Informatics General: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
copyedits to recent addition
some cite formattings per article practice
Line 74:
Meanwhile, Data Products, which had moved its office to [[Sherman Oaks, California]] in 1964 and renamed itself slightly to Dataproducts,<ref name="yost-wf"/><ref name="yost-cip-5"/> was suffering from falling behind IBM on disk drive technology; its eventually successful printer business had not yet taken off.<ref name="webster-123"/> In order to placate its subsidiary, the three Informatics co-founders were given 7.5 percent of Data Products stock in 1965.<ref name="ck-81"/> As Tomash later said, "To satisfy them, we deliberately took the step that we knew would separate us in the long run."<ref name="webster-123"/>
 
In May 1966 there was an [[IPO]] of Informatics stock, priced at $7.50 per share, that brought in $3.5 million.<ref name="ck-81"/> Only the third software company to have stock issued for it and thus becoming a public company,<!-- would like a stronger source for this --><ref name="legacy-bauer">{{cite web | url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/walter-bauer-obituary?pid=1000000179314003 | title=Walter Ferdinand Bauer: Obituary | date=25 March 25, 2016 | publisher=Legacy.com | access-date=March 18, 2017}}</ref> it was listed on the [[Over-the-counter (finance)|over-the-counter market]], based in New York.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1970/09/27/90422358.pdf | title=Over-the-Counter Quotations | newspaper=The New York Times | date=September 27, 1970 | page=175}}</ref> However, 60 percent of its stock was still held by Dataproducts.<ref name="cw-15yrs"/> At that time Informatics had revenues of $4.5 million and a net income of $171,000, and the number of employees was around 300.<ref name="ck-81"/> By 1967 Informatics had something possessed 3% to 4% of the total market for custom-built software.<ref name="ck-66"/>
 
During the mid-1960s the U.S. stock market went through what was known as the "go-go market" boom, and computer companies become special darlings of traders.<ref>Campbell-Kelly, ''From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog'', pp. 79–80.</ref> Informatics was no exception; its [[price–earnings ratio]] rose from 25 at the time of its IPO to 200 by mid-1968 and over 600 by early 1969, despite the company having only $40,000 in earnings for the previous year.<ref name="ck-81"/> Informatics used the proceeds from additional offerings during this period to fund development of its Mark IV product and to create a Data Services Division.<ref name="ck-81"/>
Line 154:
However, starting in 1980, the technological age of the product became apparent and sales of Mark IV leveled off, amassing only about 60 percent of what Informatics had planned for.<ref>Campbell-Kelly, ''From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog'', p. 118. See also chart on p. 117.</ref>
 
A successor product, Mark V, was released in 1981–82.<ref name="elec-markv">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tllJAQAAIAAJ&q=informatics+%22mark+v%22 |magazine=Electronics |date=1982 |page=136? |title=uncertain}}</ref> In contrast to the batch-only features of Mark IV, the goal of Mark V was the generation of online applications, although initially this was still done through some batch-oriented development steps.<ref name="elec-markv"/>
The same taxonomy of application generators mentioned earlier placed Mark V in the category of "Application Development Systems", as it covered more advanced capabilities such as generating online systems with screen dialogue and similar features.<ref name="card-graf"/> Mark V was made available for two IBM mainframe online transaction processing environments, [[IBM Information Management System|IMS/DC]] and, beginning in 1983, [[CICS]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xg3P92QsSqIC&pg=PA57 |title=Informatics Updates Mark V For IBM CICS Environments |magazine=Computerworld |date=October 3, 1983 |page=57}}</ref> Mark V never become a dominant force in the marketplace like Mark IV was. It had many competitors, including products from Applied Data Research, IBM, [[Cincom Systems]], [[DMW Europe]], and [[CA-Telon#Pansophic Systems|Pansophic Systems]].<ref>Konsynski, "Advances in Information System Design", p. 27.</ref>
 
Line 173:
By the late 1970s into the 1980s, Geno P. Tolari was the head of Informatics' government and military services operations, which was based in [[San Francisco, California]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICoe1vr9x3kC&pg=PA164 | title=Executive Corner | magazine=Computerworld | date=June 5, 1978 | page=164}}</ref><ref name="oh-wyly-32"/>
 
Following the Sterling Software takeover, Tolari stayed on as chief of what became known as the Federal Systems Group.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9WUVAQAAMAAJ | title=The Texas 500 | publisher=Reference Press | date=1994 | page=144| isbn=9781878753397 }}</ref>
 
===Data Services Division===
Line 186:
seems kind of minor -->
 
Typical customers of the Data Services Division during the 1970s included the [[General Services Administration]] for hosting a teleprocessing services program,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHkuAQAAIAAJ&q=John+Callanan | magazine=Information Hotline | date=1977 | page=9? | title=uncertain}}</ref>
the [[National Highway Traffic Safety Administration]] for hosting a reporting system,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L7fv8Ls0pMAC&pg=RA1-PA56 | title=Contacts | magazine=Computerworld | date=October 23, 1978 | page=56}}</ref>
and Simplan Systems, Inc. for macroeconomic modeling.<ref name="sd-dsd">{{cite news | magazine=Software Digest | date=1979 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inwqAQAAMAAJ&q=informatics+%22data+services+division%22 | page=16? | title=uncertain}}</ref>
 
Informatics still offered time-sharing services into the early 1980s.<ref name="cw-slowcycle"/> Then the Fairfield division, by that time known as the Data Services Operation, was sold to Mellonics Systems Development, a division of the [[Litton Industries]] conglomerate, in 1984.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdBP83DW6g4C&pg=RA1-PA102 | title=Mergers and Acquisitions | magazine=Computerworld | date=July 16, 1984 | page=102}}</ref>
Line 278:
Informatics had two divisions that related to computer support for [[law firm]]s.
One was the Legal Information Services Division, which was begun around 1974, was based in [[Rockville, Maryland]], and provided a service bureau for litigation support services.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o7kNYfytNeQC&pg=PA14 | title=Letters | first=Cornell D. | last=Hills | magazine=ABA Journal | date=June 1, 1986 | page=14}}</ref>
In particular it offered a legal support service that assisted law firms with large-scale document maintenance and retrieval functions in complex litigation efforts.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inwqAQAAMAAJ&q=informatics+%22Legal+Information+Services+division%22 | magazine=Software Digest | date=April 5, 1979 | page=5 | title=uncertain}}</ref><ref name="az-pss"/><!-- see also ad at https://books.google.com/books?id=DS4fmGazjlwC&pg=PA1612 -->
The basis for this service was online search work in the legal area that Informatics had done as part of its government services work in such areas.<ref name="bh-321"/>
This unit was also sometimes known as Legal Information Services Operations.<ref name="az-pss"/>
Line 290:
https://books.google.com/books?id=HkOi-MNO4oQC&pg=PA1145&lpg=PA1145 -->
 
Continuing to sell the Wang-based Legal Time Management System turnkey solution,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULU8AQAAIAAJ&q=informatics+legal+turnkey+%22wang+vs%22 | magazine=Los Angeles Lawyer | date=1983 | page=93? | title=uncertain}}</ref>
the Phoenix division had yearly revenues on the order of $30 million by the mid-1980s.<ref name="lat-lsd">{{cite news | url=http://articles.latimes.com/1986-04-08/business/fi-25518_1_sterling-software | title=Sterling Sells Phoenix Unit of Informatics | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=April 8, 1986}}</ref> It would claim in advertisements in the ''[[ABA Journal]]'' to have 30 of the largest 100 law firms as customers and to be the top supplier of integrated legal word and data processing systems.<ref name="aba-no1">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18AZJOghhXUC&pg=PA2 | title=Who's the leader in law office automation? | magazine=ABA Journal | date=February 1, 1987 | pages=4–5}}</ref>