stingray IMSVS86 is necessary if IMS is used.

      The product is available now for a starting price of $10,000 for
 one File-Aid/Hostmanager host CPU license and 10 File-Aid/PC licenses.

 CW Staff

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vendors such as Sybase and Oracle already ship secure versions of
 their database software for Unix machines.

      Further, most independent database vendors have gateways that can
 link Unix servers with the two predominant types of corporate hosts:
 IBM mainframes and DEC VAXs. Most PC-LAN databases for OS/2 machines
 do not yet have that level of connectivity.

      Even as Unix servers help to ``upsize'' PC-based LAN
 applications, they will become a platform of choice when mainframe
 applications get ``downsized'' to departmental business units. Unix
 transaction processors are  a cost-effective alternative to more
 expensive mainframes, especially in terms of ratios of cost per
 million instructions per second.

      A number of high-end Unix servers  such as those made by Pyramid
 Technology, Sequent Computer Systems and AT&T's NCR  subsidiary  can
 handle mainframe-size jobs. That much was made clear by Hyatt's recent
 switch from an IBM 4381 to a set of four AT&T System 7000 computers,
 which  are based on Pyramid machines.

      It could turn out that the industry has come full circle when it
 comes to departmental computing. The minicomputer of the '70s was
 rejected by the PC boosters of the '80s. But the work load of multiple
 server tasks has, in many cases, proved to be too great for some of
 the best outfitted PCs  requiring lots of megabytes of main memory and
 lots of disk storage for large databases.  The result has been slow
 response times and poor performance of database applications.

      In effect, the open Unix servers on the mark Netview makes move toward broader corporate role
 09/16/91
 NEWS
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 IBM's Netview took a couple of giant strides toward becoming a truly
 multivendor enterprisewide network management system last week are in
 the works, IBM said. However, no shipment date has been set.

 Foremost is the long-awaited meshing of IBM's two graphics-based
 network management workstation programs, Graphics Monitor Facility
 (GMF) and Netcenter.  GMF will be IBM's official offering, depicting
 enterprisewide network activity via topological maps and icons based
 on Systems Application Architecture (SAA)-compliant protocols, IBM
 said.  It will also gain Netcenter's ability to depict non-Systems
 Network Architecture (SNA) network devices.

 A second planned enhancement is Resource Object Data Manager, an
 object-oriented clearinghouse for real-time information about the
 status and configuration of IBM and non-IBM networks.  Right now,
 Netview principally garners configuration information from VTAM
 tables, said David Passmore, a partner at Ernst & Young. "That was
 fine as long as you were just managing an SNA network," he said.

 The Manager will be able to feed up-to-date configuration and status
 information to GMF.  A key feature is an open application programming
 interface that facilitates integration with third-party management
 applications, said Bill Warner, IBM's director of network management.
 The Manager will eventually supersede existing Netview data tables and
 become the Systemview configuration information base, he said.

 One Netview shop, CSX Corp., is leery of such far-off announcements
 that lack concrete "drop-in" solutions, according to Doug Underhill,
 an assistant vice president at the transport firm.  The new Manager
 "doesn't do any management for you by virtue of an interface; you
 can't just write a few Rexx programs" to do configuration management,
 he added.

 Other announcements

 IBM did announce Network Configuration Application/MVS, which is said
 to feed configuration information about equipment, circuits and
 software to Resource Object Data Manager.

 IBM also announced LAN Management Utilities/2, OS/2-based software
 that "provides Netview with a view into non-SNA OS/2 workstations on
 the LAN," IBM spokesman Denny Colvin said.

 Such products partially address Underhill's request for two-way
 communications that enable Netview to "go downstream [to non-SNA
 devices] and cause some action."

 However, Netview's functionality is still far from competing with that
 of third-party local-area network management systems, said Randy
 Condon, a LAN analyst at Nestles Beverage Co.  "Netview has no way to
 pick out meaningful information from a LAN, even using a filter."

 IBM also announced products designed to extend mainframe services to
 non-IBM LAN products such as Novell, Inc.'s Netware  1(see story
 page).* *

 The company did not neglect the networking standards note.  IBM said
 that its SAA Common Communications Support component will support
 Integrated Services Digital Network Basic and Primary Rate Interfaces.
  This will expand ISDN support beyond the present, announced
 Application System/400 and Personal System/2 products to all SAA
 systems at an undisclosed date, IBM said.

 IBM also announced that Advanced Communications Function/Network
 Control Program Version 6 will support Ethernet and frame relay.
 This, coupled with hardware boards announced earlier this year, will
 allow 3745 front ends to interconnect Ethernet and Transmission
 Control Protocol/Internet Protocol networks over a frame relay-based
 SNA backbone.

 However, users want to interconnect their LANs via IBM 3174
 controllers, not front ends. IBM has announced no frame relay for the
 3174, Passmore pointed out.

 Still missing from the standards picture is native Netview support for
 Open Systems Interconnect network management protocols.  IBM still has
 no time frame for delivering on this long-standing direction, Warner
 said.  In the wings right now, he added, is IBM's "Netview for AIX,"
 the joint project with Hewlett-Packard Co. to develop a
 LAN-interconnect management system on the RISC System/6000.

 CW Staff

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omputers from vertical markets into broader horizontal
 business. The electronic stylus is also expected to serve as the
 foundation of systems ranging from travel reference companions that
 pop up on-screen electronic maps to portable offices equipped with
 faxes and modems.

      ``Pen-based systems do not necessarily mean handwriting
 recognition,''  said Bill Lempesis, editor and publisher  of
 ``Penvision News.''

 CW Staff

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e system is also fast. ``We can process the results and provide
 the output to TV or a scoreboard in 1.5 sec. or less from the time we
 get the information from the Seiko timer,'' Bennassar says.

      The event's organizing committee sees the results system as more
 than just something for the games, which end Aug. 9. EDS will train
 more than 10,000 volunteers, ranging from technical students to
 technophobes, to operate the system.

 CLOSE-UPCompany: Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee

 Goal: Create a single, fast, integrated, fault-tolerant system to
 process data from various measuring devices and produce accurate,
 real-time results.

 Strategy:  Develop massive client/server-based Results Information
 System.

 Payoff: Near instantaneous processing and transmission of more than
 100 sports scores and results to various media servicing more than 3
 billion people in more than 100 countries.

 Systems integrator: Electronic Data Systems Corp.

 Special to CW; Radding is a free-lance writer in Newton, Mass

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Cognos at a glance
 09/02/91
 COMPUTER INDUSTRY


 COMPUTER INDUSTRY
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 The company: Cognos, the largest software company in Canada, sells an
 integrated set of business applications development tools for midrange
 and personal computers.

 Dual headquarters: Ottawa and Burlington, Mass.

 Employees: 1,100 worldwide.

 Revenue: $141 million in fiscal 1991.

 Products: Flagship product is Powerhouse 4GL, which runs on four
 midrange platforms from Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, Hewlett-Packard
 Co. and Data General Corp. Also has versions for MS-DOS and OS/2-based
 PCs. An Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh version is in beta testing now,
 as is a version for IBM's Unix-based RISC System/6000. Added during
 the past year: a graphical interface for Powerhouse, end-user
 reporting tools for terminals and PCs, a computer-aided software
 engineering tool for analysis and design and versions of Powerhouse
 for the AS/400 and three Unix platforms.

 Installed base: Nearly 20,000 sites.

 Competitors: Database vendors Oracle, Ingres and Sybase, Inc. and 4GL
 vendors Information Builders, Inc. and Smartstar Corp.


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nagement
 applications, said Bill Warner, IBM's director of network management.
 The Manager will eventually supersede existing Netview data tables and
 become the Systemview configuration information base, he said.

 One Netview shop, CSX Corp., is leery of such far-off announcements
 that lack concrete "drop-in" solutions, according to Doug Underhill,
 an assistant vice president at the transport firm.  The new Manager
 "doesn't do any management for you by virtue of an interface; you
 can't just write a few Rexx programs" to do configuration management,
 he added.

 Other announcements

 IBM did announce Network Configuration Application/MVS, which is said
 to feed configuration information about equipment, circuits and
 software to Resource Object Data Manager.

 IBM also announced LAN Management Utilities/2, OS/2-based software
 that "provides Netview with a view into non-SNA OS/2 workstations on
 the LAN," IBM spokesman Denny Colvin said.

 Such products partially address Underhill's request for two-way
 communications that enable Netview to "go downstream [to non-SNA
 devices] and cause some action."

 However, Netview's functionality is still far from competing with that
 of third-party local-area network management systems, said Randy
 Condon, a LAN analyst at Nestles Beverage Co.  "Netview has no way to
 pick out meaningful information from a LAN, even using a filter."

 IBM also announced products designed to extend mainframe services to
 non-IBM LAN products such as Novell, Inc.'s Netware  1(see story
 page).* *

 The company did not neglect the networking standards note.  IBM said
 that its SAA Common Communications Support component will support
 Integrated Services Digital Network Basic and Primary Rate Interfaces.
  This will expand ISDN support beyond the present, announced
 Application System/400 and Personal System/2 products to all SAA
 systems at an undisclosed date, IBM said.

 IBM also announced that Advanced Communications Function/Network
 Control Program Version 6 will support Ethernet and frame relay.
 This, coupled with hardware boards announced earlier this year, will
 allow 3745 front ends to interconnect Ethernet and Transmission
 Control Protocol/Internet Protocol networks over a frame relay-based
 SNA backbone.

 However, users want to interconnect their LANs via IBM 3174
 controllers, not front ends. IBM has announced no frame relay for the
 3174, Passmore pointed out.

 Still missing from the standards picture is native Netview support for
 Open Systems Interconnect network management protocols.  IBM still has
 no time  08/12/91
 NEWS; news shorts


 NEWS; news shorts
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Hybrid telephony examined

 The North American Telecommunications Association, based in
 Washington, D.C., formed a membership council last week to focus on
 expanding the market for computer-integrated telephony products . The
 Alliance of Computer-Based Telephony Application Suppliers will have
 industry/user task forces and education programs covering such
 applications as customer service, sales automation and telemarketing,
 officials said.

 Bull adds systems integration group

 Bull HN Information Systems, Inc.  last week formed a systems
 integration business unit focusing on technologies such as personal
 computers, networks and open systems. Steve Gardner, former vice
 president of marketing at Bull, was named president of the unit.

 OS/2 Workbench gets new tool

 IBM just keeps adding packages to its forthcoming OS/2 Programmers
 Workbench, which should be formally rolled out in its entirety next
 month, according to John Soyring, who coordinates IBM's third-party
 OS/2 developers' program. The latest addition to the Workbench,
 announced last week, targets large enterprises running Fortran. IBM
 announced an agreement with Waterloo, Ontario-based Watcom under which
 Watcom will develop and market OS/2 2.0 versions of 32-bit optimizing
 compilers for Fortran 77 and C.

 Bill would hit piratesThe U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved a
 bill that would impose criminal penalties for software copyright
 infringement. The bill would impose a fine of up to $250,000 and a
 prison term of up to two years for illegal reproduction or
 distribution of 11 to 49 software copies. Currently, first-time piracy
 is a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, the Software Publishers Association
 released results of a study showing 1990 piracy at an estimated $2.4
 billion in the U.S., down from $2.5 billion in 1989 and $2.9 billion
 in 1988.

 Acer pares prices

 Acer America Corp., a PC-compatible maker based in San Jose, Calif.,
 brought out a new line of PCs and cut prices by as much as 29% on its
 older product line. Among the machines introduced last week is an
 entry-level multimedia box, the Acer 1125E, based on a 25-MHz Intel
 Corp. 80386DX chip. The basic model costs $1,995.

 Amdahl disks delayed

 Amdahl Corp. said last week that shipments of its high-end 6390 disk
 drive would be delayed by about six weeks because of a need for
 additional testing. The move, which pushes first shipments from
 September to November, worsens Amdahl's late entry into the IBM
 3390-compatible market. IBM has been shipping its 3390s since late
 1989; Amdahl competitor Hitachi Data Systems Corp. in Santa Clara,
 Calif., started shipping its 7390s this year. "They didn't give any
 details. They just said it wasn't ready," said Robert Callery, a
 senior analyst at Technology Investment Strategies Corp.

 Job cuts at Siemens-Nixdorf

 Germany's Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, a unit of Siemens
 AG, said last week that it will slash 3,000 of its 51,000 jobs as part
 of a program to save $341 million by the end of 1992. The firm said
 the cost-cutting plan was part of the second phase of the merger of
 Siemens' computer division and Nixdorf Computer AG, which Siemens
 rescued in 1989. On the domestic front, Siemens-Nixdorf announced a
 major contract win: Saks Fifth Avenue signed a contract to install
 Siemens-Nixdorf point-of-sale terminals, software and Targon
 minicomputers at 47 stores throughout the U.S.

 Intel networking splash due

 Intel Corp. is getting serious about networking. A source within the
 company said Intel will introduce 23 communications products --
 hardware and software -- on Sept. 4. Another source expects a lot of
 leading-edge and aggressively priced products. Other sources briefed
 by Intel said the emphasis is being placed on network management down
 to the client level, with the ability to pinpoint problems. Also
 expected by some is a sort of dual-purpose board, featuring either
 support for Novell, Inc.'s Netware and IBM's OS/2 LAN server or a
 system board with support for Ethernet and Token Ring built in.

 D&B Software adds groupware

 Continuing on its charted course to provide client/server products to
 its customers by year's end, Dun & Bradstreet Software announced last
 week that it has acquired the rights to the Wijit user-enabling
 groupware. The technology will be incorporated into the D&B Software
 client/server products, and it will enable users to automate
 front-office functions. The Wijit application was developed by John
 Landry, D&B Software's Executive Vice President, prior to his joining
 the company. He developed the application in conjunction with Thomas
 Malone, a professor at MIT.

 Keeping information handy

 Atlantis space shuttle astronauts circling the globe last week were
 assisted by Wristmacs, digital wristwatches that store and display
 mission information that has been downloaded from Apple Computer, Inc.
 Macintosh computers. The watches, which were programmed prior to
 launching, alert the crew to Earth observation photo opportunities.
 They can also be updated during the flight by radio link to a portable
 Macintosh on the shuttle. Wristmacs are produced by New York-based Ex
 Machina, Inc.

 Staff cut at Software Publishing

 Software Publishing Corp. has announced a 6% cut in its worldwide work
 force.  Approximately 45 employees were released last week from the
 Mountain View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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 IBM tightens POMS backing;
 Equity stake girds commitment to OS/2-based
 manufacturing software
 08/05/91
 NETWORKING
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 RESTON, Va.

 Seven months after obtaining exclusive marketing rights to Process
 Operations Management System (POMS), IBM has further strengthened its
 stake in OS/2-based software by purchasing a minority stake in
 developer Incode Corp.

 In addition to reinforcing IBM's strategic commitment to POMS, the
 equity purchase will give Incode "additional capital for more
 aggressive development" in key areas such as graphics-based decision
 support tools, Incode President Curtis Grina said.

 POMS targets the growing number of process manufacturers that want
 closer integration between their host-based planning and scheduling
 systems and the factory-floor devices that actually control and
 monitor the process, according to Bruce Richardson, a vice president
 at Advanced Manufacturing Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

 With a relational database management system at its heart, POMS allows
 such companies to collect everything they need to know about a
 particular production cycle and then integrate it with other systems
 plantwide, Richardson explained.

 Three firms join POMS

 Incode also announced that three companies -- Merck & Co., Whitbread
 PLC and Burroughs Wellcome Co.  -- have joined the second phase of the
 POMS consortium, a group of food and chemical companies that provide
 ongoing user input into the POMS development process, Grina said.

 The POMS Consortium 2, which got under way at the beginning of this
 year, comprises the same companies as the first consortium, with the
 exception of Campbell's Soup Co.

 Campbell's decided not to join the second consortium because "the
 deliverables they are working on are not strategic to us," said Alan
 Carr, director of manufacturing systems at Campbell's.  Far from
 abandoning POMS, however, Campbell's has a pilot system at one plant
 and a successful production system at another and is evaluating
 further rollout plans, he added.

 One major focus for Incode and the new consortium is the development
 of graphics-based presentation, statistical analysis, modeling and
 trending tools that will make it easier for engineers to analyze and
 fine-tune the production process, Grina said.

 Steve Hunter, director of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
 development at Baxter Healthcare Corp.'s intravenous solutions plant
 in North Cove, N.C., said he was impressed with a recent demonstration
 of the upcoming graphics capabilities.

 Incode is also working on an IBM AIX, RISC System/6000 version of
 POMS, which should be available within the year, he added.

 Several current POMS users reported successful POMS installations,
 although few have gone beyond the pilot stage.

 For two years, Whitbread has been developing and testing POMS
 applications for managing its packaging process and is on the verge of
 going live with the system, said David Rushbrook, CIM manager at the
 UK beer maker.

 CW Staff

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s-Nixdorf announced a
 major contract win: Saks Fifth Avenue signed a contract to install
 Siemens-Nixdorf point-of-sale terminals, software and Targon
 minicomputers at 47 stores throughout the U.S.

 Intel networking splash due

 Intel Corp. is getting serious about networking. A source within the
 company said Intel will introduce 23 communications products --
 hardware and software -- on Sept. 4. Another source expects a lot of
 leading-edge and aggressively priced products. Other sources briefed
 by Intel said the emphasis is being placed on network management down
 to the client level, with the ability to pinpoint problems. Also
 expected by so AIX users wary after IBM/Apple agreement
 07/22/91
 PCs & WORKSTATIONS
 Keefe, Patricia

 PCs & WORKSTATIONS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 AIX users, who may have the most to gain from the fledgling alliance
 of IBM and Apple Computer, Inc. are asking more questions than their
 OS/2 counterparts.

 Overall, AIX users appear pleased with the prospect of IBM working
 with Apple on an enhanced version of AIX.  However, this partnership,
 which for some constitutes the ultimate in strange bedfellows, has
 some AIX users a little on edge.

 Looking beyond promises from IBM and Apple to produce an enhanced AIX
 common to both platforms, these users are asking some tough questions
 about the impact of plans for a jointly developed object-oriented
 operating system.

 For starters, Brian Johnson, a spokesman for the Washington,
 D.C.-based AIX Users Group, said his members want to know if the
 partnership's plans to build an object-oriented operating system are
 going to replace AIX.

 "This alliance is nothing more than a guarantee that we have the best
 and most responsive solution in focus and intensity on AIX, the
 RS/6000 and OS/2," said Joseph Guglielmi, general manager of marketing
 business development for IBM's Personal Systems business.

 This brings up the question of binary compatibility between AIX and
 the new environment. "There's not a lot of shrink-wrapped [AIX]
 applications," Johnson said, noting that most users have a lot
 invested in custom-built programs.

 No more AIX?

 The object-oriented software will indeed replace AIX. At a recent
 press briefing, IBM officials said it was too early to tell if binary
 compatibility between the two operating systems would be an issue, but
 they did promise to slowly migrate users to the new object-oriented
 platform by integrating pieces of object-oriented technology into AIX
 over time.

 An object-oriented environment would be "spectacular," but it would
 also mean a new standard, said Russell Silverman, a
 quantitative-modeling analyst at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
 Noting that Unix "has finally standardized to a large extent," he said
 Unix users would probably resist migration unless IBM finds some way
 to encompass Unix within the object-oriented environment. "A lot of
 people will want some level of backward compatibility."

 On the other hand, users said they would welcome the Macintosh
 interface with open arms. They are also excited about the prospect of
 Apple-manufactured reduced instruction set computing (RISC) machines.

 "The need for a graphical interface for Unix, is of course, very
 great," Silverman said.  Several Unix interface standards are
 available, but they all -- "particularly Motif" -- require a lot of
 upfront programming to be user-friendly, he said. Silverman said he
 does not expect to have that problem with the "totally icon-driven"
 Macintosh interface.

 "The current AIX user interface is a better job than they have done in
 the past, but they still have a long way to go," said Nancy Costa,
 application support manager for the Scientific and Engineering Systems
 Group at J. M. Huber in Edison, N.J.  She added that the Macintosh
 interface would "certainly" be an improvement.

 Silverman noted that Apple does a better job of releasing and
 maintaining operating system software but conceded that the question
 of whether AIX would get better or worse with an Apple alliance is
 very up in the air.

 Also intrigued by the prospect of using the Macintosh interface is
 Edward O'Brien, MIS director for the city of White Plains, N.Y.  He
 also indicated an interest in Apple's forthcoming RISC machines.

 CW Staff

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 to the client level, with the ability to pinpoint problems. Also
 expected by so 3090 yields to OS/2 network
 07/22/91
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 AUSTIN, Texas

 Unfazed by the recent controversy surrounding the future of IBM's
 OS/2, the American Cancer Society is marching forward with a
 five-year, $10 million project to move its databases and financial
 applications off of a central mainframe and onto 100 OS/2 Extended
 Edition-based local-area networks.

 The society's somewhat unorthodox downsizing plan is to connect
 approximately 800 personal computers to OS/2 servers on Token Ring
 LANs without a network operating system in many sites.

 In smaller locations, the nonprofit organization is leveraging the
 Communications Manager

 and Database Manager functions embedded in OS/2 Extended rather than
 face the expense and network administration headaches of running LAN
 software, said Ken Elder, vice president and chief information
 officer.

 The group currently runs Novell, Inc. Netware on the 40 LANs installed
 to date because one of its accounting packages originally required a
 network operating system. At the time, Netware was deemed superior to
 IBM's LAN Server, said Kyle Cooper, senior technical analyst.

 When "the accounting package vendor ports to the Database Manager
 portion of OS/2, we'll have the option of eliminating Novell," said
 Jerald S. Noble, director of telecommunications and PC support.

 "We don't require Novell connectivity in the wide area," Cooper said,
 "but we do require OS/2-to-OS/2 connectivity among our databases. For
 that, we use the wide-area software connections in OS/2."

 Noble added, "To connect two OS/2 LANs together this way" without
 bridges or routers "costs $1,300 to $1,700 at each end.
 Netware-to-Netware connections cost more than $12,000 at each end."

 What users primarily give up by not running a network operating system
 is transparent access to resources on other networked devices, stated
 Tom Nolle, president of consulting firm CIMI Corp. in Voorhees, N.J.

 "This translates into standard third-party software not running on the
 network," Nolle said.

 That is exactly what the nonprofit's 18-person development team has
 done. System testing started last week for the next release of
 database software to be delivered in September, said Charles H.
 Naginey, senior director for development and operations.

 The release includes the integration of what were three separate
 mainframe databases of donors and 2 million volunteers into OS/2
 relational databases that will reside in 57 nationwide divisions. An
 IBM 3090 in Austin will be retained as a mirror database to the OS/2s.

 Currently an OS/2 Version 1.3 shop and beta-test user of the 32-bit
 OS/2 2.0, it is slated to ship from IBM by year's end. The society' IS
 executives said they see OS/2 as the desktop operating system of the
 future.

 "In five years, very few office systems will be without OS/2," Elder
 predicted. He described OS/2's multitasking rival, Unix, as "the most
 unfriendly operating system" he has worked with. He also pointed out
 that "there's still no database manager in Unix."

 According to Cooper, "The true benefit of OS/2 is its communications
 capabilities. When you buy OS/2 [Extended], you get a relational
 database server and a host of communications gateway services for
 free."

 Steven F. Kuekes, vice president of product development at Tangram
 Systems Corp., a manufacturer of PC-to-mainframe links, said the
 interest in OS/2 is much greater today than it was a mere two months
 ago because such OS/2 obstacles as lack of applications and high price
 are being addressed.

 "With [OS/2] 2.0, users will be able to run [the multitude of]
 DOS/Windows applications. Also, IBM is saying that users can get OS/2
 free if they buy a Personal System/2 or for $99 if they upgrade from
 DOS.  Originally, OS/2 Extended was $895," Kuekes said.

 CW Staff

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port for Ethernet and Token Ring built in.

 D&B Software adds groupware

 Continuing on its charted course to provide client/server products to
 its customers by year's end, Dun & Bradstreet Software announced last
 week that it has acquired the rights to the Wijit user-enabling
 groupware. The technology will be incorporated into the D&B Software
 client/server products, and it will enable users to automate
 front-office functions. The Wijit application was developed by John
 Landry, D&B Software's Executive Vice President, prior to his joining
 the company. He developed the application in conjunction with Thomas
 Malone, a professor at MIT.

 Keeping information handy

 Atlantis space shuttle astronauts circling the globe last week were
 assisted by Wristmacs, digital wristwatches that store and display
 mission information that has been downloaded from Apple Computer, Inc.
 Macintosh computers. The watches, which were programmed prior to
 launching, alert the crew to Earth observation photo opportunities.
 They can also be updated during the flight by radio link to a portable
 Macintosh on the shuttle. Wristmacs are produced by New York-based Ex
 Machina, Inc.

 Staff cut at Software Publishing

 Software Publishing Corp. has announced a 6% cut in its worldwide work
 force.  Approximately 45 employees were released last week from the
 Mountain View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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 Intersolv generator ups OS/2 LAN functions
 07/08/91
 PCs & WORKSTATIONS
 Lindquist,
 Christopher

 PCs & WORKSTATIONS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Intersolv recently announced an APS series Cobol application generator
 designed to run under OS/2 and Presentation Manager. The generator is
 reportedly the first such product that supports concurrent user access
 on an OS/2 local-area network. It also takes advantage of the
 operating system's multitasking abilities, according to the company.

 Paul Ratner, assistant vice president at Metropolitan Life Insurance
 Co. in New York, said his company is currently running DOS, OS/2 and
 mainframe versions of APS, but he added that he expects most of the
 DOS users to migrate to OS/2 in the near future.

 "The multitasking capability -- that you can do a generate in the
 background on a single machine -- is a useful feature so you don't tie
 up a terminal while you're [running] some of the more CPU-intensive
 processing," he said.  "Programmers can very easily take care of the
 multitasking, multiwindowing capabilities of OS/2," he added.

 APS allows developers to create applications for DB2, IMS and VSAM.
 Versions of APS are available for IBM mainframes and for individual
 desktop personal computers running DOS or OS/2 or running on DOS or
 OS/2 LANs.

 Developing on PCs

 Kathy Harris, assistant director of the systems development division
 at First Union Corp., said her company will be using APS for OS/2 as a
 means of empowering developers who formerly had to develop strictly on
 a mainframe.  Allowing developers to work on PCs will give them much
 more control of their response time and planning, she said.

 First Union is automating the planning, analysis and design end of its
 development process. "The OS/2 products that are available for doing
 that fit very nicely with the APS product," which will allow
 programmers to do almost all of their development on a PC, Harris
 said.

 First Union's choice is but one indication of a trend toward PC-based
 products in the applications development market. "The future of system
 development and code generation is on the PC for most people," said
 Stuart Woodring, director of software strategy research at Forrester
 Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.  "They don't want to use mainframe
 resources to generate code that can be generated on a PC."

 APS for OS/2 is available as a free upgrade to licensees of the DOS
 version.  APS is available for $9,500 per developer seat, regardless
 of platform.

 CW Staff

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hey see OS/2 as the desktop operating system of the
 future.

 "In five years, very few office systems will be without OS/2," Elder
 predicted. He described OS/2's multitasking rival, Unix, as "the most
 unfriendly operating system" he has worked with. He also pointed out
 that "there's still no database manager in Unix."

 According to Cooper, "The true benefit of OS/2 is its communications
 capabilities. When you buy OS/2 [Extended], you get a relational
 database server and a host of communications gateway services for
 free."

 Steven F. Kuekes, vice president of product development at Tangram
 Systems Corp., a manufacturer of PC-to-mainframe links, said the
 interest in OS/2 is much greater today than it was a mere two months
 ago because such OS/2 obstacles as lack of applications and high price
 are being addressed.

 "With [OS/2] 2.0, users will be able to run [the multitude of]
 DOS/Windows applications. Also, IBM is saying that users can get OS/2
 free if they buy a Personal System/2 or for $99 if they upgrade from
 DOS.  Originally, OS/2 Extended was $895," Kuekes said.

 CW Staff

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-------------- Traveled this road before?
 07/08/91
 SOFTWARE & SERVICES; commentary
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 SOFTWARE & SERVICES; commentary
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 History was repeating itself late last month when IBM announced its
 team of third-party software companies to help develop its Systemview
 architecture. Like the AD/Cycle introduction nearly two years ago,
 insiders, outsiders and IBM all had plenty to say. The initial result
 was confusion.

 The Systemview team is made up of four software companies, including
 Bachman Information Systems, Inc., Candle Corp., Goal Systems
 International, Inc. and Platinum Technology, Inc. Boole & Babbage,
 Inc. has a separate development agreement with IBM concerning
 Systemview. Several other players in the systems software arena --
 such as Computer Associates International, Inc., Legent Corp. and
 Landmark Systems Corp.  -- are not on the team. Some say they could
 possibly join later; IBM has left this option open as well.

 For customers of companies inside and outside the new Systemview
 group, it may be difficult to get clear answers as to what all this
 means.

 There are many issues to take a look at.

 First of all, if your software supplier is on the Systemview team, it
 will have certain advantages. However, if you are doing business with
 a software company not on the list, this is not cause for serious
 concern.

 The Systemview team

 members have two major advantages over their competitors on the
 outside. Initially, they will be working with IBM to craft the
 Systemview architecture. As a result, one can assume that each will
 contribute ideas or technologies that reflect their product lines.
 However, the important point to remember here is that the team has not
 yet put this process to work, so it remains to be seen what exactly
 will emerge. Just because your particular vendor is on the team does
 not guarantee that its technologies will be transferred to the
 Systemview architecture.

 For example, Candle and Goal are on the team. They also sell competing
 products. So, when it comes time to provide input to the Systemview
 architecture, will one company's suggestions be taken over the
 other's?  Will they somehow be merged?

 "When you look at the joint development opportunities, will there be
 overlap" between Candle and Goal? asked Sam Greenblatt, director of
 architecture design and planning at Candle. "I can't answer that."

 The second big advantage for the Systemview insiders is access to
 specifications ahead of their competitors. Again, it can be assumed
 that they can incorporate the specifications into their product lines
 while the competitors are waiting for them to be published.

 The importance of this advantage depends on how quickly you want to
 implement a Systemview environment. Some users may be in a rush, and
 for this group, the outsiders don't have much of an answer.  But for
 users who intend to slowly move to Systemview -- and IBM itself has
 stressed this will be a multiyear effort -- the time advantage of the
 insiders may not be significant.

 Insiders will point out a benefit of having IBM as a partner.
 Outsiders will say this could have drawbacks by confining a software
 company to the IBM way of doing business.

 This comes down to a customer's needs. If you are an IBM shop and
 intend to stay that way, then a close alliance between your software
 supplier and IBM has an obvious comfort factor. If you have a
 multiplatform shop and are interested in other industry initiatives,
 then the IBM relationship carries less weight.

 All of the players will be talking about Systemview conformance, and
 this term will no doubt be hyped by some companies in the near future.
 Remember all of those companies claiming to be AD/Cycle consistent or
 compatible when we weren't even sure what that meant? Beware of
 companies pushing the notion of Systemview compliance too heavily. At
 this early stage, there is very little to conform to anyway.

 For now, the source best qualified to define this term is IBM. In a
 recent interview, Bob McNamara, a program manager in the Enterprise
 Systems Division of IBM, explained it this way:

 First, Systemview conformance will evolve, so there is no such thing
 today as being "Systemview-compliant." Instead, third parties and IBM
 itself can conform to initial pieces of Systemview.

 As of today, third parties can be compliant with the initial
 specifications of the end-user dimension of Systemview. This is one
 dimension only of a multidimensional architecture, and even this piece
 is not fully defined. Initial documentation, discussing four elements
 of conformance for the end-user dimension, was released earlier this
 year. McNamara said it includes the following: an IBM OS/2 platform;
 support of the IBM Common User Access graphical model; use of display
 objects as defined by the IBM Systems Application Architecture; and
 support of either IBM's Presentation Manager, Dialog Manager and
 Graphicsview 2 or Easel Corp.'s Easel.

 So, if your vendor meets those four requirements as of today, then it
 is compliant with the initial specifications of the end-user dimension
 of Systemview.

 Hamilton is a Computerworld senior editor, systems and software

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 SDS competitors
 07/01/91
 NETWORKING
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 One Spectrum Concepts competitor in the electronic software
 distribution arena is IBM, with its Netview Distribution Manager.

 In its current state, however, IBM's product uses commands recognized
 only by IBM software and is supported only on IBM's OS/2 and 3174
 platforms.

 Another competitor is Tangram Systems Corp., whose AM:PM product is
 based on IBM's 3270 terminal-to-host protocol. Spectrum Concepts'
 product is based on LU6.2, IBM's interface for "peer-to-peer" computer
 communications.

 "Using LU6.2 means there's nothing to stop Xcom/Software Distribution
 System from going to [Apple Computer, Inc.'s] Macintosh, [Digital
 Equipment Corp.'s] VAX and Hewlett-Packard [Co.'s] computers through a
 single interface," said Dick Boyle, program director of local-area
 communications service at Gartner Group, Inc. in Stamford, Conn.

 "You can't do that if you're building off a 3270 base. That will hurt
 Tangram as IBM rolls out advances in its networking environment based
 on LU6.2 over the next six months," he added.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

The Systemview team

 members have two major advantages over their competitors on the
 outside. Initially, they will be working with IBM to craft the
 Systemview architecture. As a result, one can assume that each will
 contribute ideas or technologies that reflect their product lines.
 However, the important point to remember here is that the team has not
 yet put this process to work, so it remains to be seen what exactly
 will emerge. Just because your particular vendor is on the team does
 not guarantee that its technologies will be transferred to the
 Systemview architecture.

 For example, Candle and Goal are on the team. They also sell competing
 products. So, when it comes time to provide input to the Systemview
 architecture, will one company's suggestions be taken over the
 other's?  Will they somehow be merged?

 "When you look at the joint development opportunities, will there be
 overlap" between Candle and Goal? asked Sam Greenblatt, director of
 architecture design and planning at Candle. "I can't answer that."

 The second big advantage for the Systemview insiders is access to
 specifications ahead of their competitors. Again, it can be assumed
 that they can incorporate the specifications into their product lines
 while the competitors are waiting for them to be published.

 The importance of this advantage depends on how quickly you want to
 implement a Systemview environment. Some users may be in a rush, and
 for this group, the outsiders don't have much of an answer.  But for
 users who intend to slowly move to Systemview -- and IBM itself has
 stressed this will be a multiyear effort -- the time advantage of the
 insiders may not be significant.

 Insiders will point out a benefit of having IBM as a partner.
 Outsiders will say this could have drawbacks by confining a software
 company to the IBM way of doing business.

 This comes down to a customer's needs. If you are an IBM shop and
 intend to stay that way, then a close alliance between your software
 supplier and IBM has an obvious comfort factor. If you have a
 multiplatform shop and are interested in other industry initiatives,
 then the IBM relationship carries less weight.

 All of the players will be talking about Systemview conformance, and
 this term will no doubt be hyped by some companies in the near future.
 Remember all of those companies claiming to be AD/Cycle consistent or
 compatible when we weren't even sure what that meant? Beware of
 companies pushing the notion of Systemview compliance too heavily. At
 this early stage, there is very little to conform to aLotus Notes to aid Officevision LAN?
 06/24/91
 Keefe, Patricia

 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 BM was attempting late last week to finalize an agreement to
 incorporate Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes work-group application
 into the much delayed IBM Officevision LAN 2.0 release, according to
 sources close to both companies.

 With an update on Officevision 2.0 and OS/2 slated for today, the
 sources said that discussion between the two companies had bogged down
 over whether IBM would merely use technological elements of Notes or
 resell the product and thus provide it with added prestige as Lotus
 attempts to create a broad market for its work-group concept.

 IBM would like to put pieces of Notes under Officevision without
 making wholesale changes to the Officevision interface, said Frank
 Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects, Inc. in
 Washington, D.C. "Officevision doesn't have a very good work-group
 automation product, which is one of the things that NCR Corp. has with
 Cooperation," Dzubeck said.

 IBM, on the other hand, is after specific pieces of technology,
 including Notes' database engine, asynchronous terminal support with
 network security and a graphical front end to the Notes client,
 according to a source close to IBM.

 If IBM agrees to resell Notes, the product would be positioned as an
 intermediary solution pending the release of a corrected Officevision
 LAN 2.0.  Analysts agreed that IBM has to provide an update on
 Officevision LAN 2.0 and OS/2, which has already suffered at least
 three delays."If IBM does not have any concrete, substantive
 announcement [this] week, it will clearly be a fiasco," the source
 close to IBM said.

 There will be an announcement, but whether Lotus will be part of it is
 uncertain. The problem, then, is the extent to which IBM is willing to
 highlight the Notes contribution.

 Working this through "is in the best interests of both Lotus and IBM,"
 said Stuart Woodring, an analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. He added
 that both firms want to move forward.

 "Lotus wants this deal for exposure and distribution, not the
 revenue," said Woodring. "Notes has yet to establish the beachhead
 that it needs to invade corporate America."

 Strong indications

 At an analyst briefing last May, IBM gave strong indications that it
 would respond to user requests for an "Officevision Lite" and/or a
 low-cost, low-level entry point to Officevision, several attendees
 said.

 IBM also wants access to Lotus' CC:Mail electronic mail technology.
 Mail is one of Officevision's missing building blocks. Many companies
 need to choose an E-mail system before they can begin to consider an
 office automation package, Dzubeck said.

 At that May briefing, Tony Mondello, IBM's Programming Systems
 Director of Office Systems Development, responded to a question about
 IBM's interest in CC:Mail by saying that he would recommend it to
 customers, several attendees said.

 The anticipated licensing arrangement with Lotus will be handled by
 IBM's Desktop Software Group, according to a source close to Lotus.
 The Milford, Conn.-based Desktop Software Group is charged with
 licensing technology from third parties for repackaging under the IBM
 logo.

 Not ready

 A second source close to Lotus said the company is ready to roll out
 its "Notes SWAT team" as soon as they get the green light from IBM.

 IBM, on the other hand, is after specific pieces of technology,
 including Notes' database engine, asynchronous terminal support with
 network security and a graphical front end to the Notes client,
 according to a source close to IBM.

 In addition, IBM is rewriting chunks of Officevision code, currently
 developed under C, in Borland International, Inc.'s C++, sources said.
 Borland recently announced that it had agreed to port C++ to OS/2.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

am manager in the Enterprise
 Systems Division of IBM, explained it this way:

 First, Systemview conformance will evolve, so there is no such thing
 today as being "Systemview-compliant." Instead, third parties and IBM
 itself can conform to initial pieces of Systemview.

 As of today, third parties can be compliant with the initial
 specifications of the end-user dimension of Systemview. This is one
 dimension only of a multidimensional architecture, and even this piece
 is not fully defined. Initial documentation, discussing four elements
 of conformance for the end-user dimension, was released earlier this
 year. McNamara said it includes the following: an IBM OS/2 platform;
 support of the IBM Common User Access graphical model; use of display
 objects as defined by the IBM Systems Application Architecture; and
 support of either IBM's Presentation Manager, Dialog Manager and
 Graphicsview 2 or Easel Corp.'s Easel.

 So, if your vendor meets those four requirements as of today, then it
 is compliant with the initial specifications of the end-user dimension
 of Systemview.

 Hamilton is a Computerworld senior editor, systems and software

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Apple eyes chip defection
 06/10/91
 NEWS
 Daly, James

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 A history of late deliveries, most recently with the 68040 from chip
 supplier Motorola, Inc., has Apple Computer, Inc. rethinking its
 commitment to Motorola's 88000 RISC chip.

 If Apple were to defect to another supplier of reduced instruction set
 computing (RISC) processors, it would pose a serious blow to
 Motorola's semiconductor business, analysts said.

 An Apple spokeswoman confirmed that the company is talking to multiple
 RISC suppliers but would not confirm or deny a published report last
 Friday about a pending deal for IBM's RISC chip set in exchange for
 Apple software.

 An IBM spokeswoman said IBM has never ruled out licensing its
 proprietary RISC chip set, which sits at the heart of the RISC
 System/6000 line.

 Analysts speculated that Apple may be pressuring Motorola to ensure a
 prompt delivery of its RISC chips.  A dissenting view came from Lotus
 Development Corp. Vice President Don Casey, who said, "When I was at
 Apple, I never felt we lacked for Motorola's attention. Doing this
 [pressuring Motorola] in public doesn't strike me as consistent with
 Apple [policy]."

 Other observers seemed to think that a software licensing arrangement
 between IBM and Apple was more likely.

 Analysts said that IBM might want to integrate pieces of the Apple
 operating system into OS/2 in exchange for assisting Apple in
 resolving more advanced IBM connectivity issues as well as providing
 technology such as IBM's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking.

 Apple's product delivery plans for a 68040-based Macintosh were set
 back when Motorola was six to 12 months late delivering the chip, said
 Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies Research International,
 Inc.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

t to move forward.

 "Lotus wants this deal for exposure and distribution, not the
 revenue," said Woodring. "Notes has yet to establish the beachhead
 that it needs to invade corporate America."

 Strong indications

 At an analyst briefing last May, IBM gave strong indications that it
 would respond to user requests for an "Officevision Lite" and/or a
 low-cost, low-level entry point to Officevision, several attendees
 said.

 IBM also wants access to Lotus' CC:Mail electronic mail technology.
 Mail is one of Officevision's missing building blocks. Many companies
 need to choose an E-mail system before they can begin to consider an
 office automation package, Dzubeck said.

 At that May briefing, Tony Mondello, IBM's Programming Systems
 Director of Office Systems Development, responded to a question about
 IBM's interest in CC:Mail by saying that he would recommend it to
 customers, several attendees said.

 The anticipated licensing arrangement with Lotus will be handled by
 IBM's Desktop Software Group, according to a source close to Lotus.
 The Milford, Conn.-based Desktop Software Group is charged with
 licensing technology from third parties for repackaging under the IBM
 logo.

 Not ready

 A second source close to Lotus said the company is ready to roll out
 its "Notes SWAT team" as soon as they get the green light from IBM.

 IBM, on the other hand, is after specific pieces of technology,
 including Notes' database engine, asynchronous terminal support with
 network security and a graphical front end to the Notes client,
 according to a source close to IBM.

 In addition, IBM is rewriting chunks of Officevision code, currently
 developed under C, in Borland International, Inc.'s C++, sources said.
 Borland recently announced that it had agreed to port C++ to OS/2.

 CW Staff

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--------------------------------------- Tool automates PC upgrades;
 Tangram's software benefits similar to IBM's
 Distribution Manager
 06/03/91
 NETWORKING
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 CARY, N.C.

 Tangram Systems Corp. has produced a rival to IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager, the software package that allows IBM mainframes
 to act as software distribution centers for personal computers.

 An IBM MVS mainframe running Tangram's AM:PM software can
 automatically distribute software and data to, and collect data from,
 OS/2 and DOS workstations residing on a network, the software vendor
 said.

 Tangram's communications software product, Arbiter, works in concert
 with AM:PM to provide a variety of ways for the mainframe and
 workstation to communicate.

 A mainframe running the product can be programmed to automatically
 download software to an OS/2 system at a given time, Tangram said.
 The software uses the OS/2 background mode so that the workstation can
 continue to run other applications without interruption, according to
 Steve Kuekes, Tangram's vice president of product development.

 DOS capabilities

 The mainframe can download software to any DOS PC that is left running
 with the DOS command prompt on, Kuekes said.  Thus, users can leave
 their PCs on at night and come back to updated software in the
 morning.  If the updates must take place during work hours, the
 software can beep a user to get out of whatever task he is performing
 and return to the DOS command prompt, he added.

 The software also provides the following features:

 Logging of both failed and successful attempts to distribute software
 to a given workstation.

 The ability to collect as well as distribute data.  This is useful for
 production applications where, for example, the mainframe can be
 programmed to collect all of the data entered on PCs during the day,
 process the data and distribute back answers overnight, Kuekes said.

 The ability, via Arbiter, to take control of a PC from the host.  The
 host can download software updates and then initiate a PC program to
 integrate them into the existing package instead of having to download
 the entire new software version into the PC, Kuekes said.  IBM offers
 a similar utility.

 Interfaces to popular IBM mainframe-based security systems such as
 Computer Associates International, Inc.'s Top Secret and ACF2.

 A security utility geared for automatic software distribution allows
 the mainframe to download a new password to each PC at the end of a
 transaction.

 That new password is then used by the PC the next time it identifies
 itself to the mainframe as a recipient of a software update.  This
 eliminates the need for users to store their passwords on the network,
 where they can easily be used by an unauthorized person, during
 unattended communications between the PC and mainframe, Kuekes said.

 One feature that IBM provides and Tangram, so far, does not is an OS/2
 version of the distribution system.  IBM's Distribution Manager/2,
 scheduled to ship at the end of this month, is said to allow Netview
 Distribution Manager Release 3 running on a mainframe to distribute
 applications software and OS/2 operating systems software down to
 OS/2s running Distribution Manager Release 2.

 Server functions

 OS/2s running Distribution Manager can also act as servers that
 collect the software from the mainframe and then distribute it to OS/2
 and DOS workstations over a LAN, IBM said.  The recipient workstations
 must be running Distribution Manager Release 2 LAN Download Utility.
 An OS/2 server running Distribution Manager Release 2 can also act as
 a local software distributor without the mainframe connection, IBM
 said.

 The next version of AM:PM, which will probably be out by year's end,
 will be able to download to OS/2 servers as intermediate points for
 LAN distribution, Kuekes said.

 The initial version of AM:PM is due out by the end of this month.  It
 will be offered as a feature of Arbiter, with prices ranging from
 $45,000 to $98,000 for Arbiter users.

 First-time customers can buy Arbiter with the AM:PM feature for
 between $82,000 and $190,000, Tangram said.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

l
 specifications of the end-user dimension of Systemview. This is one
 dimension only of a multidimensional architecture, and even this piece
 is not fully defined. Initial documentation, discussing four elements
 of conformance for the end-user dimension, was released earlier this
 year. McNamara said it includes the following: an IBM OS/2 platform;
 support of the IBM Common User Access graphical model; use of display
 objects as defined by the IBM Systems Application Architecture; and
 support of either IBM's Presentation Manager, Dialog Manager and
 Graphicsview 2 or Easel Corp.'s Easel.

 So, if your vendor meets those four requirements as of today, then it
 is compliant with the initial specifications of the end-user dimension
 of Systemview.

 Hamilton is a Computerworld senior editor, systems and software

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM pledges to improve LAN control
 06/03/91
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 RALEIGH, N.C.

 IBM is planning a series of introductions throughout the rest of this
 year that will address the needs of information systems departments
 and help them administer and manage their exploding local-area network
 installations more effectively.

 In recent interviews, IBM managers said the rollout will add some key
 systems management capabilities to IBM's two-tier network management
 structure, in which OS/2 servers can locally manage LANs on their own
 and can also act as control points for a central Netview host that
 oversees the entire corporatewide LAN installation.

 "The idea of getting LAN information to a single point for review and
 monitoring is very important to us," said Steve Bortnyk, director of
 network management at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., who has been
 briefed on several of the upcoming products by IBM.

 Key announcements

 One key group of upcoming announcements will detail products that
 allow Netview to configure, troubleshoot and collect alerts about LAN
 systems such as file and database servers.  While Netview can already
 troubleshoot network boards and other LAN devices through its link
 with IBM's LAN Network Manager, users have been clamoring for tools to
 monitor and control the systems that support their critical LAN
 applications.

 Upcoming products will set up two-way links between Netview and three
 IBM OS/2 server offerings: LAN Server, Database Manager and
 Communications Manager.

 The server software will be able to send systems management
 information up to the central Netview host, where it can be analyzed
 and responded to either by a human agent or by automated Netview
 applications, according to Laura Knapp, program adviser of enterprise
 LAN communications at IBM.

 For example, LAN Server could notify Netview that a server is running
 out of disk space, and a prewritten C list program within Netview
 could respond by deleting some of the disk's back files, Knapp said.
 Database Manager could alert Netview of an unauthorized attempt to
 access a database, and Netview could automatically respond by cutting
 the user off.

 Unlike IBM's LAN Network Manager, which can act as both a Netview
 adjunct and a network manager on its own, the forthcoming products
 will provide systems management only through the Netview host -- at
 least for now, according to Knapp.

 IBM is, however, working on an OS/2-based LAN system management server
 that would be able to handle systems management locally without
 depending on Netview and would probably incorporate Hewlett-Packard
 Co.'s Openview, Knapp added. IBM announced recently that it would
 license and incorporate parts of Openview into an AIX-based LAN
 management workstation [CW, April 22].

 IBM is also working with Novell, Inc. to enable Netview to collect
 systems management information from Netware servers, Knapp said.

 Other projects

 Other projects in the works with Novell include enabling IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager to download Netware operating systems
 configurations.

 IBM is also working to improve Netview's ability to track and manage
 the dynamically changing configurations and traffic patterns of a
 distributed computing ennvironment, according to Bill Warner, the
 vendor's director of network management.

 Now in the works is a table that will sit in a virtual memory cache of
 the host and track the status of LANs, Systems Network Architecture
 (SNA) devices and other network devices in a dynamic, on-line fashion,
 Warner said.

 Currently, Netview must poll network devices or wait for alerts to be
 sent in order to get a view of what is happening in the network,
 Warner said.

 In contrast, the table will allow the network manager to get a
 snapshot of the state of the entire enterprise network at any given
 time, including whether various devices are on or off and what they
 are connected to.  The table will also include a programming interface
 so that automated Netview applications can make use of the status
 information in responding to network events, according to Warner.

 Metropolitan Life is very interested in the idea of a "table-driven
 method of updating status information," Bortnyk said.

 In particular, he added, the firm would like to see a more dynamic way
 of "accumulating configuration and alarm status of both SNA and
 non-SNA devices all in one place and having that system drive the
 graphics display" of network topology.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

the IBM Common User Access graphical model; use of display
 objects as defined by the IBM Systems Application Architecture; and
 support of either IBM's Presentation Manager, Dialog Manager and
 Graphicsview 2 or Easel Corp.'s Easel.

 So, if your vendor meets those four requirements as of today, then it
 is compliant with the initial specifications of the end-user dimension
 of Systemview.

 Hamilton is a Computerworld senior editor, systems and software

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM sketches future plans
 05/27/91
 NEWS
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 IBM last week provided a peek into DB2's future to approximately 1,600
 International DB2 User Group attendees by sketching out key investment
 areas and plans for the next five years.

 In a keynote address, Don Haderle, an IBM fellow and DB2 architect,
 said IBM will invest most of its DB2 development dollars into the five
 areas that users have indicated are high priorities. Haderle offered
 the following breakdown of investment dollars: performance, 25% to
 30%; availability, 25%; distribution, 10% to 12%; application
 functions, 10% to 12%; and systems integration, 8%.

 A key area of performance is DB2's transactions-per-second-rate, which
 the company has beefed up with each release. While DB2 was measured at
 30 trans./ sec. in 1984, Haderle said IBM is projecting that DB2 will
 run at 570 trans./sec. on a top-of-the-line Enterprise System/9000
 Model 900 in 1991.

 For improved data availability, from a data and applications view as
 well as a systems view, IBM is "committed to record-level locking,"
 Haderle said. "We are doing that with OS/2 Extended Edition, and we
 are hoping to roll this into DB2."

 Just in case . . .

 For planned outages, IBM is focusing on partitioning technology that
 would allow users to take down portions of the database for
 maintenance while the remaining portion remains on-line. For unplanned
 outages, IBM has a project under way that would allow users to
 maintain a current, or "hot," version of the database off-site.

 Haderle said users can expect the overall cost of running DB2 to fall
 as IBM moves to more of a processor complex environment. However,
 Haderle suggested that the complex will be made up of
 microprocessor-based systems.

 "In order to get a different price/performance platform, we have to
 get on microprocessor technology," he said. "The energy will be on
 getting us to a different platform, a 370 instruction set, which is
 lower in price," Haderle continued. "It will reduce the cost by moving
 to a different configuration of the 370 architecture. If we look to
 the mid-1990s, there is the capacity for 600 MIPS to 6,000 MIPS under
 one cover."

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ng on an OS/2-based LAN system management server
 that would be able to handle systems management locally without
 depending on Netview and would probably incorporate Hewlett-Packard
 Co.'s Openview, Knapp added. IBM announced recently that it would
 license and incorporate parts of Openview into an AIX-based LAN
 management workstation [CW, April 22].

 IBM is also working with Novell, Inc. to enable Netview to collect
 systems management information from Netware servers, Knapp said.

 Other projects

 Other projects in the works with Novell include enabling IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager to download Netware operating systems
 configurations.

 IBM is also working to improve Netview's ability to track and manage
 the dynamically changing configurations and traffic patterns of a
 distributed computing ennvironment, according to Bill Warner, the
 vendor's director of network management.

 Now in the works is a table that will sit in a virtual memory cache of
 the host and track the status of LANs, Systems Network Architecture
 (SNA) devices and other network devices in a dynamic, on-line fashion,
 Warner said.

 Currently, Netview must poll network devices or wait for alerts to be
 sent in order to get a view of what is happening in the network,
 Warner said.

 In contrast, the table will allow the network manager to get a
 snapshot of the state of the entire enterprise network at any given
 time, including whether various devices are on or off and what they
 are  DB2 not making PC leap
 05/27/91
 NEWS
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 SAN FRANCISCO

 Distributed database may have been the theme of this year's
 International DB2 User Group (IDUG) conference held here last week,
 but users are still taking the slow road to IBM's version of this
 environment.

 IBM is mapping out an enterprisewide strategy using its Distributed
 Relational Database Architecture, and some distributed features have
 been available for the mainframe relational database system since late
 1989. Yet many users are still in the planning stage for distributed
 DB2, and several users seem more interested in connecting DB2 to the
 desktop. Because IBM has not yet announced this function, users are
 making do with basic downloading techniques to bring DB2 data to the
 low-end systems.

 In general, users seem satisfied with IBM's delivery of mainframe
 distributed functions, which have trickled out since the late 1980s.
 However, some users also said they would like to finally be given a
 shipment date for the OS/2 Extended Edition link to DB2.

 This would provide direct access to DB2 from the Database Manager
 under OS/2.

 "I'm really disappointed about OS/2," said Kenneth Paris, a consultant
 at Forecross Corp. here and president-elect of IDUG. "That would start
 to solve problems, like users not having to keep retrieving data from
 the mainframe."

 In response, an IBM spokesman last week confirmed the company is still
 on schedule to make an OS/2-to-DB2 announcement by year's end.

 In the meantime, some users are looking for other solutions or are
 simply downloading information to use DB2 data on the desktop.

 Paul Dufford, a database administrator at Baldor Electric Co. in Fort
 Smith, Ark., said the company's accounting department has been
 downloading DB2 data to a network of Personal System/2s. "They use
 just OS/2, DB2 and [IBM's] Query Management Facility," he said.

 Ronald Schinker, a database administrator at Kimberly-Clark Corp. in
 Neenah, Wis., said his department is currently looking for a tool to
 help download point-of-sale data from DB2 to perform what-if analysis
 on PS/2s.

 Since the late 1980s, IBM has provided distributed functions for
 SQL/DS and DB2 databases to communicate in a like-to-like environment.
  Late last year, IBM said it would announce an availability date for a
 DB2-to-SQL/DS link in late 1991. At that time, it indicated it would
 make an OS/2-to-DB2 announcement in that time frame as well.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

arts of Openview into an AIX-based LAN
 management workstation [CW, April 22].

 IBM is also working with Novell, Inc. to enable Netview to collect
 systems management information from Netware servers, Knapp said.

 Other projects

 Other projects in the works with Novell include enabling IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager to download Netware operating systems
 configurations.

 IBM is also working to improve Netview's ability to track and manage
 the dynamically changing configurations and traffic patterns of a
 distributed computing ennvironment, according to Bill Warner, the
 vendor's director of network management.

 Now in the works is a table that will sit in a virtual memory cache of
 the host and track the status of LANs, Systems Network Architecture
 (SNA) devices and other network devices in a dynamic, on-line fashion,
 Warner said.

 Currently, Netview must poll network devices or wait for alerts to be
 sent in order to get a view of what is happening in the network,
 Warner said.

 In contrast, the table will allow the network manager to get a
 snapshot of the state of the entire enterprise network at any given
 time, including whether various devices are on or off and what they
 are  IBM taps Boarland for OS/2 applications tools
 05/20/91
 NEWS
 Keefe, Patricia

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 IBM let drop last week the first key piece of a plan to deliver an
 OS/2 developers' workbench.

 IBM announced a nonexclusive agreement under which Borland
 International, Inc. will develop specific object-oriented programming
 languages and development tools for the 32-bit OS/2 Version 2.0. That
 will complement an upcoming IBM enhancement to the OS/2 software
 developers' kit.

 The developers' workbench for OS/2 will consist of tools from both IBM
 and third parties, according to John Soyring, director of software
 development and programming at IBM's Personal Systems Group.

 The workbench has been kept under tight wraps and is described as "an
 entire development environment for applications developers."

 The Borland products will be delivered early next year, said Gene
 Wang, vice president of the applications company.

 The first product slated to ship is Borland C++ for OS/2; early
 release copies will be out by year's end. It will contain a "100%"
 ANSI C compiler, a C++ compiler that supports object-oriented
 programming and an object-oriented 32-bit assembler, debugger and
 profiler, along with a visual resource editing capability that
 reportedly enables developers to build user interfaces quickly.  IBM
 chose Borland over others for several reasons, Soyring said. For
 example, he surveyed third-party developers and uncovered a demand for
 object-oriented programming tools, preferably in C++.

 Moreover, not only has Borland's technology racked up positive
 reviews, but its sales were also "outstanding," he said.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ery Management Facility," he said.

 Ronald Schinker, a database administrator at Kimberly-Clark Corp. in
 Neenah, Wis., said his department is currently looking for a tool to
 help download point-of-sale data from DB2 to perform what-if analysis
 on PS/2s.

 Since the late 1980s, IBM has provided distributed functions for
 SQL/DS and DB2 databases to communicate in a like-to-like environment.
  Late last year, IBM said it would announce an availability date for a
 DB2-to-SQL/DS link in late 1991. At that time, it indicated it would
 make an OS/2-to-DB2 announcement in that time frame as well.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

arts of Openview into an AIX-based LAN
 management workstation [CW, April 22].

 IBM is also working with Novell, Inc. to enable Netview to collect
 systems management information from Netware servers, Knapp said.

 Other projects

 Other projects in the works with Novell include enabling IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager to download Netware operating systems
 configurations.

 IBM is also working to improve Netview's ability to track and manage
 the dynamically changing configurations and traffic patterns of a
 distributed computing ennvironment, according to Bill Warner, the
 vendor's director of network management.

 Now in the works is a table that will sit in a virtual memory cache of
 the host and track the status of LANs, Systems Network Architecture
 (SNA) devices and other network devices in a dynamic, on-line fashion,
 Warner said.

 Currently, Netview must poll network devices or wait for alerts to be
 sent in order to get a view of what is happening in the network,
 Warner said.

 In contrast, the table will allow the network manager to get a
 snapshot of the state of the entire enterprise network at any given
 time, including whether various devices are on or off and what they
 are  Fruits of the IBM/Novell union
 05/13/91
 NETWORKING
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 The following are some of the benefits of the IBM/Novell relationship:

 In April, IBM announced DOS PC client coexistence with Netware v3.11,
 allowing PC clients to access either IBM's Application System/400
 midrange computers or Novell's Netware servers.

 In March, Novell announced IBM Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN)
 end-node support for Netware. APPN, the routing protocol for IBM's
 LU6.2 application programming interface, allows communications between
 computers without the intervention of a mainframe.

 In March, IBM announced Lanres/VM, which lets Netware 386 Token Ring
 LANs and IBM VM mainframes share printers and disk files and allows
 users to administer Netware on the mainframe.

 Other possibilities include Netware for IBM 32-bit OS/2 and RISC
 System/6000 platforms and Netware/LAN Server interoperability.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

r, debugger and
 profiler, along with a visual resource editing capability that
 reportedly enables developers to build user interfaces quickly.  IBM
 chose Borland over others for several reasons, Soyring said. For
 example, he surveyed third-party developers and uncovered a demand for
 object-oriented programming tools, preferably in C++.

 Moreover, not only has Borland's technology racked up positive
 reviews, but its sales were also "outstanding," he said.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ery Management Facility," he said.

 Ronald Schinker, a database administrator at Kimberly-Clark Corp. in
 Neenah, Wis., said his department is currently looking for a tool to
 help download point-of-sale data from DB2 to perform what-if analysis
 on PS/2s.

 Since the late 1980s, IBM has provided distributed functions for
 SQL/DS and DB2 databases to communicate in a like-to-like environment.
  Late last year, IBM said it would announce an availability date for a
 DB2-to-SQL/DS link in late 1991. At that time, it indicated it would
 make an OS/2-to-DB2 announcement in that time frame as well.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

arts of Openview into an AIX-based LAN
 management workstation [CW, April 22].

 IBM is also working with Novell, Inc. to enable Netview to collect
 systems management information from Netware servers, Knapp said.

 Other projects

 Other projects in the works with Novell include enabling IBM's Netview
 Distribution Manager to download Netware operating systems
 configurations.

 IBM is also working to improve Netview's ability to track and manage
 the dynamically changing configurations and traffic patterns of a
 distributed computing ennvironment, according to Bill Warner, the
 vendor's director of network management.

 Now in the works is a table that will sit in a virtual memory cache of
 the host and track the status of LANs, Systems Network Architecture
 (SNA) devices and other network devices in a dynamic, on-line fashion,
 Warner said.

 Currently, Netview must poll network devices or wait for alerts to be
 sent in order to get a view of what is happening in the network,
 Warner said.

 In contrast, the table will allow the network manager to get a
 snapshot of the state of the entire enterprise network at any given
 time, including whether various devices are on or off and what they
 are  IBM edges closer to Netware;
 Move to Netware not seen as end to LAN Server, IBM
 executive claims
 05/13/91
 NETWORKING
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 IBM wants to make the nuances between IBM's OS/2 LAN Server and
 Novell, Inc.'s Netware as subtle as those "between a Buick and an
 Oldsmobile," said Bob Roth, IBM's manager of enterprise local-area
 network communications strategy and design. That is the goal of
 technical cooperative efforts between the two vendors, he said in an
 interview at IBM's Research Triangle Park, N.C., facility recently.

 IBM is holding fast to the "separate but equal" position it took in
 February, when it announced it would market Novell's widespread
 Netware network operating system alongside its own offering, OS/2 LAN
 Server. The move was deemed by some industry observers to be a death
 knell for LAN Server, a perception Roth said was incorrect.

 On a technical basis, Roth said, customers today could choose either
 network operating system. "We don't know what people will do. That
 decision will depend on individual preferences."

 However, he added, "I really do feel we're putting the same energy and
 attention into both LAN environments. The two networks are very close
 to each other functionally, though people have trouble believing
 that."

 Roth said that "interoperability from a communications and management
 perspective is the biggest customer issue today."

 However, Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network
 Architects, Inc., a consultancy in Washington, D.C., said that while
 "interoperability is what the whole Novell/IBM relationship is about,
 by definition, if two things have to be made interoperable, that's an
 admission that they're not the same."

 He said that the Netware/ LAN Server choice is not the "draw" Roth
 paints. In situations where a company requires a stand-alone LAN,
 "there's no reason for Netware not to be sold." But for integrated
 LANs needing security and interconnection to mainframes, he said, LAN
 Server is the better choice.

 IBM decided in mid-1989, Roth said, that it could not ignore the
 Novell-dominated distributed environment, "just as Novell couldn't
 escape the mainframe path." IBM formed the Enterprise LAN Group in
 mid-1990 to bring together the two worlds.

 The relationship has "caused confusion for the IBM customer,"
 commented Steve Morse, an information systems officer at Manufacturers
 Hanover Trust Co. in New York, a large Netware shop. "Many customers
 aren't sure which to buy or why. For us, we know we want Netware. Once
 you have it and it's satisfactory, why mix envi

 ronments? It sounds like IBM is walking away from a product line, but
 it's really hard to say."

 "It's not clear to me which way IBM is going to go," said Jerry Noble,
 director of telecommunications and personal computer support at the
 American Cancer Society in Houston, an OS/2-oriented shop.  He said
 his organization is currently running Netware because its accounting
 package requires it to manage its hard disk drive storage; otherwise,
 he would have installed LAN Server.

 Now, however, since Netware is slated to be ported to the OS/2
 platform when Version 2.0 is released at the end of the year, "we'll
 probably stick with Novell," Noble added.

 Noble said he hopes the need for two LAN operating systems will
 eventually disappear. The organization will be downsizing its
 computing operations and installing 600 to 800 OS/2-based LANs during
 the next two years, and there are a lot of in-house support issues
 involved with running two LANs.

 Roth acknowledged that IBM has "not been as successful as [Novell
 President and Chief Executive Officer] Ray Noorda" in the LAN
 business, citing 20,000 to 30,000 LAN Server installations to date;
 Novell represents the lion's share of the network operating system
 market with millions of installations.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ng to Warner.

 Metropolitan Life is very interested in the idea of a "table-driven
 method of updating status information," Bortnyk said.

 In particular, he added, the firm would like to see a more dynamic way
 of "accumulating configuration and alarm status of both SNA and
 non-SNA devices all in one place and having that system drive the
 graphics display" of network topology.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

the IBM Common User Access graphical model; use of display
 objects as defined by the IBM Systems Application Architecture; and
 support of either IBM's Presentation Manager, Dialog Manager and
 Graphicsview 2 or Easel Corp.'s Easel.

 So, if your vendor meets those four requirements as of today, then it
 is compliant with the initial specifications of the end-user dimension
 of Systemview.

 Hamilton is a Computerworld senior editor, systems and software

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 View, Calif., personal computer software vendor.  The cut was
 made because of a recent corporate reorganization and unexpectedly
 slow revenue growth, according to the company.

 Airline price-fixing suit expanded

 A major antitrust suit, which alleges that nine U.S. airlines have
 used an electronic tariff database to engage in price-fixing, got even
 bigger last week. U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta
 agreed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Index, Sage pool forces to take on CASE
 05/06/91
 COMPUTER INDUSTRY
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 COMPUTER INDUSTRY
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 In 1990, front-end computer-aided software engineering (CASE) pioneer
 Index Technology Corp. had big plans to expand its product line to all
 segments of the applications development life cycle. The Cambridge,
 Mass.-based company was reaching beyond its design tool business into
 re-engineering territory and spoke of a code generator under
 development.

 Today, Index's wish to be a complete tool set provider is coming true,
 but not exactly in the way it had once planned.

 Earlier this year, Index -- a high-profile veteran of the CASE field
 -- merged with Rockville, Md.-based back-end CASE vendor Sage
 Software, Inc. to become a new entity: Intersolv, Inc.  The merger
 announcement came in late 1990, when Index was preparing to announce
 an annual loss.

 However, Intersolv executives insist the deal simply joins two
 companies with complementary products and was not driven by Index's
 financial condition.

 In the major league

 The merger creates a $75 million company, which, in the CASE market,
 is a big-time player. The combined user base will number about
 100,000.

 Between Index's flagship Excelerator design tool line and Sage's APS
 generator, Intersolv's product line addresses most of the CASE life
 cycle, including front-end design, re-engineering and code generation.
 Plus, the firm has a coveted alliance with IBM that makes it one of
 the key AD/Cycle inner circle members.

 This relationship, developed specifically around AD/Cycle, goes well
 beyond IBM's traditional marketing partnerships.

 "Knowledgeware was overwhelming the industry with its marketing and
 sales, and that's not healthy," said Aaron Zornes, a vice president at
 Meta Group, Inc.  "I think the merger is very important for the health
 of the industry," he added.

 As separate companies, the picture was not so rosy, particularly for
 Index. Although the firm had a well-established reputation in the CASE
 market, it started to lose ground last year. Knowledgeware, Inc.,
 which belonged to the IBM AD/Cycle core group along with Index, was
 emerging as the dominant player in the IBM CASE market.

 Although Knowledgeware announced an IBM OS/2-based product at the end
 of 1990, Index was unable to do so. Index spoke of a March 1991 date
 for shipment of an OS/2-based version of Excelerator.  Intersolv
 executives now say that target date was only for a beta-test re

 lease. They also say they now expect to deliver the product by year's
 end.

 With the merger, Index "gets a second chance," according to Vaughan
 Merlyn, a partner at the Boston-based Ernst & Young Center for
 Information Technology and Strategy.  "They had established the
 [design and analysis] market, but then others started stealing their
 market share," Merlyn said. "Then, the financial situation had
 weakened them to the point where they weren't going to easily make it
 by themselves," he added.

 Sage, meanwhile, maintained a solid reputation with its code generator
 but was not perceived as a core CASE tools vendor, in part because it
 was not closely associated with IBM's AD/Cycle. By combining forces,
 the two companies have the chance both to fix their individual
 problems and to focus on their common goal of providing a full set of
 tools, analysts said.

 Intersolv also intends to promote a less rigid approach to CASE, which
 could appeal to users who have been struggling with the strict methods
 some tools impose. Kevin Burns, Intersolv's chief executive officer,
 said the strategy calls for tools that are flexible enough to
 accommodate different methodologies. This reflects a CASE approach
 that Index promoted with Excelerator. The design tool could be
 tailored to different methodologies, including information
 engineering.

 "It has to be flexible enough to be configured to the different
 cultural and project requirements," Burns said. "The premise [espoused
 by] our competitors holds that the reverse is true."

 The biggest challenge for the new Intersolv will be integrating the
 product line, analysts said.

 "They have to smash their product lines together, by either
 integrating them or coming out with a new product line," Merlyn said.
 "They have some technological challenges, and they are nontrivial. It
 will be tough."

 A second challenge springs from the IBM relationship. While it will no
 doubt give Intersolv a marketing boost, it will also place the company
 in the strange position of simultaneously being IBM's partner and
 competitor. The AD/Cycle agreement covers some Intersolv products;
 however, it excludes the company's applications generator because IBM
 is determined to make its own generator, Cross System Product, a
 success.

 "The customer should decide," Burns said. "There will be times when
 [Cross System Product] is right, and at other times, [Intersolv's] APS
 will be right for the requirements."

 At the same time, Burns said, he expects the IBM relationship to open
 doors. "We are targeting MIS development, and that's largely an IBM
 world," he explained.

 While some analysts said Index could be overshadowed by Sage in the
 new company, they also said the end result will be a stronger company
 overall. In fact, one of the new company's first official moves was a
 layoff of 150 people and a $20 million charge against earnings for the
 fourth quarter, ended last month.

 "They had too many people," said Paul Bloom, an analyst at San
 Francisco-based Volpe, Welty & Co.  "It was a powerful move and a
 necessary consequence of the transaction."

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

reed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 INSIDE LINES
 04/22/91
 OVERVIEW


 OVERVIEW
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Jim Manzi's Excel-ent adventure

 Lotus' 1-2-3- for Microsoft's Windows went into beta testing last week
 with an initial rollout to about 20 of Lotus' top customrrs.  By
 summer, Lotus chief Jim Manzi expects to have shipped from 1,000 to
 2,000 beta-test copies.  Manzi refused to talk specifics but did say
 customers love the backwards compatibility built into 1-2-3/W. He also
 hinted at a tighter "fit and finish" with other Lotus Windows-based
 products.

 Did Dick Tracy be5ta-test this?

 The Hewlett-Packard/Lotus palmtop will be introduced this week, along
 with new pager technology from Motorola that will reportedly allow HP
 palmtop users to receive text messages and incorporate them into
 applications virtually anywhere they happen to be.

 Turnaround channel

 A triumphant Gary held, chief executive officer of Northgate Computer
 Systems, is expected to announce today that Northgate had a profit of
 $ 2.24 million on $ 46.94 million in sales in the first quarter of
 1991.  Held calls the last three months a turnaround case study made
 for Harvard Business School. Skeptics eyeing the brewing storm clouds
 of PC price pressures might point out that Harvard prefers bussinesses
 to do well for an entire year.

 Vines outgrowth

 Banyan Systems Vines users who are disappointed that the network does
 not yet support Apple Macintosh clients can take heart. One Vines
 customer at the recent user conference in Montreal said he had
 volunteered to be a Macintosh client beta-test site in six months, but
 Banyan had replied it would be ready for beta testing much sooner than
 that.

 Looking for your Achiles' heel

 Among the latest confidence scams traveling around the Internet is a
 Trojan horse in the form of a game and mail message that asks the
 recipient to beta-test the game and provide the developer with
 feedback.  The game includes a program designed to sneakily capture
 logons and passwords.  In another scam, a message supposedly from the
 systems administrator asks users to temporarily change their passwords
 to a common password as part of a security check.  In the interim, a
 hacker enters their accounts and sets up trapdoors that allow him t
 freely return later.

 A chick-and-egg classic

 A dedicated band of users and vendors, including DEC, IBM and the U.S.
 Department of Defense Internet folks, are doggedly trying to come up
 with an application programming interface (API) for TCP/IP. The
 protocol was originally designed "as an interoperability tool, not a
 program development tool," so it lacks the equivalent of Open Systems
 Interconnect Layer 5 or a standardized application interface, industry
 analyst Frand Dzubeck says.  With TCP/IP's recent apotheosis into a de
 facto networking standard, however, vendors want that API so they can
 fill the demand for TCP/IP-based applications.

 See you in the fall, maybe

 Appearances -- live and taped -- by top level IBM executives John
 Akers and Jack Kuehler last week are proof that concern over OS/2 has
 reached the highest echelons in the company.  One unconfirmed story
 had Akers taking the name badges from IBM desktop software executives,
 telling them they will get them back once OS/2 version 2.0 ships.

 Into the chips

 Among a gaggle of vendors ready to trot out systems based on Intel's
 I486SX -- expected to be announced today -- are AST and Advanced Logic
 Research.

 One humorous line passed on to us last week had Sun's Scott McNealey
 responding to a query on how he measures his worth with the response
 "Milligates," an apparent reference to a recent report that Mr. Bill
 is worth $ 4 billion.  Your best lines should be directed to News
 Editor Pete Bartolik at [phone], faxed to [phone] or
 lodged on Compuserve 76537,2413.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ggest challenge for the new Intersolv will be integrating the
 product line, analysts said.

 "They have to smash their product lines together, by either
 integrating them or coming out with a new product line," Merlyn said.
 "They have some technological challenges, and they are nontrivial. It
 will be tough."

 A second challenge springs from the IBM relationship. While it will no
 doubt give Intersolv a marketing boost, it will also place the company
 in the strange position of simultaneously being IBM's partner and
 competitor. The AD/Cycle agreement covers some Intersolv products;
 however, it excludes the company's applications generator because IBM
 is determined to make its own generator, Cross System Product, a
 success.

 "The customer should decide," Burns said. "There will be times when
 [Cross System Product] is right, and at other times, [Intersolv's] APS
 will be right for the requirements."

 At the same time, Burns said, he expects the IBM relationship to open
 doors. "We are targeting MIS development, and that's largely an IBM
 world," he explained.

 While some analysts said Index could be overshadowed by Sage in the
 new company, they also said the end result will be a stronger company
 overall. In fact, one of the new company's first official moves was a
 layoff of 150 people and a $20 million charge against earnings for the
 fourth quarter, ended last month.

 "They had too many people," said Paul Bloom, an analyst at San
 Francisco-based Volpe, Welty & Co.  "It was a powerful move and a
 necessary consequence of the transaction."

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

reed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 New trends abound in CASE
 04/22/91
 SPOTLIGHT; computer-aided software engineering
 Forte, Gene

 SPOTLIGHT; computer-aided software engineering
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 In the face of fierce competition and industry consolidation,
 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) vendors are scurrying to
 add more functionality to their product lines. There are many trends
 for users to keep an eye on, including the following:

 Cross-development tools.  Local-area network-based cross-development
 tools allow developers to define, generate and test applications on a
 workstation or personal computer, waiting until deployment to specify
 the target platform.

 Because applications need to be specified just once for multiple
 platforms, management can not only defer equipment decisions but also
 move applications or upgrade to new platforms with fewer restrictions.
  Cross-development also provides a CASE environment naturally suited
 to client/server applications.

 CGI Systems, Inc.'s Paclan for OS/2 LANs and Paclan/X for Unix LANs
 exemplify this trend. An application designed on one workstation or a
 group connected by a LAN to a Paclan repository server can be targeted
 at IBM OS/2, MVS and OS/400 platforms or Unix, Tandem Computers, Inc.
 and Digital Equipment Corp. VMS platforms. Andersen Consulting's
 Foundation for Cooperative Processing and the upcoming version of
 Texas Instruments, Inc.'s IEF are two other cross-development
 products.  However, both still require an encyclopedia, or repository,
 based on a target platform.

 Intersolv, Inc.  -- the newly merged Sage Software and Index
 Technology Corp.  -- has moved its APS workbench to the PC network, as
 has Software AG of North America, Inc. with its recently announced
 Entire architecture.

 &Hypertext guidance for CASE development methods. Faithfully following
 a rigorous development method can be difficult for new CASE users.
 Some vendors now offer methodology guidance tools that use hypertext
 to support method-browsing at various levels of detail.

 These tools use built-in application examples to help developers
 through rough spots. For example, The Delphi Group's Software
 Engineering Environment provides a guidance facility for a variety of
 preconfigured common methods, although it also accommodates
 proprietary processes.

 James Martin Associates' IE Expert gives a comprehensive explanation
 of the information engineering method with stages, tasks, deliverables
 and typical examples. The developer can explore information
 engineering in any sequence to the depth desired and can hot-key to
 tools such as TI's IEF and Knowledgeware, Inc.'s Information
 Engineering Workbench.

 &Practical approaches to reuse. CASE vendors are starting to provide
 facilities that allow developers to reuse code.  For large-scale
 reuse, Andersen Consulting's Designware products come with turnkey
 applications implemented using the company's Foundation environment.
 Developers can create a customized version of a generic application by
 modifying data definitions and screens and regenerating the
 application without touching source code.

 TI is pursuing a similar strategy with its IEF templates. These
 include a complete general ledger package and an upcoming investment
 management system for insurance and mutual funds companies derived
 from Control Data Corp.'s IMIS.

 Computrol, Inc. is taking a different approach to making its Master
 Financial System reusable. Instead of a top-down code-generation
 environment, Computrol has made the product modular and has added
 parameters for each functional subsystem. Developers can select and
 customize the desired functionality simply by altering tables and
 screens.

 Traditional reuse focuses on small modules of functionality -- called
 objects -- with well-defined interfaces that can be assembled into
 larger applications. Because graphical user interfaces (GUI) are an
 ideal application for the object paradigm, GUI tools such as Apple
 Computer, Inc.'s Macapp and the X Window System library are among the
 leading facilitators of small-scale reuse.

 However, newer products extend the simple GUI building blocks to more
 powerful objects that are essentially miniapplications.  Examples of
 those tools include Asymetrix Corp.'s Toolbook for Windows 3.0,
 Expertelligence, Inc.'s Spokeaction and Integrated Systems Division's
 Systembuild.

 &CASE for the chief executive officer. The newest niche of CASE tools
 allows business processes to be directly modeled and automatically
 converted to functioning computer systems.

 Vendors catering to this niche claim that CEOs as well as applications
 developers will find the tools useful. One example is Metavision from
 Applied Axiomatics, Inc. Key to the company's approach is its
 Cybernetic Business Model, which generates systems directly from a
 visual model of business operations.

 Daisys from S/Cubed, Inc. allows businesspeople and developers to use
 familiar objects to describe the requirements of a computer system.

 Forte is president of Portland, Ore., based CASE Consulting Group and
 executive editor of "CASE Outlook", an international journal on
 software design automation

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

the
 fourth quarter, ended last month.

 "They had too many people," said Paul Bloom, an analyst at San
 Francisco-based Volpe, Welty & Co.  "It was a powerful move and a
 necessary consequence of the transaction."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

reed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 04/22/91
 NEWS; news shorts


 NEWS; news shorts
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 HP plans gallium arsenide chips

 Hewlett-Packard Co.'s mainframe-class computer, slated to be out this
 time next year, is expected to incorporate gallium arsenide chip
 technology. The eight-processor reduced instruction set computing
 machine "will not necessarily be more powerful than IBM's mainframes,
 but it will be up there," said Richard Sevcik, general manager of HP's
 Commercial Systems Division. Being developed in conjunction with
 Hitachi Ltd., the computer will have four to five times the speed of
 current HP machines with a 1G byte/sec. I/O bus, according to Sevcik.

 Multiuser CASE tool offeredMcDonnell Douglas Information Systems
 International announced a multiuser version of its Prokit Workbench
 system for computer-aided software engineering (CASE) last week. The
 company, a division of McDonnell Douglas Corp., said Prokit Workbench
 Multiuser gives better project control and enables a software
 development team working on a network to use a common, integrated
 repository to improve performance and first-time software quality.
 Panel probes FTS-2000

 A congressional panel last week lambasted management of the federal
 government's huge communications contract, charging that the agency
 overseeing carriers AT&T and U.S. Sprint Communications Co. had wasted
 millions of taxpayer dollars by steering too much business to Sprint,
 the higher cost provider. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the
 House Government Operations Committee, also charged that the U.S.
 General Services Administration (GSA) caved in to Sprint's protest at
 the GSA's attempts to recover some $6 million to $11 million in
 alleged overcharges.

 Micrografx signs up for OS/2

 Joining the OS/2 development team is Richardson, Texas-based
 Micrografx, Inc., which inked a long-term joint development pact with
 IBM last week. Micrografx will assist IBM in boosting the speed and
 performance of the OS/2 Presentation Manager graphics engine. Using an
 "advanced" version of its Mirrors technology, it will also develop
 migration tools for porting Windows 3.0 applications and device
 drivers to OS/2 Version 2.0. In addition, Micrografx will develop a
 Presentation Manager device driver development kit and will provide
 device drivers for a new Adobe Systems, Inc. Postscript, matrix film
 recorder and other drivers for OS/2 Presentation Manager.

 Computer dealers merge

 The latest example of computer dealer consolidation has claimed
 Inacomp Computer Centers, Inc. and Valcom, Inc. The two firms
 announced a merger last week that should be finalized this summer.
 Both companies' directors and their stockholders will have roughly a
 50-50 stake in the new firm, to be called Inacom Corp. The
 announcement closely follows the recent purchase agreement between
 Computerland Corp.  and Nynex Business Centers and perpetuates a
 consolidation trend among major personal computer resellers.

 Tandem plans PBX link

 Tandem Computers, Inc. is expected today to announce a software
 product designed to directly connect its hosts to AT&T and Northern
 Telecom, Inc. private branch exchange (PBX) systems.  Scheduled for
 release in the third quarter, Tandem Call Applications Manager was
 designed to support call-center applications such as customer service,
 order entry, reservations and telemarketing.  For example, a
 customer's caller identification number can be used to access the
 customer's file on a Tandem host and send it to the terminal of the
 service representative that is picking up the call.  The initial
 software release, slated for the third quarter, will support Northern
 Telecom's Meridian 1 and SL-1 as well as AT&T's Definity Generic 1 and
 Generic 2 and System 85 PBXs.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 and the X Window System library are among the
 leading facilitators of small-scale reuse.

 However, newer products extend the simple GUI building blocks to more
 powerful objects that are essentially miniapplications.  Examples of
 those tools include Asymetrix Corp.'s Toolbook for Windows 3.0,
 Expertelligence, Inc.'s Spokeaction and Integrated Systems Division's
 Systembuild.

 &CASE for the chief executive officer. The newest niche of CASE tools
 allows business processes to be directly modeled and automatically
 converted to functioning computer systems.

 Vendors catering to this niche claim that CEOs as well as applications
 developers will find the tools useful. One example is Metavision from
 Applied Axiomatics, Inc. Key to the company's approach is its
 Cybernetic Business Model, which generates systems directly from a
 visual model of business operations.

 Daisys from S/Cubed, Inc. allows businesspeople and developers to use
 familiar objects to describe the requirements of a computer system.

 Forte is president of Portland, Ore., based CASE Consulting Group and
 executive editor of "CASE Outlook", an international journal on
 software design automation

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

the
 fourth quarter, ended last month.

 "They had too many people," said Paul Bloom, an analyst at San
 Francisco-based Volpe, Welty & Co.  "It was a powerful move and a
 necessary consequence of the transaction."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

reed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM taps HP's Openview for Unix strategy
 04/22/91
 NEWS
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 NEW YORK

 IBM has announced plans to use pieces of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s
 Openview technology to fill a yawning gap in its Unix network
 management strategy.

 IBM has licensed portions of the Openview technology from HP and is
 planning to implement them on an AIX-RISC System/6000 network
 management platform, although no time frame was offered for a specific
 product.  The platform will initially manage AIX and some HP-UX
 workstations, said Bill Warner, IBM's director of network management.

 IBM will base its Openview system on its Systems Application
 Architecture data structure and user interface, according to Warner.

 This will provide consistency and easier integration between the Unix
 system and other IBM management platforms, such as Netview and the
 OS/2 Extended LAN Network Manager, Warner added.

 Unix connection

 IBM's Openview product plans mesh with the needs of companies that
 combine a strong IBM host installation with a growing base of
 distributed Unix systems, said Don Czubeck, president of Gen2
 Ventures, a research firm in Saratoga, Calif. "Some departments don't
 have any IBM hosts at all, and IBM doesn't want to be left out," he
 added. In addition, Unix-based systems are more suitable for the
 emerging generation of distributed, graphics-based network management
 applications, Czubeck said.

 One likely customer of IBM's Openview system is Deere & Co.  The
 company uses Netview to manage its Systems Network Architecture host
 network but has searched in vain for an effective platform to manage
 its Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol worldwide network
 of Unix workstations, said Tom Hein, the firm's manager of technical
 support.

 Providing integrated management has become crucial to Deere since it
 became dependent on Unix-based production applications that are
 distributed to factory sites, Hein said. "We have applications that
 run on both environments that have to work together," he added.

 Still in question, however, is whether IBM will expand the Openview
 product's role beyond the departmental local-area network niche to the
 management of enterprisewide networks, Ernst & Young partner David
 Passmore said.

 Warner left open the possibility that the Openview-based system could
 be used as an enterprise management system.  Its scope would be
 limited only by the RS/6000's capacity, he added.  However, IBM is far
 from determining the system's ultimate role, Warner said.  It will act
 as an element manager that can feed Unix LAN management data and
 alerts to IBM's central Systemview and Netview platforms, he added.

 The road to Openview

 IBM became acquainted with Openview while working with HP on the two
 companies' joint submission of a Distributed Management Environment
 (DME) proposal to the Open Software Foundation (OSF), Warner said.

 "It was a natural next step to look at Openview when we were looking
 at AIX network management," Warner added.

 IBM will be pressured to grant its system full status as an enterprise
 management system if Openview becomes an official part of the OSF's
 DME architecture, Passmore said.

 IBM will want to gain access to the broadening user and vendor base
 support that the system will garner as an official standard, he added.

 Both IBM and HP have pledged to support DME, whether or not their
 technology is chosen by the OSF.  However, IBM will find it harder to
 support the OSF platform if it is not based on Openview, Warner said.

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 toll free 1 [phone] * *
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Copyright 1989,1990,1991 Operation OS/2
 04/22/91
 NEWS
 Keefe, Patricia

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Goaded into action by anxious users and skeptical developers, IBM went
 on the OS/2 offensive last week, unveiling a multipart strategy for
 recapturing the desktop mind-set.

 The strategy to boost acceptance of the operating system includes the
 following:

 Cutting the cost of OS/2 Version 1.3 Standard Edition from $340 to
 $150 and OS/2 1.3 Extended Edition from $830 to $690. IBM DOS users
 can upgrade to OS/2 1.3 for $99 and to Extended Edition for $635.

 A free upgrade to OS/2 Version 2.0 for customers who buy either OS/2
 1.3 Standard or Extended Editions between April 17 and Dec. 31.

 The promise of running Windows software under OS/2.

 Announced support for OS/2 2.0 and the unbundled Extended Edition
 components from hardware vendors Compaq Computer Corp., Olivetti
 Systems & Networks and Tandy Corp.

 Pledges to port applications to OS/2 2.0 from Hewlett-Packard Co., SAS
 Institute, Inc., Bachman Information Systems, Inc., Intelligent
 Environments, Inc., Knowledgeware, Inc., Corel Systems Corp.,
 Describe, Inc., Ventura Software, Inc., Metaphor Computer Systems,
 Inc. and others.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

zubeck said.

 One likely customer of IBM's Openview system is Deere & Co.  The
 company uses Netview to manage its Systems Network Architecture host
 network but has searched in vain for an effective platform to manage
 its Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol worldwide network
 of Unix workstations, said Tom Hein, the firm's manager of technical
 support.

 Providing integrated management has become crucial to Deere since it
 became dependent on Unix-based production applications that are
 distributed to factory sites, Hein said. "We have applications that
 run on both environments that have to work together," he added.

 Still in question, however, is whether IBM will expand the Openview
 product's role beyond the departmental local-area network niche to the
 management of enterprisewide networks, Ernst & Young partner David
 Passmore said.

 Warner left open the possibility that the Openview-based system could
 be used as an enterprise management system.  Its scope would be
 limited only by the RS/6000's capacity, he added.  However, IBM is far
 from determining the system's ultimate role, Warner said.  It will act
 as an element manager that can feed Unix LAN management data and
 alerts to IBM's central Systemview and Netview platforms, he added.

 The road to Openview

 IBM became acquainted with Openview while working with HP on the two
 companies' joint submission of a Distributed Management Environment
 (DME) proposal to the Open Software Foundation (OSF), Warner said.

 "It was a natural next step to look at Openview when we were looking
 at AIX network management," Warner added.

 IBM will be pressured to grant its system full status as an enterprise
 management system if Openview becomes an official part of the OSF's
 DME architecture, Passmore said.

 IBM will want to gain access to the broadening user and vendor base
 support that the system will garner as an official standard, he added.

 Both IBM and HP have pledged to support DME, whether or not their
 technology is chosen by the OSF.  However, IBM will find it harder to
 support the OSF platform if it is not based on Openview, Warner said.

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 toll free 1 [phone] * *
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Copyright 1989,1990,1991Third-party software helps maximize RS/6000 power
 04/15/91
 NETWORKING
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 NETWORKING
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 MONTREAL

 A seemingly innocent piece of software from a third-party vendor is
 allowing a large credit union to leverage the IBM RISC System/6000
 workstation as the cornerstone of a half million dollar file transfer
 project set to go into production next month.

 La Confederation de Caisses Populaires et d'Economie Desjardins du
 Quebec is a $40 billion computer services bureau that manages 20
 million accounts for customers of 1,400 independent credit unions in
 the province.

 Electronic payroll deposits currently funneled to the company's IBM
 MVS mainframe-based data center through two IBM Personal System/2s are
 now peaking at 350 transactions per second, according to Leslie
 Satenstein, the project's leader.

 The burgeoning dial-up traffic requires the transfer of about 2M bytes
 of data per second, which consumes more processing power than the
 PS/2s can handle, Satenstein said. La Confederation has chosen an
 RS/6000 running at 27.5 million instructions per second (MIPS) to
 replace the PS/2s.

 In addition to the workstation's horsepower and Unix base, the
 platform was chosen because of the emergence of software that allows
 fast, unattended bidirectional RS/6000-to-mainframe file transfers.

 Advanced communications

 Since December, La Confederation has been testing the MLINK Advanced
 Program-to-Program Communications System (Macs), which officially
 started shipping last month from $1.5 million company Computer
 Microsystems, Inc. in Lebanon, N.H.

 Although it represents a tiny percentage of the dollars invested in
 the file-transfer upgrade project, Satenstein said, Macs was the first
 domino to fall in allowing the firm to choose the RS/6000 as its
 security liaison between dial-in customers and the data center's
 multiple IBM 3090 mainframes.

 Macs allows the disparate computers to initiate a session, transfer
 files and submit commands for execution by a remote system.
 Communications can flow in either direction and are unattended. To
 date, no similar product is available from IBM, Satenstein said.

 Although he hears such a product is in the offing, "IBM announcements
 generally precede availability, and of course, IBM pricing is much
 different," Satenstein commented. "This you can't beat for the price."

 The bidirectional communications utility is available from Tandem
 Computers, Inc. to allow its Cyclone mainframe-class minicomputer to
 intercommunicate with IBM mainframes. However, the Cyclone runs at
 just 9 MIPS, according to Satenstein.

 The bidirectional flow, he added, is key because file transfers are
 tracked and logged every step of the way throughout the network. Once
 an electronic payroll deposit reaches the banking application on a
 mainframe, the mainframe must be able to communicate the status of the
 job that was executed for the customer back to the RS/6000.

 In addition to the RS/6000 and the Cyclone, La Confederation
 considered an IBM mainframe, X.25 packet switch and OS/2-based
 local-area network as PS/2 replacements.

 However, "these would have been too costly for our clientele and for
 us," Satenstein explained. "If you ask customers to transmit via X.25
 or [Systems Network Architecture], they have to buy a $1,000 card for
 their computer and spend $1,000 for a special type of modem. With a
 LAN, we'd have to equip all the PCs with the largest possible hard
 disk to handle all the customers.

 "With this system," Satenstein continued, "we just give our customers
 the communications software free, and the most they have to invest is
 $150 for a modem if they don't already have one."

 Modem manager

 The electronic file transfers reach the RS/6000 over dial-up telephone
 lines front-ended by a Digital Pathways, Inc. Defender "callback box."

 Defender manages modems running the gamut of speeds up to 19.2K
 bit/sec. The box receives a call, checks a database on the RS/6000 and
 dials back the customer.

 When the callback is complete, communications begin, and file
 transfers are tracked and logged at every juncture.

 Satenstein said the RS/6000's Unix base was important because "we were
 looking for a Unix-to-Unix data transfer capability to satisfy 500
 potential Unix customers. We know the market is there; it's just
 waiting for us."

 Satenstein added that the 500 would-be Unix customers are above and
 beyond the minimum 2,000 customers the credit union expects to be
 serving within the year -- more than 10 times the 200 customers it now
 serves.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 a
 visual model of business operations.

 Daisys from S/Cubed, Inc. allows businesspeople and developers to use
 familiar objects to describe the requirements of a computer system.

 Forte is president of Portland, Ore., based CASE Consulting Group and
 executive editor of "CASE Outlook", an international journal on
 software design automation

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

the
 fourth quarter, ended last month.

 "They had too many people," said Paul Bloom, an analyst at San
 Francisco-based Volpe, Welty & Co.  "It was a powerful move and a
 necessary consequence of the transaction."

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

reed to turn the 1990 suit filed by some 40 individuals and
 businesses into a class-action suit that covers approximately 12.5
 million airline passengers. Edward Krugman, an attorney for Delta
 Airlines, Inc., said that the action makes the suit "unmanageable as
 well as unfounded." So far, the United States Department of Justice's
 study of possible price-signaling on the tariff database has reached
 no conclusions [CW, June 9].

 Equitable's loss is Macmillan's gain

 Louis B. Hughes, formerly senior vice president for information
 technology at the Equitable Insurance Cos. in New York, has joined The
 Maxwell Macmillan Group, a New York-based publishing and information
 services concern. Among Macmillan's products is the Official Airline
 Guide.  "It was an outstanding opportunity," said Hughes, who works at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM aims at financial services
 04/08/91
 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Ambrosio, Johanna

 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 IBM recently added six packages to its financial services arsenal
 including five applications packages and one that will facilitate
 electronic payments.

 IBM also will make available OS/2 and AIX versions of its Consumer
 Transaction platform automation software this summer, said Thomas G.
 Hudson, vice president of IBM's Finance Industries Services Sector
 Division. IBM is also developing risk analysis and financial
 performance software designed to be used by global financial
 institutions, Hudson added.

 The electronic payments package, called Netpay/MVS, was developed by
 Advantage Systems, Inc. in Waltham, Mass., and is based on the
 electronic data interchange standard. The software, for which IBM now
 has marketing rights, will help financial institutions generate
 fee-based services for existing and new customers, IBM said.

 Netpay/MVS allows banks and other users to receive payment orders
 electronically and to prepare those orders for processing by the
 user's in-house payment system. The software is installed at the Royal
 Bank of Canada, among other institutions, Hudson said.

 The other five packages are Profitability Management, Asset Liability
 Management, Customer Information System, Financial Accounting and Data
 Collection. All can be used with IBM's DB2 database management system.

 Profitability Management provides information about income and expense
 performance, balance sheet levels, statistical volumes and performance
 indicators for business units. It was developed by Hogan Systems, Inc.
  and PNC Financial Corp. and is installed at PNC in Pittsburgh.

 Asset Liability Management is a risk management and planning system
 for assessing the impact of interest rate movements. It allows users
 to project performance based on interest rate fluctuations and to do
 "what if" analysis. The software package was developed by Banking
 Decision Systems, a subsidiary of Logica Data Architects, Inc.

 Customer Information System links all of a customer's different
 accounts and other information about the customer. Users can create
 multiple views of a given customer's accounts. Hogan Systems developed
 the software.

 Financial Accounting is an interface with Dun & Bradstreet Software's
 general-ledger software. Data Collection allows users to gather and
 store data in a common format. The software was developed by Carleton
 Corp

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ghout the network. Once
 an electronic payroll deposit reaches the banking application on a
 mainframe, the mainframe must be able to communicate the status of the
 job that was executed for the customer back to the RS/6000.

 In addition to the RS/6000 and the Cyclone, La Confederation
 considered an IBM mainframe, X.25 packet switch and OS/2-based
 local-area network as PS/2 replacements.

 However, "these would have been too costly for our clientele and for
 us," Satenstein explained. "If you ask customers to transmit via X.25
 or [Systems Network Architecture], they have to buy a $1,000 card for
 their computer and spend $1,000 for a special type of modem. With a
 LAN, we'd have to equip all the PCs with the largest possible hard
 disk to handle all the customers.

 "With this system," Satenstein continued, "we just give our customers
 the communications software free, and the most they have to invest is
 $150 for a modem if they don't already have one."

 Modem manager

 The electronic file transfers reach the RS/6000 over dial-up telephone
 lines front-ended by a Digital Pathways, Inc. Defender "callback box."

 Defender manages modems running the gamut of speeds up to 19.2K
 bit/sec. The  Crucible forges strong links;
 LAN-to WAN connection keeps steel moving and users
 smiling
 04/01/91
 INTEGRATION STRATEGIES; Integrating
 strategies:Intergrating LANS
 Francett, Barbara

 INTEGRATION STRATEGIES; Integrating strategies:Intergrating LANS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Like any good company in the steel business, Crucible Service Centers,
 a specialty steel distributor, knows that saving small scraps can
 really add up.

 Later this month, the Camillus, N.Y.-based firm will finish installing
 a new, multivendor LAN-to-WAN network at the last of its 18 U.S. sales
 and distribution sites. The integrated system has already shaved 36
 seconds from the average order-entry response time, yielding an annual
 companywide savings of up to 35,360 hours, according to Ted Furtch,
 director of MIS.

 "We've had big gains in speed and efficiency," says John P.
 Armbruster, district manager at the New England facility in Auburn,
 Mass., the second Crucible site to receive the new system. He reports
 a daily savings of between two and three hours.

 Switching from an IBM 4361 host and on-site IBM 8100s lets Crucible
 distribution centers quickly share sales history, inventory and
 order-entry applications while still enjoying host access via an
 existing IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) wide-area network,
 Furtch says.

 The new local-area network-based system, called XL-2000, includes AT&T
 Intel Corp. 80286-based desktop workstations linked to AT&T 33-MHz and
 25-MHz file servers and Novell, Inc. Netware Version 2.15 running over
 unshielded twisted pair, all connected to an existing WAN ge 72(see
 details pa).

 Outdated environment

 One of seven divisions of Crucible Materials Corp. headquartered in
 Solvay, N.Y., Crucible Service Centers nationwide were sharing an IBM
 4361 host with the company's Specialty Metals Division. "It was always
 a distributed processing environment," Furtch says, but one badly in
 need of updating.

 In the past, users often had to wait up to 40 seconds for their system
 to handle a transaction. Now, Furtch says, the average response time
 is between three and four seconds.

 Those time savings add up to one hour per user per day, or about 680
 work weeks per year.

 Under the old system, inquiry and sales history reports were generated
 at a central site, then sent to the districts. "We wanted to do all
 order-entry tasks at the district level, including inventory, sales
 information, entering and processing orders and checking stock,"
 Furtch says.

 The major problem was that the IBM 8100s were geared toward batch data
 entry and couldn't keep up with business growth, he explains.

 Heavy use was also a factor. A total of 136 district managers,
 merchandising managers and sales staff members generated 5,000 to
 9,000 transactions daily, including customer orders, inventory
 adjustments, debits, credits, invoice corrections and mill orders,
 Furtch says.

 To handle the new system design, Crucible called in systems integrator
 ERI, Inc. The firm, a value-added reseller for AT&T and Novell,
 recommended building a web of personal computer-based LANs to handle
 independent processing at remote sites via an SNA link to the
 mainframe at headquarters.

 Crucible also considered hardware and operating systems options,
 including Digital Equipment Corp.'s platforms and IBM's Application
 System/400, Furtch says, before deciding "PCs would give us
 flexibility and the most bang for the buck."

 After rejecting 25-MHz IBM Personal Computer servers as too slow and
 also rejecting OS/2, Crucible chose 33-MHz AT&T Workgroup System PCs,
 modems and data circuits. "We liked the idea of having one supplier
 for the remote sites," Furtch says.

 The next big decision was the choice of LAN operating system. The
 group looked at AT&T's Unix System V with LAN Manager and Novell's
 System Fault Tolerant Netware Version 2.15.

 "We considered Unix because of its C base and because communications
 might be easier," Furtch says, "but we decided we wouldn't gain
 anything by going to an unfamiliar operating system." Performance was
 the determining factor.

 "My philosophy is: 'Speed kills -- your competition,' " Furtch
 explains. "We benchmarked both, and at the time, Unix's response time
 just wasn't good enough."

 For the WAN, studies by Crucible and ERI showed that SNA would be a
 better choice.

 Implementation began Jan. 1, 1990. Crucible developed all applications
 and communications software and installed the equipment itself. "They
 wanted their people to know the network from the ground up," explains
 Jim Lahey, ERI field engineering supervisor.

 All told, Crucible spent 1,200 hours in communications development and
 2,000 hours on applications programming.

 After nine months of developing and testing, the first installation
 took place in Rochester, N.Y. The largest site, in Chicago, received
 21 PC workstations. The other sites received between three and 15 PCs.

 LAN plan key

 A key part of the LAN plan was to install and integrate the new system
 incrementally. "When you're rewriting everything, a modular approach
 doesn't affect the business," Furtch says. During the process, the IBM
 8100 network and the new system were bridged together.

 One PC in each location handles communications, while the 8100 handles
 batch processing. Keeping the 8100s lets Crucible stagger
 installation, training and testing.

 Besides faster response time, the LAN-based system lets users call up
 customer sales history at local sites, improving customer service and
 planning. Users can now enter orders, check stock and track orders.

 In addition, searches can now be done by customer, product name and
 part description.

 Executives benefit, too, according to Furtch. A vice president of
 sales in Chicago now gets applications programs for inventory control
 and monitoring. "We can pass data to him through this system for his
 analytical work," Furtch says.

 For now, ERI is handling upgrade questions and assisting in
 trouble-shooting. Eventually, a third-party maintenance firm will take
 over.

 Mainframe databases are already being ported to the LAN, and the next
 step will be to tie in warehouse inventory systems.

 "We like to control our own destiny," Furtch explains.

 "With PCs, we can do that; we're not at the mercy of the suppliers. We
 can modify applications as we please."

 Francett is a free-lance writer based in Bloomfield, N.J.
 Special to CW

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

s at
 Macmillan's executive offices in Greenwich, Conn.

 BIS names Bear as new chief

 BIS Strategic Decisions will be working in a perpetual bear market
 with the appointment of John P. Bear as president and chief executive
 officer. Bear will take over from Charles A. Pesko Jr., who founded
 the Norwell, Mass.-based research firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Recasting IS for the 1990s;
 Consultants preach technology/business linkage, but are
 executives ready to listen?
 03/18/91
 MANAGER'S JOURNAL
 Margolis, Nell

 MANAGER'S JOURNAL
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 From its headquarters in an 18th century townhouse on Boston's
 historic Beacon Hill, a 3-month-old corps of "consultants'
 consultants" is eyeing the information systems function of the future
 y talks about 'informating' business, about bridging the gap between
 information technology and business culture, but nobody is really
 doing it," says Alan Stanford, national director of IS consulting at
 accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young.

 Two years ago, Ernst & Young's management committee decided to try to
 be the one to "really do it." As its vehicle, the committee carved out
 an autonomous consultancy-to-the-consultancy aimed at toppling the
 barriers between business and technology.

 In December, doors opened at the Ernst & Young Center for Information
 Technology and Strategy, a blue-ribbon consulting boutique. A separate
 compensation scheme that removes competition with other Ernst & Young
 colleagues ties center partners' successes to their ability to aid
 their nationwide colleagues with the fruits of high-level,
 multidisciplinary strategizing.

 The center's 40-person lineup includes among others Managing Director
 Bernard F. (Bud) Mathaisal, fresh from his stint as turnaround chief
 information officer at Walt Disney Co.; former McKinsey & Co. banking
 technology consultant Diogo Teixeira; former Index Group Research
 Director Thomas Davenport; and computer-aided software engineering
 (CASE) maven Vaughan Merlyn, who became an Ernst & Young partner in
 January when he merged his CASE research firm into the center.

 The center's goals are simple to state but accomplishing them could
 prove to be far from easy. Not least among the barriers facing the
 fledgling outfit is the reality that the IS world might not be ready
 to be recast.

 "Most IS people still have a very narrow view of their
 responsibilities," concedes center partner Philip Pyburn. "The client
 for most of the work we've done in the past 10 months isn't the IS
 person; it's the CEO."

 To help him and his clients through what could be a bumpy ride from
 status quo to status desirea, Pyburn says he is relying heavily on
 three attributes he learned during his days as a software company
 entrepreneur: "Patience, patience and more patience."

 At Society Corp., a $16 billion Cleveland-based bank holding company
 that inadvertently became a beta-test site of sorts for the center's
 services, the top IS executive admits that much of the world may not
 be ready for the center's view, but he is.

 "There's still a lot of 'not invented here' attitude in some IS
 shops," says Alan Gula, executive vice president of information
 technology. "But I don't care where it's invented. If I can leverage
 it, bring it on."

 Technical personnel who balk at business are a foreseeable stumbling
 block.  However, efforts like the center's also face the problem of
 technical personnel who balk at technology, according to some
 analysts.

 "These days, it isn't 'in' for the IS folks to know too much
 technology or to hang around with the techies," notes Bruce Rogow,
 executive vice president of worldwide analytic resources at Stamford,
 Conn.-based market research firm Gartner Group, Inc.  His own
 propensity to "wallow with the techies," Rogow says, causes raised
 eyebrows among CIO friends.

 A recent Gartner Group survey of CIOs, he says, showed the respondents
 spending 30% of their time on "the business of the business" and 40%
 practicing "management by walking around."

 While the remaining 30% was "spent with the technology team," Rogow
 notes, the lion's share of that portion was devoted to administrative
 and managerial matters within the IS department. A mere 3% to 5% of
 total time per CIO was spent learning new technology.

 Growing competition

 While the center's market may not be ripe, the competition for that
 market is budding. Across the Charles River from the Ernst & Young
 Center, for instance, management consultancy Arthur D. Little, Inc. in
 Cambridge is also preaching the gospel of a new information-informed
 corporate order built on principles of business/IS linkage. In fact,
 the linkage concept is more likely to emerge as one of the dreaded
 buzzwords of the early 1990s than to offer any of its proponents a
 claim to consulting distinction.

 Meanwhile, however, the technologically savvy executives and
 businesswise IS heads whom the center sees as joining to write
 tomorrow's corporate success stories are out there -- if not yet in
 profusion -- to be found and fostered by the center's approach, Gula
 says.

 Society sought the services of Ernst & Young's IS consulting division
 back in 1988 when a homegrown attempt to create an IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Users no longer foucs on SAA;
 Platform still plays a role, but only as part of a
 bigger IS strategy they say
 03/11/91
 NEWS
 Hamilton, Rosemary

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 When IBM presented its Systems Application Architecture (SAA) four
 years ago this week, customers welcomed it as a long-awaited map that
 made sense of a disparate product line and pointed users toward future
 computing paths.

 Since then, they have seen a slow rollout of SAA products, some
 visible IBM stumbles with key SAA pieces and sometimes confusing
 extensions to the basic architecture. Now, many users say that while
 they are still supporting SAA, they are no longer counting on it as
 the final word for their computing strategies.

 While SAA will play a role, many users said they now see it as part of
 their own broader computing strategies that include their own plans,
 other vendors' options and open systems.

 "SAA is pretty basic and fundamental stuff, so it would be hard not to
 accept it," said John Wood, vice president of computer network
 services at the Royal Bank of Canada, where third-party office
 solutions have been installed instead of IBM's Officevision.

 "If anyone is just hanging their hat on it, they are in a lot of
 trouble," Wood said. "It is an important thing, but if you need
 anything in the short term . . . you either look to other vendors'
 products or develop your own."

 Other users contacted recently said they support SAA but are willing
 to look to non-IBM sources to plug gaps in their computing strategy
 that SAA cannot currently fill.

 "We intend to use IBM hardware, and we intend to use IBM software as
 the mainline operating systems," said George Sekely, vice president of
 computers and communications at Canadian Pacific. As far as other
 software is concerned, "it's a wide open world," Sekely said. "If
 IBM's is best, we will use it."

 Take an aggressive stance

 Some users suggested the key is to try to influence IBM's direction
 rather than wait for IBM to guide them. Dick Stromberg, an information
 systems consultant at Du Pont Co., said he works with user groups such
 as Guide to present ideas and get IBM responses on such issues as
 computer-aided software engineering.

 "We feel it's necessary to put our own thinking out there," Stromberg
 said. "We are really looking to move toward open -- I mean
 standards-based -- defined solutions," Stromberg said. "Some people in
 IBM are coming to understand that."

 IBM defends its SAA track record and argues that it has done a good
 job of delivering SAA architectures and associated products. On the
 most basic level, users with any of the SAA-sanctioned products,
 including the four SAA operating systems, are considered SAA users,
 said Earl Wheeler, IBM's senior vice president and head of its
 Programming Systems Division, which handles all SAA efforts.

 In fact, there are several IBM sites that have implemented basic SAA
 pieces, including mainframe-based applications with OS/2 front ends,
 and that consider themselves SAA shops as a result.

 Wheeler further measures his success in two- to three-year windows
 from the time a given SAA initiative such as AD/Cycle is announced.
 Using that framework, Wheeler said IBM has met nearly all product
 shipment deadlines.

 However, there are many other sites that look to SAA to provide them
 with a truly consistent computing platform, and on that level, SAA has
 not yet come through for them.

 "As a vision, it is great, but it just hasn't happened yet," said
 Charles Walton, a senior consultant and team leader of IS at Covia
 Partnership.  "The promise is fantastic -- portability across
 platforms. But getting there? Just telling me MVS is SAA does not
 empower me."

 Michael Sztejnberg, vice president of technical services at
 Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., said he views SAA as "very
 worthwhile" but does not feel he can currently exploit it.

 SAA is "things like Officevision or other things like CICS having the
 same touch and feel as PC products interfacing with mainframe
 products," Sztejnberg said. "Basically, it's a more integrated
 environment than what I see as a set of products now."

 The Putnam Cos. in Boston applaud SAA, but the company does not see it
 as the only direction. Although Gavin Taylor, managing director of IS
 at Putnam, said, "We've been reasonably successful with SAA," he is
 also currently planning an evaluation of both IBM and Digital
 Equipment Corp. repository products.

 "Our approach to SAA here is that it is a philosophical approach;
 that's how we use it," Taylor said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM seeks converts to peer-to-peer plan
 03/11/91
 Horwitt, Elisabeht

 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 LONDON

 IBM launched a major campaign last week to make its Systems Network
 Architecture-based peer-to-peer networking strategy more attractive to
 users -- local-area network users in particular.

 Leading the way is expansion of the company's Advanced Peer-to-Peer
 Networking, a platform that eliminates much of the dirty work involved
 in setting up and maintaining peer-to-peer networks.

 APPN is being extended beyond its current Application System/400 niche
 to OS/2 Extended Edition, the IBM 3174 Establishment Controller and a
 variety of non-IBM systems.

 IBM also secured endorsements from some major LAN players, including
 Apple Computer, Inc. and Novell, Inc., to act as APPN nodes.

 "We are optimizing SNA for LAN environments and making it open to
 other systems," said Rick McGee, IBM's manager of communications
 systems architectures.  As part of that optimization, the APPN
 software for OS/2 includes a new version of the LU6.2 peer-to-peer
 protocol, which is said to be twice as fast as the previous version.

 APPN is essential for effective peer-to-peer SNA networking because it
 has dynamic routing, directory and configuration capabilities.

 Eliminating waste

 At Chemical Waste Management, for example, APPN "eliminates a lot of
 the complexity" of tracking resources across some 20 AS/400s as well
 as that of configuring systems at remote hazardous waste sites,
 according to Michael Hansen, the Waste Management, Inc. subsidiary's
 director of information systems.

 However, even the lure of APPN is unlikely to convince most users to
 migrate existing Netbios and Novell, Inc. applications to LU6.2, Ernst
 & Young partner David Passmore said.

 For example, the city of New York is eyeing APPN's dynamic network
 topology, congestion control and routing capabilities as a way of
 better controlling a diverse LAN installation, noted Joseph Giannotti,
 commissioner of the city's computer services.  However, implementing
 LU6.2 as a user protocol "is not a high priority," he added.

 Taking an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude, IBM announced
 last week that it will publish specifications that would enable other
 vendors' systems to participate in an APPN network as end nodes.  End
 nodes can dynamically register their resources on the nearest APPN
 network node but cannot support dynamic directory and routing services
 provided by such network nodes.

 Novell, Apple and Siemens AG said last week they are already
 implementing APPN on their systems. Systems Strategies, Inc. announced
 plans to implement APPN on a variety of Unix systems, including IBM's
 RISC System/6000.  The firm plans to ship APPN software for Digital
 Equipment Corp. VAX/ VMS systems by the first quarter of next year.

 SNA compatibility

 Apple users equipped with APPN should be able to automatically call up
 an SNA resource via the Macintosh "chooser" function, Apple product
 manager Bill Brown said.  Users should also be able to use an SNA
 backbone as a "funnel between two Appletalk networks." Apple will
 support APPN in its SNA-based software by the third quarter of 1991.

 Novell said it expects to fit into SNA as a "gearbox" that extends
 APPN capabilities to Netware clients such as Macintosh workstations
 and Ethernet and Arcnet LANs.

 The opening of APPN is good news to companies that want to keep their
 non-IBM LAN systems but also want optimal access to SNA resources.
 Chemical Waste, for example, would like its Novell Netware 386
 applications to "participate in a cooperative fashion" with its
 AS/400s, Hansen said.

 IBM has yet to announce an APPN product for the IBM VTAM Network
 Control Program systems.

 IBM's APPN implementation on OS/2 Extended Edition, called Networking
 Services/2, includes the following features:

 The ability to send LAN alerts to a Netview host directly or via an
 AS/400 Netview focal point.

 The ability to configure an OS/2 LAN workstation with only three
 parameters.

 Common Programming Interface for Communications, a simplified
 application programming interface for LU6.2.

 IBM also announced Netview Distribution Manager/2 for OS/2, which is
 said to allow users to download centrally archived software to DOS and
 OS/2 LAN clients via an OS/2 server.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Canadian credit firm rates OS/2 Extended a net risk;
 Version 1.2's host links, IBM service fall flat
 03/04/91
 Fitzgerald, Michael

 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 HALIFAX, Nova Scotia

 Distribute mainframe functions to networked PCs?  For Trans Canada
 Credit Corp., that promise proved too good to be true.

 Problems with IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition Version 1.2 have forced the
 company to abandon plans to implement an ambitious 150-site network
 and instead put the application on a cheaper IBM mainframe and dumb
 terminal setup.

 TCC, a subsidiary of $15 billion-in-assets Central Guaranty Trustco
 Ltd., said OS/2 Extended Edition has problems with functionality,
 remote network management issues and IBM's inability to provide
 effective service.

 Things are different

 Each of TCC's offices was to run its operations from an OS/2 network
 connected to a host IBM 3090 mainframe in Toronto. Now, a combination
 of the 3090, IBM 3174 controllers, dumb terminals and stand-alone
 Personal System/2s will run the offices.

 Dan Montgomery, manager of distributed systems at Central Guaranty
 Trust, said technical glitches such as interface problems between OS/2
 and CICS on the host stalled the project after 30 sites had been
 rolled out, leading to its eventual demise. Despite these problems,
 TCC will continue with a stabilized and functional OS/2 in its branch
 offices until it implements the IBM 3174 controllers and terminals.

 "The experience has been unfortunate, but the system is not a major
 operational or financial problem because the system has been
 stabilized in the 30 branches that have it, and we'll be reusing the
 equipment when we implement the new platform," said Bill Rowe, vice
 president of information technology services at Central Guaranty.

 Still, there is disappointment and frustration that the project did
 not go through.

 "Basically, OS/2 proved to be unserviceable in the field," said John
 Williams, OS/2 project manager at TCC. Williams and Montgomery agreed
 that handling upgrades or fixing software problems at remote sites was
 more than TCC could handle from within its 200-person information
 systems staff, and IBM was unable to provide effective service.

 "The thing that got utterly maddening was that we couldn't predict
 when something would happen or wouldn't happen," Montgomery said.
 "We'd have problems reported out in the field, and we couldn't
 duplicate them in our model office here."

 Not up to par

 While IBM resolved some of the issues facing TCC, such as a tendency
 for the local-area network to crash when documents were printed, its
 service fell short, despite a last-minute push to save the project,
 which was canceled in December.

 An IBM spokeswoman said Version 1.3 of OS/2 Extended Edition, which
 shipped at the end of December, corrected many of the problems with
 OS/2 Extended Edition Version 1.2, and IBM said it was providing
 effective service to TCC.

 "We'll work with them to give the solution they want, whatever that
 is," the spokeswoman said.

 "There definitely were some general performance and size issues with
 1.2 that we've seen some tremendous savings on since we started with
 1.3," said Mark Jankowski, director of data services at Frito-Lay,
 Inc. in Dallas. Frito Lay is in the process of migrating from OS/2
 Extended Edition Version 1.2 to Version 1.3.

 Despite TCC's dissatisfaction with IBM's overall OS/2 service,
 Montgomery praised individual IBM representatives for their efforts.

 Montgomery said he did not think the project's death was a potential
 nail in OS/2 Extended Edition's coffin, despite the product's sluggish
 reception by the market.

 "It's hard to say that [this is] a damning indictment of OS/2,"
 Montgomery said, although he added that TCC will continue to use OS/2
 as an application development tool.

 CW Staff

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ce for Communications, a simplified
 application programming interface for LU6.2.

 IBM also announced Netview Distribution Manager/2 for OS/2, which is
 said to allow users to download centrally archived software to DOS and
 OS/2 LAN clients via an OS/2 server.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Inside Lines
 02/25/91
 OVERVIEW


 OVERVIEW
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 We've been consulting the Oracle

 Oracle sources said they expect changes at the top during the coming
 weeks. Geoff Squire, president of Oracle's Worldwide Distribution
 Sales Division, is expected to be named chief operating officer. Chief
 Financial Officer Jeffrey Walker is expected to leave that post to
 take over Oracle's Applications Division. It's possible that these
 changes will free Oracle Chief Executive Officer and founder Larry
 Ellison to spend more time developing new products.

 Perfect temps

 Katherine Borsecnik, director of operations at the Software Publishers
 Association (SPA), told a packed house at the Chicago Association for
 Microcomputer Professionals that the SPA's first three raids in New
 York were based on evidence provided by the same person: a temporary
 worker who specialized in Wordperfect's word processor, Wordperfect.
 In each case, photocopied templates caused the temp to tip the SPA to
 possible illegal software use. Borsecnik joked that the temp was now
 in the SPA's witness protection program.

 Dodge can now speak frankly

 For most of us, last Monday was just President's Day; for the former
 president of McCormack & Dodge, it was also Independence Day. Frank
 Dodge said he celebrated the expiration of his one-year noncompete
 contract with Dun & Bradstreet Software by getting in touch with some
 of the folks "who have made approaches in the past year that I
 couldn't follow up on." Within the next few months, he said, look for
 him to head up, acquire or launch a software firm, "definitely in
 nonmainframe application software and definitely in Massachusetts."

 Is this any way to intimidate?

 IBM is expected next month to turn OS/2 systems into Advanced
 Peer-to-Peer Network nodes  1(see story page).  But that will only be
 the beginning: During the next 60 days, look for IBM to announce a
 slew of interoperability alliances with vendors in the computer,
 network management, LAN, WAN, systems software and operating systems
 arenas.

 Spotted on the radar scope

 Ralph Ungermann was a mystery guest at Motorola's Radio-Telephone
 Systems Group's rollout of the Altair wireless Ethernet LAN during a
 recent conference. A guess as to why he attended might be that
 Ungermann-Bass' Access/One intelligent wiring hub is slated to support
 wireless Ethernets.  Ungermann, who is founder, president and CEO of
 Ungermann-Bass, sanctioned Altair, saying it "gives customers more
 choices" and is "complementary" to cabled LANs.

 Is it Memorex, or is it Fujitsu?

 Memorex Telex Corp. is reportedly putting the finishing touches on a
 new disk drive to compete with the IBM 3390 high-end disk drive for
 1992 delivery. The disk unit is built around an existing Fujitsu
 3390-compatible drive, according to Paul Wolfstaetter, program
 director at Gartner Group's Enterprise Storage Strategies Group.
 Another Memorex product, a redundant array of inexpensive disks-type
 disk-array drive, should follow in late 1992, he said.

 Foreign intrigue

 Sometimes the solution to your problems is right in front of your
 nose; other times you have to fly halfway around the world to find it.
 IBM's OS/2 evangelist, John Soyring, flew to Australia last week to
 meet with a developer who has come up with "an interesting solution
 for integrating non-OS/2 clients into OS/2," a source said. If it
 works, it could show up in OS/2 Version 2.0, we're told.

 Wyse Technology is considering sending end-user guides and computer
 manuals to customers on floppy disks or as a loaded program in the
 hard drive of its computers, according to company executive Bob
 Goodman, director of channel marketing. You, too, can cut down on
 paper by contacting us via our electronic mail drops: 76537,2413 on
 Compuserve; MHTS78A on Prodigy; and COMPUTERWORLD on MCI Mail. Or you
 can contact News Editor Pete Bartolik by phone at [phone] or
 zap to our fax at [phone].


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ch is
 said to allow users to download centrally archived software to DOS and
 OS/2 LAN clients via an OS/2 server.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 IBM's to do list
 02/25/91
 NEWS
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Among items high on IBM's work list for SNA systems are the following:

 Revamp the IBM 3745 to better support demanding LAN-to-LAN,
 peer-to-peer communications.  The front end will eventually support 1G
 bit/sec. speeds as well as broadband industry standards, a spokesman
 said.

 Provide interconnectivity for other LAN protocols besides IBM's LU6.2
 on an SNA backbone.  On Sept. 5, 1990, IBM addressed this problem with
 the new LAN-to-LAN over Wide-Area Network program, which allows
 Netbios applications to communicate over an SNA network. The vendor is
 expected to add SNA support for other protocols, such as Novell's IPX.

 Two weeks ago, IBM announced plans to resell Novell's Netware and
 provide interoperability between the operating system and IBM's OS/2
 Extended Edition LAN Manager.

 Make LU6.2 more palatable to users and application developers.  IBM is
 working on a "more streamlined, easy-to-use, memory-efficient LU6.2 on
 DOS," to be shipped within 1 1/2 years.

 In addition, IBM has promised to implement the Common Programming
 Interface for Communications (CPIC) on OS/2 by year's end. CPIC is an
 application programming interface for LU6.2 that is said to be easier
 to use than the current interface.

 The real breakthrough will be when Novell delivers on its promise to
 support CPIC, the IBM spokesman said.  This will enable applications
 based on Novell software to access resources across a peer-to-peer SNA
 network.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

vanced
 Peer-to-Peer Network nodes  1(see story page).  But that will only be
 the beginning: During the next 60 days, look for IBM to announce a
 slew of interoperability alliances with vendors in the computer,
 network management, LAN, WAN, systems software and operating systems
 arenas.

 Spotted on the radar scope

 Ralph Ungermann was a mystery guest at Motorola's Radio-Telephone
 Systems Group's rollout of the Altair wireless Ethernet LAN during a
 recent conference. A guess as to why he attended might be that
 Ungermann-Bass' Access/One intelligent wiring hub is slated to support
 wireless Ethernets.  Ungermann, who is founder, president and CEO of
 Ungermann-Bass, sanctioned Altair, saying it "gives customers more
 choices" and is "complementary" to cabled LANs.

 Is it Memorex, or is it Fujitsu?

 Memorex Telex Corp. is reportedly putting the finishing touches on a
 new disk drive to compete with the IBM 3390 high-end disk drive for
 1992 delivery. The disk unit is built around an existing Fujitsu
 3390-compatible drive, according to Paul Wolfstaetter, program
 director at Gartner Group's Enterprise Storage Strategies Group.
 Another Memorex product, a redundant array of inexpensive disks-type
 disk-array drive, should follow in late 1992, he said.

 Foreign intrigue

 Sometimes the solution to your problems is right in front of your
 nose; other times you have to fly halfway around the world to find it.
 IBM's OS/2 evangelist, John Soyring, flew to Australia last week to
 meet with a developer who has come up with "an interesting solution
 for integrating non-OS/2 clients into OS/2," a source said. If it
 works, it could show up in OS/2 Version 2.0, we're told.

 Wyse Technology is considering sending end-user guides and computer
 manuals to customers on floppy disks or as a loaded program in the
 hard drive of its computers, according to company executive Bob
 Goodman, director of channel marketing. You, too, can cut down on
 paper by contacting us via our electronic mail drops: 76537,2413 on
 Compuserve; MHTS78A on Prodigy; and COMPUTERWORLD on MCI Mail. Or you
 can contact News Editor Pete Bartolik by phone at [phone] or
 zap  Niagara Mohawk looks to tap the power of networking
 02/25/91
 NETWORKING; ON SITE
 Nash, Jim

 NETWORKING; ON SITE
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 SYRACUSE, N.Y.

 Enticed by the possibility of increasing database access by as much as
 25%, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. is moving some of its employees off
 the mainframe and onto personal computer-based networks.

 The upstate New York utility company sees local-area networks as one
 way of boosting the efficiency of work groups using specialized data
 that is now accessed through an IBM 3090 Model 400S. Niagara Mohawk
 even expects to see modest savings in the process.

 Frank Mantha, Niagara Mohawk's information center supervisor,
 estimated users will access data 10% to 25% faster once the data is
 downloaded from the mainframe. He said the company also anticipates
 faster in-house software development and upgrades for network users.

 Mantha said Niagara Mohawk could save $2,000 annually for every
 mainframe user who can be switched to a networked PC. It is not yet
 clear how many of the 5,000 employees will eventually be moved to PCs,
 he said.

 A typical four-person department accessing the mainframe a total of 14
 hours each day will be charged $12,000 per year for mainframe access,
 Mantha said. A one-time expenditure of $10,000 buys that department
 PCs, a printer, networking software and support for one year.

 Mike Cullen, manager of information systems, said Niagara Mohawk will
 continue to exploit the strengths of the mainframe: central control,
 disaster backup, recovery, support and security.

 Cullen and Mantha said only selected business applications will be
 transferred to the company's 12 IBM OS/2 LAN Server and three OS/2
 Extended Edition networks.

 By March, at least one work group will be using such a transferred
 application that records fixed assets at one of Niagara Mohawk's two
 nuclear plants. The software, developed on IBM's MVS/XA operating
 system, is written in Information Builders, Inc.'s Focus, Mantha said.

 "The justification [behind moving applications onto networks] is to be
 able to put everyone in their own MVS environment," said Louis
 Kowalski, associate senior systems analyst in the company's management
 systems and services department. "That way, they have 100% of their
 own CPU, and you're not vying for any resources the way you have to on
 a mainframe."

 Kowalski said his department makes a recommendation on whether an
 application goes on Niagara Mohawk's mainframe, networked PCs or 3,126
 stand-alone PCs. About 850 of the stand-alones have micro-to-mainframe
 connections. Mantha said decisions about which applications to use are
 made on a case-by-case basis. "The major factors are how many people
 will be using it and whether the application is needed across several
 departments."

 The 3090 currently holds 90 to 100 systems applications, including
 IBM's Netview, according to Kowalski. Niagara Mohawk is waiting to see
 how well OS/2 Extended Edition works in partnership with database
 management systems on the mainframe.  "Extended Edition's promise is
 that you can merge data from it and DB2," Mantha said.  "If it does,
 that will be another point in favor of downsizing more applications."

 All corporate information programs such as the company's in-house
 payroll and accounting applications will remain on the mainframe,
 Cullen said. Typically, if there are more than one dozen users for an
 application, it goes on the mainframe, Kowalski said.

 Niagara Mohawk already has in place a nascent enterprisewide network
 hooking LANs to the mainframe in Syracuse via the company's own
 telephone lines or in-house microwave transmissions. All networks have
 either token-ring or coaxial cable adapter cards.

 Niagara Mohawk is working to ensure that data remaining on the
 mainframe can be accessed by PCs. The company bought 20 licenses for
 Software Publishing Corp.'s Infoalliance database integration
 software. The licenses allow 20 networks to access Infoalliance.
 Kowalski said Infoalliance has been used to build a directory of users
 combining Ashton-Tate Corp.'s Dbase II and OS/2 databases.

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

ld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


* * To subscribe to Computerworld on CD - Call toll free 1 [phone] * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

 Cognos extends AS/400 support for Powerhouse
 02/11/91
 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Johnson, Maryfran

 SOFTWARE & SERVICES
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 BURLINGTON, Mass.

 Seeking a foothold on unfamiliar terrain, Cognos, Inc. extended its
 suite of Powerhouse application development tools on the IBM
 Application System/400 platform last week.

 This is the second phase of Cognos' rollout of fourth-generation
 language (4GL) tools for the AS/400.  Powerhouse is well-established
 on midrange computers from Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard
 Co. and Data General Corp., analysts noted, and it runs on MS-DOS and
 IBM OS/2 platforms.

 "Nobody's really heard of them in the midrange," said Teresa Elms,
 president of Elms Technical Communications, a market research firm for
 the IBM midrange. "But bringing another major player in is always good
 for end users."

 The major hurdle Cognos will face with AS/400 users is that Powerhouse
 is a 4GL based on the C language, which has a reputation for poor
 performance on the AS/400. The company will also face stiff
 competition from Synon, Inc., System Software Associates, Inc. and
 Aspect, Inc., which dominate the IBM midrange with third-generation
 language code generators and computer-aided software engineering
 (CASE) tools.

 Andre Boisvert, Cognos' vice president of IBM operations, said the
 Powerhouse products will ease the job of coding and maintenance, which
 helps reduce costs for information systems shops.  Multivendor shops
 already familiar with Cognos are most likely to give Powerhouse its
 initial welcome, analysts said.

 One of those first users is Norbert Tauchner, director of corporate
 information systems at Dominion Textile, Inc. in Montreal. The world's
 largest producer of denim, Dominion has a mix of IBM and DEC midrange
 machines at 32 locations worldwide plus other systems from Wang
 Laboratories, Inc., HP and DG.

 "We are looking for something to unify the strategy for those 32
 locations, so we've tried to pick a hardware platform and applications
 environment we could live with across all those sites," Tauchner said.

 The ability to generate 4GL code was the chief attraction of
 Powerhouse over competitors such as Synon, which generates 3GL code
 for RPG or Cobol. "Generating third-generation code is kind of a belt
 and suspenders approach," Tauchner said.

 Different direction

 The direction the textile manufacturer is taking instead is toward a
 client/server computing architecture based on DEC and IBM with
 applications developed in Powerhouse 4GL.

 "Powerhouse makes us almost hardware independent because if the best
 machine to use is a PC, we can develop applications on that with
 Powerhouse," Tauchner said. "The real issue is whether the Cognos
 product will be as good on the AS/400 as it has been on its other
 platforms."

 Cognos released the first phase of Powerhouse for the AS/400 last May
 with a report writer, dictionary and conversion utility. This second
 phase fills in several missing 4GL pieces, including a full data
 dictionary and a conversion utility from the IBM System/36 RPG code to
 Powerhouse. It is priced from $11,000 to $76,000 for a development
 license and is available immediately.

 Still missing are CASE, documentation and maintenance tools, which
 Cognos officials said will be added later this year.

 Cognos officials stressed that all Powerhouse tools on the AS/400 will
 be fully compliant with IBM's AD/Cycle and Systems Application
 Architecture.

 CW Staff

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s.

 Niagara Mohawk is working to ensure that data remaining on the
 mainframe can be accessed by PCs. The company bought 20 licenses for
 Software Publishing Corp.'s Infoalliance database integration
 software. The lic 02/04/91
 NEWS; news shorts


 NEWS; news shorts
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Laser 'lite' show

 Scientists at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory have developed a way to
 pack as many as 20,000 tiny lasers on a semiconductor wafer just 2
 inches in diameter.  The development could lead to practical and
 economic mass production and testing of semiconductor lasers, which
 are used to read music in compact disc players and print copy in laser
 printers, among other uses.  IBM scientists said they expect the new
 method of laser fabrication, called full-wafer technology, to be
 faster, less expensive and to yield a higher percentage of working
 lasers per wafer than is now possible.

 PC markdown at DEC

 Digital Equipment Corp. lowered prices an average of 17% on existing
 personal computers last week and announced two models based on Intel
 Corp.'s 20-MHz 80386DX and 80386SX microprocessors. The 320+ will
 replace a similar model based on the 16-MHz 386DX and will cost $4,010
 with 2M bytes of memory and a 40M-byte hard disk. The 320SX will be
 priced at $3,375 with the same configuration. The 16-MHz 386SX model
 will still be produced, and its price has been cut from $4,050 to
 $2,760.

 CASE set due from CGI

 CGI Systems, Inc. is scheduled to release its first Unix-based set of
 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools today. Paclan/X was
 designed to work in a local-area network environment with a Unix-based
 server, the firm said. Initially, it will be offered for the
 Hewlett-Packard Co. HP 9000 Series 800 systems. CGI sells
 repository-based, full-lifecycle tool sets in the CASE market. Last
 year, it branched out from its mainframe business and offered its
 first LAN product for IBM OS/2 servers. The company is the U.S.
 subsidiary of CGI-Informatique, a Paris-based software and services
 company.

 MCI stretches its wings

 MCI Communications Corp. announced the expansion of its virtual
 network service, Vnet, with links to Australia, France and the
 Netherlands. The firm also announced a joint venture to provide Vnet
 service within Australia and said it may interconnect with virtual
 networks in Japan and Singapore. MCI is teaming with the Australian
 Associated Press to introduce the voice, facsimile and data service
 this year.

 Tandem promises RISC upgrade

 Tandem Computers, Inc.'s CLX 800 machine, announced last month [CW,
 Jan. 21], will get new reduced instruction set computing (RISC)
 technology later this year, Tandem said last week. "Users will be able
 to upgrade their CLX 800 machines with a one-board swap to RISC,"
 Senior Marketing Vice President Gerald Peterson said. The new version
 of the CLX machine is being beta tested.

 ALR signs national distributor

 Advanced Logic Research, Inc. signed an agreement last week to sell
 its PC line through national distributor Tech Data Corp. The
 Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor handles a customer base of 25,000,
 including value-added distributors, through 12 distribution centers in
 the U.S. and Canada.

 Warmenhoven is NET chairman

 Two new names were added to Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.'s
 (NET) board of directors: Daniel Warmenhoven, president and chief
 executive officer of NET, was appointed chairman; and Walter Gill,
 vice president and chief scientist at the firm, was given a board
 seat. Warmenhoven joined NET in 1989 after working at HP and IBM. Gill
 helped found the firm. NET also demonstrated a high-speed packet
 engine that will enable its IDNX T1 switches to support frame-relay,
 LAN routing protocols and ISDN D-channel signaling.  The engine will
 come as a card that can be used to upgrade existing IDNXs, NET said.
 It is being jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc.


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lic Apple accolades
 02/04/91
 VIEWPOINT; Letters to the editor
 Corley, Robert

 VIEWPOINT; Letters to the editor
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 As an MIS manager, I find all the current hoopla over Microsoft's
 Windows 3.0 and OS/2 Presentation Manager very puzzling.

 In our organization, we find that the Apple Macintosh has far greater
 connectivity, and to more environments, than any other platform.

 I work in the Windows, Macintosh and OS/2 Presentation Manager
 environments. I spend half my time with a group of about 25 people now
 using Windows 3.0 on IBM Personal System/2 Model 70s. We also have two
 PS/2 70s running OS/2 1.1

 The other half of the time, I work with about 35 people using 15 Mac
 SEs, 15 Mac IICX's, two Mac IICIs and three Mac IIs.

 With the DOS, Windows, OS/2 people, I find that we spend a large
 portion of time poring over manuals, trying to kludge together
 installations and struggling with the underlying DOS.

 Users still wind up dealing with weird and wonderful file name
 restrictions and wonderful utilities with instructions such as "Always
 exit Windows before running CHKDSK with the /F option; never run
 CHKDSK from within Windows; loss of data may result," or "Run disk
 compaction utilities directly from MS-DOS, after exiting Windows;
 damage to the files on your hard disk might result."

 With our Macintosh group, we simply discuss the work at hand. Rarely
 do we talk about or worry over computer installations or support.

 Our Mac people produce more than the DOS, Windows, OS/2 people because
 the technology seems to aid, rather than get in the way of, the work.

 Robert Corley
 Mississauga, Ont.



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. announced the expansion of its virtual
 network service, Vnet, with links to Australia, France and the
 Netherlands. The firm also announced a joint venture to provide Vnet
 service within Australia and said it may interconnect with virtual
 networks in Japan and Singapore. MCI is teaming with the Australian
 Associated Press to introduce the voice, facsimile and data service
 this year.

 Tandem promises RISC upgrade

 Tandem Computers, Inc.'s CLX 800 machine, announced last month [CW,
 Jan. 21], will get new reduced instruction set computing (RISC)
 technology later this year, Tandem said last week. "Users will be able
 to upgrade their CLX 800 machines with a one-board swap to RISC,"
 Senior Marketing Vice President Gerald Peterson said. The new version
 of the CLX machine is being beta tested.

 ALR signs national distributor

 Advanced Logic Research, Inc. signed an agreement last week to sell
 its PC line through national distributor Tech Data Corp. The
 Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor handles a customer base of 25,000,
 including value-added distributors, through 12 distribution centers in
 the U.S. and Canada.

 Warmenhoven is NET chairman

 Two new names were added to Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.'s
 (NET) board of directors: Daniel Warmenhoven, president and chief
 executive officer of NET, was appointed chairman; and Walter Gill,
 vice president and chief scientist at the firm, was given a board
 seat. Warmenhoven joined NET in 1989 after working at HP and IBM. Gill
 helped found the firm. NET also demonstrated a high-speed packet
 engine that will enable its IDNX T1 switches to support frame-relay,
 LAN routing protocols and ISDN D-channel signaling.  The engine will
 come as a card that can be used to upgrade existing IDNXs, NET said.
 It is being jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc.


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licExtra] tops LAN SNA gateway ratings
 01/28/91
 SPOTLIGHT; buyers' scorecard


 SPOTLIGHT; buyers' scorecard
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 The latest technology isn't everything. That's what buyers of
 local-area network gateways seem to be saying in Computerworld's
 Buyers' Scorecard on LAN Systems Network Architecture (SNA) gateways.
 The 187 gateway users surveyed did not rate the products with the most
 advanced features highest. Instead, Attachmate Corp.'s Extra]  --
 which does not support hot options such as LU6.2 -- received the
 highest score.

 Extra] came out on top in a close race, scoring 57 points -- only one
 more than Digital Communications Associates, Inc.'s (DCA) Irmalan and
 two more than Novell, Inc.'s Netware SNA Gateway. Trailing the top
 three products was IBM's Personal Communications 3270 for DOS and OS/2
 Extended Edition, with a combined score of 53.

 The scores are based on totals from 50 users of each product, except
 for DCA's Irmalan, which had 37 respondents. IBM product ratings are
 based on responses from 39 users of PC 3270 and 11 users of OS/2
 Extended Edition gateway features. Respondents were asked to rate only
 the products they use. Final scores were calculated by multiplying the
 individual product group ratings by the importance ratings that all
 187 users assigned to all criteria. Only gateway products that link
 LANs to IBM's SNA were covered y page 63(see methodolog).

 Bellevue, Wash.-based Attachmate is known for its full-featured 3270
 products. User ratings bear out this perception by giving Extra] top
 scores in seven of the 13 criteria, including scores of eight or
 better le of one to 10, where 10 is excellent(based on a sca) in a
 list of significant gateway features: ease of use, response time,
 service and support, terminal and printer emulation, protocol
 compatibility and user configuration options.

 Extra]'s weaknesses were also revealed in the lowest rating for
 network management capability (6.1) and second lowest in cost per
 workstation (6.3).

 Scoring second highest among the four products was DCA's Irmalan,
 which has been in use for several years at many DOS-based gateway
 installations. Irmalan topped the cost per workstation and ease of
 installation categories with scores of 7.7. The product also received
 the second highest ratings in key areas such as reliability (8.2) and
 emulation (7.9).

 LAN leader Novell provides an SNA gateway capability for its Netware
 network operating systems customers. Users gave the product the third
 best score (55) and rated it highest in network management capability
 (6.4). The Netware SNA Gateway also finished second in ease of use and
 cost per workstation. However, users placed the product last in
 reliability and protocol compatibility.

 The owner of the SNA side of the network, IBM finished last (53) with
 its pair of gateway products, OS/2 Extended Edition and PC 3270, but
 not without topping the most critical category for users, reliability,
 with an 8.3 rating. However, seven last-place finishes reveal
 weaknesses in areas such as cost per workstation t rating for any
 category(5.6, the lowes), ease of use and terminal and printer
 emulation.

 <6>byMichael L. Sullivan Trainor, CW Staff


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l enable its IDNX T1 switches to support frame-relay,
 LAN routing protocols and ISDN D-channel signaling.  The engine will
 come as a card that can be used to upgrade existing IDNXs, NET said.
 It is being jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc.


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lic IBM workstation to manage nets
 01/28/91
 NEWS
 Wexler, Joanie M.

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Souped-up wide-area networking technologies will cause IBM to tap the
 power of its RISC System/6000 workstation to run a mainstream network
 management product for the first time, the company said in a statement
 of direction last week.

 The network management system for the vendor's forthcoming T3
 multiplexers is slated to run on the RS/6000, which uses IBM's version
 of the Unix operating system, AIX.

 T3 multiplexers concentrate multiple data or voice signals onto a
 single wide-area 45M bit/sec. circuit -- a performance leap over
 widespread existing T1 networks that run at 1.5M bit/sec. T3 and other
 high-speed technologies are quickly cropping up because of the growing
 need to interconnect high-speed local-area networks over wide areas
 with a modicum of performance degradation.

 IBM, which has resold Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.'s (NET)
 IDNX line of T1 multiplexers since 1987, said it plans to start
 reselling NET's IDNX/90 T3 multiplexer in June under its own label.
 However, the company would not pinpoint a time frame for the
 accompanying network management system.

 "Officially, within IBM, a statement of direction means 'within two
 years,' " IBM spokesman Dennis Drogseth explained. "But this will not
 be one of those cases where we barely make the deadline. We can't have
 products available with no management for very long."

 Drogseth pointed out that most network management products run on IBM
 Personal System/2s, which use IBM's OS/2 multitasking operating
 system, but added that T3 technology "requires the power of the AIX
 platform."

 In a pinch, NET's Series 5000 network management system could be
 swapped in to manage the T3 gear, according to Karyn Mashima, vice
 president of corporate marketing at NET. She added, however, that "IBM
 isn't likely to ship a product with no management."

 CW Staff

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 the cost per workstation and ease of
 installation categories with scores of 7.7. The product also received
 the second highest ratings in key areas such as reliability (8.2) and
 emulation (7.9).

 LAN leader Novell provides an SNA gateway capability for its Netware
 network operating systems customers. Users gave the product the third
 best score (55) and rated it highest in network management capability
 (6.4). The Netware SNA Gateway also finished second in ease of use and
 cost per workstation. However, users placed the product last in
 reliability and protocol compatibility.

 The owner of the SNA side of the network, IBM finished last (53) with
 its pair of gateway products, OS/2 Extended Edition and PC 3270, but
 not without topping the most critical category for users, reliability,
 with an 8.3 rating. However, seven last-place finishes reveal
 weaknesses in areas such as cost per workstation t rating for any
 category(5.6, the lowes), ease of use and terminal and printer
 emulation.

 <6>byMichael L. Sullivan Trainor, CW Staff


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l enable its IDNX T1 switches to support frame-relay,
 LAN routing protocols and ISDN D-channel signaling.  The engine will
 come as a card that can be used to upgrade existing IDNXs, NET said.
 It is being jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

lic  News Shorts
 01/14/91
 NEWS


 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 User alliance maps next moveThe User Alliance for Open Systems
 announced a major conference last week that has been scheduled for
 March 12-14 in Dallas to write an implementation plan for breaking
 down the barriers to open systems computing. It will be the first
 meeting of the user group, once known as the Houston 30, since the
 group voted to join the Corporation for Open Systems in McLean, Va.

 Commodore replaces presidentDespite analysts' initial high hopes, the
 president of Commodore Business Machines, Inc. has apparently come up
 short once more. Onetime IBM and Apple Computer, Inc. executive Harold
 Copperman was replaced last week as Commodore's president and was
 reassigned as a vice president of parent Commodore International Ltd.
 The company also announced layoffs of 10% to 15% of its 600-person
 U.S. work force. Commodore earned a profit of $1.5 million for the
 fiscal year 1990, down 97% from the previous year. Copperman's
 successor, James Dionne, former head of Commodore's Canadian unit,
 becomes the fifth Commodore president in just over six years.

 Pyramid tries high availability

 Pyramid Technology Corp. is expected to announce its Miserver Reliant
 series of high-availability tolerant(but not fault-) computers next
 week. Unlike fault-tolerant machines, Pyramid's CPUs will all be
 shouldering work until a failure is detected, at which time the
 software will automatically switch applications to the remaining
 processor or processors. A four-processor package starts at $700,000.
 The system has about a three-minute recovery time, according to
 Pyramid, which recommends it for applications such as manufacturing,
 inventory and planning that can stand a few minutes of downtime. Sandy
 Gant, an analyst at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Gartner Group/Infocorp,
 said the idea of selectable and incremental high availability is a
 "good approximation of fault tolerance without paying a huge premium."


 Steel maker outsources

 Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. announced last week that it has
 outsourced mainframe operations to Pittsburgh-based Genix Group in a
 multiyear contract. Wheeling-Pittsburgh will use Genix's mainframe
 CPU, operating system software, disk and tape storage, data
 communications and technical support, but it will retain in-house
 applications development and maintenance. Terms were not disclosed.
 Ironically, Genix originally grew out of the IS department of the
 former National Steel Corp., a Wheeling-Pittsburgh competitor.

 IBM ties up with Ontologic

 IBM made another move in the object-oriented technology market last
 week when it announced plans to jointly market Ontologic, Inc.'s
 database management system. Ontologic has been selling an
 object-oriented DBMS since the late 1980s and claims to have 350
 licenses worldwide. IBM and Ontologic will jointly sell the company's
 software for the IBM OS/2 platform.

 Martin Marietta restructures

 Government contractor Martin Marietta Corp.  announced a corporate
 restructuring last week that will merge its computer contracting and
 internal information systems units, now based in Chantilly, Va., with
 the Electronics and Missiles Group in Orlando, Fla. The move will cut
 overhead costs and eliminate 400 jobs but will not diminish the
 company's commitment to the IS business or affect its data centers, a
 spokesman said.

 SQL/DS passed FIPS test

 IBM Canada Ltd. issued a release last week stating its SQL/DS, the
 relational DBMS for the IBM VM environment, now fully complies with
 the Federal Information Processing Standard for both embedded and
 interactive SQL. The mainframe DBMS was developed at IBM's laboratory
 in Toronto.


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 allow 20 networks to access Infoalliance.
 Kowalski said Infoalliance has been used to build a directory of users
 combining Ashton-Tate Corp.'s Dbase II and OS/2 databases.

 CW Staff

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said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

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n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

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esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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 More than one OS/2 on the way
 01/14/91
 NEWS
 Keefe, Patriacia

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Users pining for a 32-bit version of OS/2 can rest assured that the
 project is still on target. IBM said it began rolling out OS/2 Version
 2.0 to small groups of customers late last month and will continue to
 release the product in stages until it is ready for a formal release.

 Separately, IBM is expected to announce a minor upgrade designed to
 address some issues with the forthcoming unbundling of OS/2 Extended
 Edition. It will be called OS/2 Version 1.4, according to U.S. sources
 and a report in London-based PC Business World that quotes an
 unidentified IBM source. IBM shipped the 2M-byte OS/2 Version 1.3 last
 year.

 A spokeswoman for IBM said that OS/2 2.0 is on schedule. IBM released
 a statement on Sept. 17 committing to general delivery of a 32-bit
 OS/2 in 1991.

 Mum on version numbers

 As for OS/2 1.4, the spokeswoman said IBM would not speculate on
 additional version numbers. But industry sources said there will be a
 Version 1.4.

 "I wouldn't be surprised if on the Extended Edition side there wasn't
 another 1.X version," one user said. The user speculated that as IBM
 unbundles Extended Edition, it will have to make some kernel changes
 before it can offer the pieces to run with OEM versions of OS/2.

 Another source said the last time he heard IBM contemplating some new
 versions of OS/2, it had to do with providing application programming
 interfaces in the Extended Edition kernel for supporting
 object-oriented structures. For example, this extention would enable
 Data Base Manager users to modify database applications through
 objects.

 John Dunkle, vice president at Workgroup Technologies, Inc., said the
 inclusion of object technology within OS/2 1.4 is extremely important
 to IBM because competitive alternatives, such AT&T's Rhapsody and NCR
 Corp.'s Cooperation, already offer an object-oriented graphical user
 interface. Until IBM offers the same under OS/2, it will be considered
 a mediocre solution, he said.

 CW STaff

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nical support, but it will retain in-house
 applications development and maintenance. Terms were not disclosed.
 Ironically, Genix originally grew out of the IS department of the
 former National Steel Corp., a Wheeling-Pittsburgh competitor.

 IBM ties up with Ontologic

 IBM made another move in the object-oriented technology market last
 week when it announced plans to jointly market Ontologic, Inc.'s
 database management system. Ontologic has been selling an
 object-oriented DBMS since the late 1980s and claims to have 350
 licenses worldwide. IBM and Ontologic will jointly sell the company's
 software for the IBM OS/2 platform.

 Martin Marietta restructures

 Government contractor Martin Marietta Corp.  announced a corporate
 restructuring last week that will merge its computer contracting and
 internal information systems units, now based in Chantilly, Va., with
 the Electronics and Missiles Group in Orlando, Fla. The move will cut
 overhead costs and eliminate 400 jobs but will not diminish the
 company's commitment to the IS business or affect its data centers, a
 spokesman said.

 SQL/DS passed FIPS test

 IBM Canada Ltd. issued a release last week stating its SQL/DS, the
 relational DBMS for the IBM VM environment, now fully complies with
 the Federal Information Processing Standard for both embedded and
 interactive SQL. The mainframe DBMS was developed at IBM's laboratory
 in Toronto.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserve Third-party tool gains manufacturing favor
 01/07/91
 NEWS
 Horwitt, Elisabeth

 NEWS
 Copyright (COPYRIGHT) 1991 IDG Communications, Inc.;
 Computerworld

 Approximately one year after hitting the market, a third-party tool
 for coordinating data flow between shop-floor process control and
 business systems is well on its way to being a computer-integrated
 manufacturing (CIM) linchpin for the process manufacturing industries.
  It has also become a keystone of IBM's efforts to become those
 industries' prime CIM supplier, according to one company spokesman.

 Process Operations Management System (POMS), developed by Industrial
 Computing Designs Corp., or Incode, is an IBM OS/2 Extended-based
 system that combines a relational database management system "core"
 with application development tools.

 The resulting architecture is said to allow nonprogramming users to
 develop their own applications to integrate various levels of plant
 scheduling, operations and control.

 By backing the development of a "real, live CIM application that
 targets real, live business problems," IBM hoped to encourage process
 manufacturers to take the CIM plunge, said Jim Dixon, IBM's strategy
 manager for the process industries.  Unlike discrete manufacturers,
 the process industries have been almost virgin territory when it comes
 to CIM implementations, according to Cambridge, Mass., research firm
 Advanced Manufacturing Research, Inc.

 Worth the risk

 IBM's gamble has clearly paid off: In the first year of commercial
 availability, POMS has been implemented at 50 to 80 companies,
 including a growing number of process industry sectors and at least
 one discrete manufacturer, Dixon said.

 While the vast majority of the newer installations consist of one test
 site, several members of the POMS consortium are now preparing to move
 beyond testing to expanding installation. The consortium, which was
 formed to provide input, funding and pilot testing for POMS, consisted
 of IBM and five food and drug companies.

 Nestle Foods Corp. is one such company.  The food giant is now in the
 process of setting up a POMS database that will collect data from the
 factory floor and feed it into scheduling, analysis and eventually
 inventory and manufacturing resource planning systems, according to
 company spokesman Walter Carey.  POMS saved Nestle from the expense of
 having to develop its own system, Carey said.

 One of POMS' more recent implementors is Baxter Health Care Corp.  At
 Baxter's intravenous solutions plant in North Cove, N.C., POMS
 applications now under development will not only manage collection of
 data for compliance with Food and Drug Administration requirements but
 will also ensure better compliance by sending instructions down to the
 personal computers of users on the plant floor, according to Steve
 Hunter, CIM development manager.

 One of POMS' biggest pluses, Hunter said, is the fact that it is
 designed for use by people like him who are not programmers but "know
 operations, documentation and FDA requirements."

 One of the reasons POMS has met such a wide range of user needs is
 that it was endowed with "snap-ons" -- hooks on which existing
 third-party software packages can post data to and access data from
 POMS databases.  IBM is now pushing for links between POMS and the
 systems and applications of its chief rivals on the factory floor.
 "We can't expect users to throw out all of their existing systems,"
 Dixon said.

 POMS' support of a broad range of IBM and non-IBM systems is key to
 Rohm & Haas Co., said Alan Kober, the Philadelphia-based firm's
 information technology manager.  Rohm & Haas is installing POMS at one
 of its plants to collect data from process control systems and feed
 the relevant data to business systems and to a database that can be
 accessed by troubleshooting, process optimization and quality
 improvement applications, Kober said.

 CW staff

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d OS/2 databases.

 CW Staff

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said.

 "We are an SAA-compliant shop -- but not 100%."

 CW Staff

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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.

n IS strategy for the
 firm's corporate banking unit went awry.  The business unit "wanted a
 narrow focus," Gula says, "while IS wanted the big picture. It was a
 marriage made in hell."

 Society turned to Stanford -- then pioneering the concepts that would
 later be embodied in the center -- to help bridge the gap. Stanford's
 approach was based on the assumption that information means and
 business ends must inextricably serve each other from the start and
 must be implemented by professionals who understand and embrace not
 one or the other but both. That turned thinking on its head in
 Society's corporate banking and IS groups, Gula said.

 Fired up by new understanding of the people who used to be written off
 by the technical personnel as "suits," Gula says he told his IS
 department, "You work for a bank: I want you to look, act and talk
 like bankers. That alone, he says, "opens more doors than you might
 guess."

 The learning process went both ways. "The first surprise [for the
 bankers] was that they thought they really understood everything about
 their business priorities -- but they learned there was more," Gula
 says. "They came in with a good tactical view, but by the time you
 implement a tactical plan, the business has changed."

 Knocking down the cultural walls helped the bankers and technical
 people discover that Society already had most of the information
 capability it was poised to buy, Gula says. Instead of "spending
 millions to update or replace our core systems," Society was able to
 plan a project that would make information from five core systems
 available to bankers using IBM OS/2-based workstations with Easel
 Corp. touch-screen interfaces.

 The process saved "years and seven figures worth" of development
 effort, Gula says. "We found that 80% of the information [the bankers]
 needed already existed; we just weren't delivering it."

 Cw Staff

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esearch firm in 1979. Pesko will continue as
 a member of the board of directors.


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Copyright 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.  CW Publishing.All rights reserved.