uusgth@sw1e.UUCP (03/27/87)
Personal Observations on recent Lotus Development Corporation Presentation
I was underwhelmed. Excluding the almost antagonistic
personality of one of the presentors from Cambridge and his
supercilious attitude, I tried to make the best of things
and learn all that I could. The main messages seemed to be:
1. "WE know what you should do to grow" (I hate people
using that verb in that manner) 123 and Symphony
applications; and we have the tools you need to do it!
2. PC's and their related software are now the majority
of installed dollars in MIS. ( I am a bit suspicious
about this; maybe it's like saying there are more
bikes in the world than cars; but I still see more
cars myself!)
Then, in the next breath, they "hype" their mainframe
connectivity efforts.
3. "WE are a mainframe software house." (It was said at
least 10 times)
With their "push" for IRMA cards. I wonder why they
don't buy DCA, the developers of IRMA.
4. Yes, Virginia, there are mini-computers, but we won't
have anything for you this Christmas.
5. Gosh, the 80286 is sure a kludgy chip vs. the '386.
But, in the next breath, "the next 123 will be a 286
version; we're still thinking about the '386."
6. LANS, "do you folks want products for them ? Gee, it's
awful having to worry about file-sharing." (Secret
message seemed to be ... couldn't you just leave all
that data on the mainframe and buy our mainframe
Symphony Link, plus Symphony for your PC's and some
IRMA cards for all, $$$)
Without leaving it all that critically, there were some gems
from the meeting:
+ HAL looks great! I should say, sounds great! (They had
an AT there and one of the new NEC overhead opague
screen hook-ups; but only used it for 5 minutes all
day, talk about wasted PC resources!) But, if it does
what they say, anyone using 123 in other than "rote
data entry" mode should have HAL. It's one fantastic
productivity boost.
+ They will soon be distributing (that means bring in
your floppy and they'll put in on for you), FREE,
"Speed-Up", a 123 "Add-in" that allows both real
background recalculation mode and "intelligent re-
calculation of spreadsheet cells".
+ T-A-C, The Application Connection also sounds great,
but a bit pricey. (Some of the mainframers they hired
from IBM must have moved into their marketing
department!) The way it's priced, you can pay a lot if
you need more than one or two database tables to drive
it. (Again, no live demo, very curious that they didn't
do anything live !)
+ They did show some statistics on the PC market and they
probably know it better than anybody. A few of
interest:
- In 1975, a "workstation" cost about about 44% of a
manager's salary per year; in 1987, it was 4%.
- In the white-collar world, in 1986, there was 1 PC
per 5 employees; by 1989, they project it will be
1 to every 2.5 employees.
- The current (all factors included -- training,
support and 3 year amortization of original
purchase) cost of owning and operating a PC is
$7,500 a year; user "cockpit" time being the
biggest cost; general user support being the next
biggest cost.
- 44% of all keyboards in place in 1987 will be
PC's. ( Idon't know if they are counting old
typewriters here or not!)
Well, that's the world of Lotus !
PS I love 123; I've used it extensively from lengthy production
programming to scheduling my kids household duties, so please
excuse my criticism Lotus, I just expected more!
The opinions above are the author's alone; any similarity to
management, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Tom Helton Support Group
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--
Tom Helton Support Group
..{ihnp4}! | | |\ | | \/ Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.
sw1e!uusgth |_| | \| | /\ One Bell Ctr 24W5, StL, MO 63101