Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!apple!well!shibumi
From: shibumi@well.UUCP (Kenton A. Hoover)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: res-requestk...
Message-ID: <10768@well.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 89 23:29:59 GMT
References: <8902171939.AA04717@multimax.encore.com>
Reply-To: shibumi@well.UUCP (Kenton A. Hoover)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 37

In article <8902171939.AA04717@multimax.encore.com> U1DF1@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU ("John Neubert") writes:
>>Most MIS groups have built their empires on accounting and services, not
>>on MIPS.  You're still going to need someone to work out the corporate
>>licencing on Lotus 1-2-3, not to mention storing the backup tapes.
>>Bill
>Isn't it interesting that Novell can run it's whole corporation (admin,
>order processing, *EVERYTHING*) with a LAN and PCs.  Distributed
>processing (the catch word over a decade ago) is the catch word again
...
>systems, and maybe even the s/w to do it all.

I dont think that things are that clear cut at this point in time.  Though
the hardware end of things is getting better interconnected, the software
interconnections are still at little better than dream stage.  At H&Q, we
have two Stratuses and a System/36, and all of the account processing
is done on a 3081 run by ADP.  At this point in time most real world
organizations, like banks, airlines and insurance companies are not going
to attempt to make all of their accounting dependant on a very tempermental
bunch of PCs and file servers, all riding on software that costs them two to
four times the cost of comperable centralized software to produce.

Furthermore, MIS really is not just about processing and availability -- its
about providing computing resources to users who know far less about computers
than you and I.  You cannot give a secretary -- or worse an EVP -- instructions
like "Oh, dont ever turn your machine off."  Centralized resources OF VARIOUS
SIZES are going to be needed to make all of this work.  And you also have
decentralized resources that are required to make it work.  Until however, you
can fully automate support, you are always going to have a function called
MIS, and you are always going to have mish-mashes of systems that serve the
information needs of an organization.


-- 
!   Kenton A. Hoover                {att,pyramid,uunet}!acad!speedo!shibumi  ! 
!   Phoenix Project Manager                  SNAIL: One Bush Street          !
!   Hambrecht & Quist                               San Francisco, CA 94104  !
!          "Evil will always triumph over good because good is dumb!"        !