SOMMERS@RU-GREEN (05/06/83)
Ron, A serious answer to your half-serious letter. I have been working in an office recently, programming an IBM PC and getting a feel for office programming (and real-world money). I have a feeling that this office is a pretty typical small-business, it's wants and needs seem pretty generalizable. My father (who also owns and manages a small business seems to have the same computing needs. Aesthetics are important in the office...why else do you think that so many businesses are buying the PC (in my opinion a true loser). It looks pretty and fits in well into an office environment. The box is not overly large, and the entire thing is relatively non-obtrusive, while still looking "fancy" and "see, I made it...I have a top-flight computer to do my busy work". The executives in many small firms have no idea what they need in a computer...the company I am working for has a PDP-11 that is completely dedicated to processing maybe 30 invoices a day. They bought a PC because they felt they needed an office system...I have not been able to change their minds yet. They want fancy hardware...and they want it to look fancy. Software is even more interesting in an office environment. Everyone whom I have talked to in business has told me that their software must be written to fit their needs. They like the idea of hiring a programmer...they are sure that no canned program will do what they want done...that they do things differently from the hoi-polloi. Buying a programmer's time (even me, and I am barely a programmer) is another way for them to say "See I have made it!" Visicalc and DBase II seem to be the exceptions to this...but they will often hire a programmer to get DBase II set up. My father wants me to write him a general ledger (on a PC of course, I am still trying to talk him out of it). While he realizes that better programmers than I have written general ledgers...he does not believe that they would fit his needs ...his needs are "special". The company I work for is thinking about having me write a "special" payroll program. (I WON'T...they would have to bind and gag me to enter in the tax tables). The need/wish for something special is an aesthetic, personal decision, just as is the need for a work station that will fit into the environment of a "special" office. The funny part of all these aesthetic decisions is that the typical executive - wanting the "special hardware and software" for his needs...the stuff that satisfies his aesthetic sense...that is part of his personality...does not want to buy even the canned software to make it possible...it is all supposed to be written in Microsoft Basic (I am not the first person to come up against this). A compiler does not qualify as something special...only something written just for him. Bye the bye....you should have seen my boss jumping up and down the first time he saw HIS computer do some simple number crunching. Magic should be beautiful. OH yah...the more and fancier the equipment is ...the better they seem to like it...plenty of pieces and such....Remember for many executives these are gadgets/status symbols....and they must look complicated. One other thing, remember- and I know you know about it... Rutgers-Newark was seriously considering buying a Fortune system, just because the Deans and Profs liked the way it looks (comfortable). It took quite a bit to talk them out of that one. half seriously liz// -------