Managing Computers in Large Organizations

Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html
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CONTROL THROUGH PERSUASION 137
within the customer community. In effect, they became part of the customer
environment.
At the same time large central applications groups within the company
were also dealing with this new customer. The support group established close
ties with these applications groups and with senior systems management. The
close contact among all these groups enabled us to monitor what was occurring
and to suggest the most appropriate technology solutions to our customers'
problems. To a large extent the support group is really a controlled distribution
force, but it doesn't appear so. Its job is to channel our customers' requirements
into the mainstream of technology.
The first technical challenge the support group identified was the growth
of timesharing. The new customers had already started going outside to get their
computational needs satisfied. We facilitated and encouraged this. We also
watched what was happening, and guided the customer to certain preferred
vendors and applications. Then, when we understood what our customers' real
needs were, we created a solution—an internal timesharing system that we call
QUEST I. The support group took this internal timesharing system and “sold” it
to the customers who had been buying outside timesharing services. There were
several advantages to our in-house system. First, our timesharing service was
more competitively priced than those outside. Second, we had easier access to
corporate databases. Third, we provided better service. In effect, we went into
competition with external timesharing organizations and we were very
successful.
I must emphasize that we did not mandate the use of this internal
timesharing service. However, it was priced and packaged in such a way that
customers could not justify going outside and spending more money for the
same service. This Milton Fried-man-like “free marketplace” philosophy
worked quite effectively and as a result most of the outside timesharing was
eventually internalized. Some outside databases were being used, however,
which we could not internalize. In these cases, processing with outside vendors
continued. About four years after we introduced QUEST I we came out with a
new product called QUEST II. It has enhanced graphics and language
capabilities, offers more software packages, has increased file-handling
capabilities, and overall, provides more functions.
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