Volume 2, Number 4 ___________________________________
April
1983
Digital Discusses Computing
Strategy With The Research Board
Digital
Plans Research Facility For Reading, England
New
Organization For Business Channels Group
Take
Risks, But Study Everything, Ask Everybody
Manufacturing
Productivity Conference Presents Challenges
"Wall Street Journal"
Cites Digital Success In Artificial Intelligence
Last
month, Digital had an opportunity to explain its business and
product strategies to senior executives in charge of computing
and communications at about three dozen of the largest
corporations in the U.S. The Research Board, a group of
computer users (including such firms as Gillette, Monsanto,
Bank of America, Eastman Kodak, Mobil Oil, Johnson &
Johnson and Inland Steel) jointly funds research into
developments in the computer industry.
This
year the Board studied the mid-range products of the industry
and, as a followup, invited IBM, Digital, Wang and
Hewlett-Packard to make separate presentations and field
questions. Jack Shields, vice president, Sales and Service,
and Bill Johnson, vice president, Systems & Communications
Engineering, represented Digital.
Among
other questions, the Board asked whether having a standard
architecture tied around VAX would limit innovation and
creativity at Digital. Bill's answer, summarized here,
provides an overview of Digital's computing strategy.
"Digital's
strategy takes into account the way people are using
computers. In a large organization or corporation, there are
typically three tiers — personal, departmental and corporate —
each with different computing needs, but all needing to be
tied together for communication. Information has to be
communicated up and down the organization, from tier to tier,
and also side to side, within the same level.
"With
our range of products, we offer a wide variety of solutions to
computing and office needs at all levels of a corporation;
and with our networks, we allow those diverse solutions to be
tied together to enhance both up-and-down and side-to-side
communications.
"That's
the advantage we have from the compatibility we have designed
into our networking architecture. Our VAX systems can
communicate with our personal computers, our PDP-lls and our
DECsystem-lOs and 20s; and our terminals can tie into any of
those machines. That means that no matter where you access a
terminal in this network, it is going to look compatible to
you. No other vendor can say that.
"We
realize that while we may have a good solution here, it is
critical for us, at least in very large companies, to be able
to tie into the central computer that IBM will have in many
corporate headquarters. Hence we've developed the gateway
product for tying into IBM equipment from Digital products.
"Obviously,
we have optimized DECnet for Digital-to-Digital
communications, but it is very adaptable, as shown by the
gateway to IBM and the ability to tie into X.25 public
packetswitching networks and local area networks as well.
Digital helped make Ethernet an industry standard and is a
leader in implementing local area network technologies.
"In
essence, with this one network architecture, we can cover all
the communications and technologies and protocols we might
have. And that's something that no one else in the industry
can say."
Digital
will establish an office automation center in Reading,
England, to develop products for Digital's worldwide markets.
Plans call for an initial investment of $12.5 million in a new
building for the center.
According
to Darryl Barbe, manager of Digital's United Kingdom
subsidiary, Digital already has a 120-member group at Reading,
specializing in office automation, networks and
communications, which will expand to the new center when it
opens in two years. This expanded operation will develop and
test office automation software, data communications products,
local-area networks and integrated office technology. The
center will also work on the development of computerized
graphics displays and voice recognition technologies .
Area
managers have been named for Digital's Business Centers
(retail stores) in the U.S. Gerald Selby is responsible for
centers in the Mid-Atlantic/- Southern States Area; Jeff
Boetticher for the Western and Central States Area; and Geno
Alissi for the New York/New Jersey and Northeast States Area.
They report directly to Barry Cioffi, manager, Business
Channels Group, and dotted line to the Area managers (Harvey
Weiss, Dave Grainger and Chick Shue). Managers of the
individual stores report directly to these new Area Business
Center managers and dotted line to the District managers.
New
centers recently opened in Miami, Florida; San Antonio, Texas;
and Baltimore, Maryland.
Last month at the invitation of the
Communications Industry Group, Ken Olsen spoke on innovation
and risk taking. The following remarks are excerpted from that
talk:
“A risk is when you put your heart into
something, when you really work a problem and you commit
yourself to it, even though most of the people in the company
are against it — not the management, but all your colleagues.
If you fail, the point isn't that you get fired. The point is
that everybody says — 'I told you so.’
"But the satisfaction is to do it. If you
take no risks, life is dull.
"Not long ago, I told someone, 'If you
don't get a project soon that you make a commitment to, stick
your neck out for, make promises about, get into and out of
trouble on, you're going to be an unhappy miserable guy until
the day you retire.' I think that's true of many, many people.
You take no risks, there's no fun.
"But risk taking isn't enough. It takes
work too. Worry over every detail. Think it all through. Be
prepared. Take risks, but plan it all.
"A number of years ago we were ridiculed
for not being bolder. I said it was a little bit like the
World War I stories about the soldier who never stuck his head
up and never got shot. His friend said, 'You've been here so
long and never got shot. You must be lucky. It's your turn to
stick your head up.' He said, 'Oh no. I never stuck my head
up, that's why I didn't get shot.'
"We can take risks. But don't stick you
head up just to stick your head up. Be sure we know what the
game is and what we want to win. Make yourself an expert, and
collect experts.
"Too often people don't know enough to
ask for help. They think that to do some risk-taking and be
bold, they have to do it all themselves. When I've got a
problem, I ask everybody. Take risks, but study everything,
and ask everybody.
"Because we're getting large, we have
tremendous pressures right within our organization to do what
everybody else in the industry is doing, to be the same as
everybody else. The pressure is enormous, and it doesn't come
from the top. It comes from your colleagues, and it's you
pressuring the other people. But our survival is dependent on
being different; taking care of the customer. Maybe we won't
be heroes or be appreciated, but we have to know we're right
and win."
Opening
Digital’s first Manufacturing Productivity Conference in
March, Jack Smith challenged the attendees to help
Manufacturing change its role and direction. He noted that "in
the past, Manufacturing's role was to provide service and to
chase demand. We learned how to get the products to the
waiting market. We learned how to add people very fast, how to
assimilate them, train them and help them learn to be
productive. Now we want to make Manufacturing more of a
strategic weapon by aggressively using new technologies and
tools.
"From
past experience, we know we have to challenge our people...
help them understand the issues, catch their imagination,
provide the tools, and challenge them. If we can do these
things, I'm sure they will come through for us as they have in
the past." The purpose of the three-day conference, held in
Andover, Mass., was to share knowledge of technologies already
in use at Digital plants and at Digital's Andover
Manufacturing Technology Center and to discuss other advanced
development efforts required to keep Digital's manufacturing
organization competitive.
Also
at the conference, Roger Cady, Vice President, Manufacturing,
Distribution and Control, announced a new Sales partnership
with Manufacturing called the CounSELLor Program. "Senior
Manufacturing management will work on a geographic basis with
our Field Sales organization to give Manufacturing
professionals the opportunity to talk with customers about
manufacturing problems. This means a chance for us to learn
about their problems and solutions and for them to learn about
our solutions to our problems.
Two
things will happen as part of the CounSELLor program. Each
sales district will form a partnership with a Digital
Manufacturing facility, and Corporate Account Teams will link
with Manufacturing Staff management. The program includes
visits to customers, manufacturing training programs for the
sales force, plant visits and tours, and joint staff meetings.
Early success stories involving Albuquerque, Colorado Springs,
Galway, Greenville, Phoenix and others have demonstrated that
the concept works.
"All
of us have a common goal...to make Digital the most successful
computer vendor in history," says Roger. "We can have the best
engineering, the best marketing, the best products, the best
service, the best manufacturing and the best sales force
individually. The CounSELLor Program teams up two
organizations to make Digital even stronger."
Other
speakers at the conference dealt with topics such as material
handling, testing, robotics, manufacturing design, value
engineering, Unified Plant Management, CAD/CAM, planning, data
collection, networks, office automation, quality and
artificial intelligence.
In
an April 4, 1983 article, the "Wall Street Journal" noted that
Japan has committed itself to deliver an intelligent computer
by 1990. It mentioned that some major U.S. companies are also
working on expert systems, but very few products have reached
the market.
The
"Journal" explained that "expert systems work roughly the way
human experts do. They combine textbook knowledge with the
rules of thumb that experience teaches, and then make informed
guesses about the situation at hand, whether it be diagnosing
the ills of a human being or a broken computer. Once they are
built, they work tirelessly, often with higher accuracy rates
than humans have been able to achieve."
The
development of these systems is very complex and requires an
extensive commitment of time and resources. The "Journal"
noted that "despite the problems, one notable industry success
is Digital Equipment Corp.’s R1 expert system, which the
company designed after extensive consultation with John
McDermott, a Carnegie-Mellon computer scientist. The
electronic expert at DEC can now design an individualized
computer system for a DEC customer with much greater speed and
accuracy than a person. The 'expert' has worked on 17,000
orders since January 1981, diligently reminding DEC engineers
to include the right number of cables, memory boxes and other
components."
The
article also noted that "DEC is working on another expert
system that will let its salesmen talk directly with the
computer and figure out system requirements for customers. The
new expert dubbed XSEL, won’t let the salesman sell
inconsistent components,' says Arnold Kraft, manager of
solution marketing at DEC. 'It will only give you valid
choices for whatever configuration you asked for,' he says."
The
Commercial OEM Group has sold ARC Automation Services, Inc. of
Irving, Texas, $40 million worth of computers and peripheral
devices. A subsidiary of Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies,
ARC will buy 800 PDP-11/23, 11/24, and 11/44 systems as well
as 32-bit VAX computers over a four-year contract. Disks,
including the recently announced RA60 and RA80 products, are
also included in the sale.
ARC
is the largest vendor of turnkey, computer-based systems to
independent insurance agents and brokers throughout the U.S.
and Canada. The company’s newest product, the ARCom/2000
Minicomputer System, will be standardized on Digital's
computers and will be marketed in a variety of configurations
based on client need and anticipated growth.