Content deleted Content added
clarify/expand on a few points |
add more on contracts, stock analysts |
||
Line 256:
[[Image:Informatics General Corporation TAPS Division magnetic paperclip holder.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.67|Branded magnetic paperclip holder]]
TAPS found its biggest market in the U.S. government, with its portability a big advantage for such customers, since they often possessed a disparate collection of computer systems<ref name="cw-oalj"/> brought about by lowest-bid government contracting requirements. The U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy in particular were both major customers,<ref name="ar-1984-taps">{{cite book | title=1984 Annual Report | publisher=Informatics General Corporation | year=1985 | page=12}}</ref> with the Navy's use going back to the 1970s.<ref name="frank-95">Frank, "Achieving the American Dream", p. 95n.</ref> By the early-mid-1980s, TAPS had secured a new $1 million contract for the Army's modernization of its non-tactical administrative, logistical, and financial information management systems,<ref>{{cite book | title=A Presentation Before the New York Society of Security Analysts | author-first=Walter F. | author-last=Bauer | publisher=Informatics General Corporation | date=September 20, 1983 | page=19}} See [https://history.army.mil/books/DAHSUM/1984/ch06.htm this U.S. Army Center of Military History page] for the explanation of Project VIABLE.</ref> and TAPS was heavily used inside the Navy's stock management and distribution system.<ref name="NAVADS">{{cite web | url=http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA155290 |title=An Overview of the Navy Automated Transportation Documentation System (NAVADS) | first=Joseph Ralph | last=Bonomo | publisher=Naval Postgraduate School | ___location=Monterey, California | date=March 1985 | format=thesis | pages=19, 57, and ''passim''}}{{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
<!-- credible at all?? By 1982 Informatics said TAPS was in place in over 1,000 installations around the world.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=wGVWGF8phaUC&pg=PA23 {{Bare URL inline|date=May 2022}}</ref> -->
During the early-mid-1980s TAPS underwent an implementation change from TAPS I, which was written in less-portable languages, to TAPS II, which was written in an explicitly designed portable dialect of the [[Pascal programming language]].<ref name="NAVADS"/> In 1984, a decision was made to focus TAPS entirely on the government market.<ref name="ar-1984-taps"/>
Line 321:
"Markets: Stocks holding modest gain", UPI, Ukiah Daily Journal, 4 Oct 1984, page=7
Stock up 1 to 16 3/4 after company announces stock buy-back of 600K shares -->
[[Image:Informatics General Corporation quarterly reports and analysts briefing.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Mailed quarterly reports and an analysts' briefing by Bauer: Informatics General was under constant pressure to improve its stock price]]
By 1985, Informatics General had some 2,600 employees and offices in 30 cities in North America and in nine other locations around the world.<ref name="lat-target"/> It was the fourth largest independent software company in the world.<ref name="legacy-bauer"/> Informatics had a solid cash position and almost no long-term debt.<ref name="lat-finally"/>
| |||