softalk-pc-1982-12-reduced

The client threw Hoxie out of his chair, commandeered VisiCalcand the Apple, and spent the next three days knocking that modelaround, at the end of which time the general manager of the divisionlaid off a hundred employees. That was the first step toward recovery;in six months the division reduced its inventory by half,went from $600,000 in the red per month to a break-even position,and finally was sold as a profitable division."I had been a consultant with Booz Allen for twelve years,"Hoxie recalls. " Prior to that I 'd been a systems guy at IBM for aboutfive years; and I'd never seen any recommendation have that kindof impact."Nothing Personal. Two months later Fischer and Hoxie paid avisit to Dan Fylstra, president of Personal Software, and tried to sellhim a product strategy study for the development of VisiCalc. Thestudy was, of course, the germ of MBA. Fylstra told them aboutDIF, which was then on the drawing boards (and still a year from itsfirst appearance in the DOS 3.3 revise of Apple VisiCalc) . .Fischer and Hoxie thought DIF sounded inadequate as a tool forintegrating software functions and tried to persuade Fylstra thatthey had a better idea. Looking back, Fischer says he can't blameFylstra for turning them down. " He was just too preoccupied withother matters to seriously consider buying a product strategy studyfrom a couple of guys he didn' t know. We understand that; if somebodycame in here today and tried to sell us a product strategystudy, we'd be tempted to throw him out,'' he says. " But wewouldn't do it."After losing that sale to Fylstra, the two men drove out of PersonalSoftware's Sunnyvale offices, headed up the coast to SanFrancisco, and checked into the Hyatt Regency; by dawn they had abusiness plan.Context Management Systems was incorporated in October1980. Hoxie left Booz Allen in December of that year, and Fischerfollowed in February. The following month they hired their firstemployee, Jim Peterson, as vice president of product development.Peterson, who had designed integrated circuits for TRW beforecoming to Context and who had, along the way, picked up threehardware patents, became the programming honcho for microcomputerdom'sbiggest software project.Actually, Peterson wasn't the only member of the team who hadextensive hardware experience. Fischer had spent vacations fromMIT designing microprocessors for Fairchild and had helped developFairchild's first CMOS chip. Knowing that their concept forMBA necessitated hardware horsep9wer well in excess of what wasgenerally available in 1981, the trio considered building their ownmachine to run the program. "We abandoned that idea after threeweeks,'' says Fischer, " because we figured whatever we did in hardwaresomebody else could do as well."By April the walls of Hoxie's living room were covered withflow charts and other design paraphernalia. The group took an officein Torrance, California, and began the actual coding of MBAthat June.About the same time they picked up and marketed an entirelydifferent product. " None of us had a consumer products bac;kground,''Hoxie relates. "We knew we were vulnerable in that area,so we acquired the rights to distribute The Connector, which hadbeen developed by a couple of guys at Booz Allen. We cleaned it upand brought it out in June of '81, with the principal objective oflearning how to market a consumer product."The Connector was a program that downloaded data from remotedatabases and converted it into VisiCalc files for the Apple II.It was not an overpowering commercial success, although Hoxie assertsthat it sold more than they expected it to." We learned a little bit about package design,'' he recalls. " Andwe learned how hard it was to do good documentation."The Connector also connected Context to Martin Mazner, whosubsequently joined the firm as marketing vice president. Mazner,after a decade in advertising, had cofounded in 1980 the magazineComputer Merchandising. When the magazine was forced to acceptventure capital, Mazner decided he didn't want to work for someoneelse, flipped a coin with his partner, and sold his interest.A stint of consulting brought him into contact with Context.Mazner says, "I told them what they were doing wrong with TheConnector, so they offered me a job." He turned it down.In the fall of 1981, Mazner did go to work for Context, becomingthe architect of the company's marketing strategy for MBA.That strategy was aimed at ensuring an unprecedented degree of retailersupport for a product of unprecedented complexity. Everydealer authorized to sell MBA has to have completed a training programgiven by the Context staff and has to sign an agreement toprovide buyers with any necessary follow-up support. MBA is nowavailable in 190 stores.Taking Chances. This marketing approach is another in a seriesof calculated risks on Context's part. Mazner acknowledges that thecompany could have sold " several times as many MBAs" had theychosen to make the program available throl;lgh a large wholesaler,such as Softsel. But they believe that maintaining firmer controlover the dealer-user transaction will pay off when and where it matters-inthe long run and with the Fortune 2000 clientele that Contextconsiders to be its primary marketplace.The company isn't expecting dealers to be the sole source of usersupport. Mark Teitelman at Context provides a telephone hotlineservice and tabulates users' requests and suggestions. An MBA templatepublishing service and a newsletter on disk are in the works.Jeff Walden, who arrived at Context recently by way of VisiCorp, isresponsible for the maintenance and furtherance of dealereducation.It'll be an ongoing effort. Context is committed to twice-annualupdates of MBA. Version 2 , scheduled for release this December,will include telecommunications, a module for forms generation,and more powerful word processing features. An interim update,offering mainly speed enhancements, was scheduled for display atComdex in late November.Hoxie and Fischer stress the importance of telecommunicationsto the concept of MBA as a comprehensive management tool. Theyalso hope that communications capability will help overcome someof the remaining bastions of resistance among computing professionalsto the personal computer." The corporate MIS guy sees the microcomputer as a potentialmole,'' says Hoxie, referring to the fear expressed in some quartersthat desktop computers will lead individual managers to buildmodels based on incomplete or biased assumptions. With MBA, heasserts, a company can maintain control over its information resourcesand offer managers-on their own computers-authentic,qualified data on which to base projections.With regard to the future of MBA beyond version 2, Context ismum. A version 3, features unannounced, is promised for thespring. The program is coded in UCSD Pascal, partly for the sake ofportability (by spring, Context expects to have it running on threeother computers in addition to the IBM) but also for the sake ofmajntainability. Hoxie and Fischer speak of MBA as a " livingproduct," one that will expand and keep pace with changes in therelevant technologies.Wherever they take it-and themselves-one may presume thatthe effort will be guided by a couple of crucial navigational aids: anuncommon awareness of computer technology and the uses thereof,and a willingness to take chances based on that awareness. •14softolk for the IBM Personal Computer De cember l982