Informatics General: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:28, 1 September 2023

Revision as of 19:57, 2 November 2023

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Over the three decades of the 1970s through 1990s it had some $300 million in sales.<ref name="frank-47"/>

Indeed, Mark IV was the first software product to have cumulative sales of $1 million, $10 million, and later $100 million.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.softwarehistory.org/history/informatics.html |title=Informatics |year=2007 |work=Computer History Museum |access-date=June 2, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705032544/http://www.softwarehistory.org/history/informatics.html |archive-date=July 5, 2009 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref name="haigh-83">Haigh, 'A Veritable Bucket of Facts', p. 83.</ref> It is not only that, as computer historian Thomas Haigh has written, "Mark IV [was] the most successful product of the early independent software industry"<ref name="haigh-paper-13"/> –

but that it remained the best-selling independent software product in the world for a 15-year stretch.<ref name="ck-58">Campbell-Kelly, ''From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog'', p. 58.</ref>

For a long time Mark IV had few effective rivals in its market niche; as Bauer later remembered, "We didn't have much competition with Mark IV for many, many years. It was just pure sailing for 10 or 15 years."<ref name="bauer-oh-2-10"/>

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Ordernet was an early [[e-commerce]] initiative that provided electronic interchange of [[purchase order]]s and associated business documents between manufacturers and distributors.<ref name="iw-ordernet">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 | title=Ordernet: Buying electronically | magazine=Infoworld | date=July 12, 1982 | page=9}}</ref>

In particular, it was set up as a service bureau that would provide a solution to distributors looking to handle [[Business-to-business|business-to-business transactions]].<ref name="frank-55">Frank, "Achieving the American Dream", pp. 55–56.</ref> In 1975 Informatics had arranged with the National Wholesale Druggists’Druggists' Association to create a central clearinghouse for the processing of electronic purchase orders within the industry.<ref>Sokol, ''From EDI to Electronic Commerce'', pp. 208, 286.</ref> In 1978 that association formally endorsed the use of Ordernet, which led Informatics to create an Ordernet Services Division.<ref name="sokol-208">Sokol, ''From EDI to Electronic Commerce'', p. 208.</ref> As a business unit within Informatics, this division was essentially a one-person effort at the beginning.<ref name="notto-mhds"/>

The electronic data interchange industry continued to grow in its adoption of standards and more agreements were made in regards to Ordernet.<ref>Notto, ''Challenge And Consequence'', p. 309.</ref>

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===Equimatics Division / Life Insurance Systems Division===

United Systems International was a [[Dallas, Texas]]-based company that was building an ambitious solution for automating the back-office functions for companies that offer [[life insurance]].<ref name="frank-52"/> Informatics acquired it in 1971 as part of the aforementioned Equimatics, Inc. initiative.<ref name="frank-52">Frank, "Achieving the American Dream", pp. 52, 95n.</ref> From this the Life-Comm solution emerged;<ref name="frank-52"/> the Life-Comm III version in particular became popular in the mid-1970s, quickly getting to the $1 million level in sales<ref>{{cite news | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=auvoEl8SK9sC&pg=PA54 | title=29 Software Packages Join ICP $1 Million Club | magazine=Computerworld | date=April 26, 1976|page=54}}</ref> and growing to have several dozen customers among insurance companies.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soGti0kvtgwC&pg=RA1-PA3 | title=Tapping External Data Sources | first=Forest Woody, Jr. | last=Horton | magazine=Computerworld | date=August 15, 1983 | pages=ID–1ff}}</ref> It eventually became the leading product in the field.<ref name="lat-target"/> The Equimatics initiative also put some other financial software, such as the Mortgage Loan System.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDIWAQAAMAAJ&q=The+best+thing+about+the+Equimatics+Mortgage+Loan+System+is+what+it+doesnt+do | title=The best thing about ... | work=Mortgage Banker | volume=36 | issue=uncertain | date=1975 | page=19 | type=Advertisement}}</ref>

The Equimatics Division persisted as a name within Informatics even after the company was acquired by, and subsequently became independent from, Equitable Life Assurance itself.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXsqAQAAMAAJ&q=Informatics+Inc.+has+named+WALTER+B.+RICKEL+direc-+tor | title=uncertain | work=Software Digest | publisher=EDP News Service | volume=12 | issue=uncertain | date=1980 | page=4 }}</ref> It released related insurance products, such as GROUP-COMM, for the administration of [[group insurance]] plans.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o1xUAAAAMAAJ&q=GROUP+COMM++equimatics | title=uncertain | work=Information & Records Management | volume =16 | issue=uncertain | date=1982 | page=16 }}</ref> However over time it became instead known as the Life Insurance Systems Division.<ref name="ar-1982-reportings"/>

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[[Image:Informatics General corridor at night.jpg|thumb|left|260px|An Informatics staffer having a late night at the office]]

The company continued to have strong revenue growth, moving from $129 million in 1982 to $152 million in 1983 to $191 million in 1984.<ref name="lat-target">{{cite news | url=http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-23/business/fi-11631_1_takeover-target | title=Woodland Hills' Informatics a Takeover Target : Analysts Give Dallas Software Company's Bid a Good Chance of Succeeding | first=Daniel | last=Akst | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=April 23, 1985 }}</ref> Profits followed the same path for most of the time, with seven straight years of increasing earnings through 1983,<ref name="ct-somuch"/> including moving from $5.4 million and $1.49 per share in 1982 to $8.5 million and $1.67 per share in 1983.<ref name="lat-target"/> But then in 1984 earnings declined to $4.7 million and 82 cents per share, with two of Informatics' ten divisions showing an outright loss.<ref name="ct-somuch"/><ref name="lat-target"/><ref name="nyt-earnings-0285">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/13/business/informatics-general-corp-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-dec-31.html |title=Informatics General Corp reports earnings for Qtr to Dec 31 | newspaper=The New York Times | date=February 13, 1985}}</ref> The performance of Informatics stock became erratic, as exemplified by a market close in December 1983 where the ''New York Times'' wrote that Informatics General was the "big loser" of the day when its stock fell {{frac|5|5|8}} to {{frac|20|7|8}} after a poor earnings forecast was put out,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/10/business/dow-declines-1.83-turnover-increases.html | title=Dow Declines 1.83; Turnover Increases | first=Alexander R. | last=Hammer | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 10, 1983}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/14573563/?terms=%22informatics%2Bgeneral%22 | title=Market has small loss for week | agency=Associated Press | newspaper= The Galvestone Daily News | date= December 10, 1983 |page=23 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> or by a drop of {{frac|4|7|8}} to {{frac|15|3|8}} on a day in July 1984 when another a forecast for a break-even quarter was released.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/47536018/?terms=%22informatics%2Bgeneral%22 | title=Wall Street | first=Chet | last=Currier | agency=Associated Press | newspaper=The Gettysburg Times | date=July 19, 1984 | page=12 | via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> <!-- [[Stock buyback]]s https://www.newspapers.com/image/986794/?terms=%22informatics%2Bgeneral%22

"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 -->

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* {{cite conference | last=Haigh | first=Thomas | contribution='A Veritable Bucket of Facts': Origins of the Data Base Management System, 1960–1980 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76OOQannpBgC&pg=PA83 | title=The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems: Proceedings of the 2002 Conference | publisher=Information Today | ___location=Medford, New Jersey | date=2004 | pages=73–88 | editor-first=W. Boyd | editor-last=Rayward | editor2-first=Mary Ellen | editor2-last=Bowden}}

* {{cite journal | url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/369202 | title=How Data Got its Base: Information Storage Software in the 1950s and 1960s | first=Thomas | last=Haigh | journal= IEEE Annals of the History of Computing | volume= 31 | number=4 | date=October–December 2009 | pages= 6–25 |url-access=subscription |via=[[Project MUSE]] | doi=10.1109/MAHC.2009.123 | s2cid=8073037 }}

* {{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40397797 | title=Advances in Information System Design | author-first=Benn R. | author-last=Konsynski | journal=Journal of Management Information Systems | volume= 1 | number= 3 | date=Winter 1984–1985 | pages= 5–32 | jstor=40397797 }}

* {{cite book | title=The Coming Computer Industry Shakeout: Winners, Losers, and Survivors | url=https://archive.org/details/comingcomputerin0000mccl | url-access=registration | first=Stephen T. | last=McClellan | publisher=Wiley | ___location=New York | year=1984| isbn=9780471880639 }}

* {{cite book | last=Notto | first=Ralph W. | title=Challenge And Consequence: ... forcing change to eCommerce | publisher=Fenestra Books | ___location=Tucson, Arizona | date=2005}}