I.C.L. adds N.Z. to its ‘major country’ list

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 23

I.C.L. adds N.Z. to its ‘major country’ list

Great emphasis is being placed on the New Zealand market by the British computer firm, I.C.L, through its New Zealand subsidiary, International Computers (New Zealand), Ltd. This was made very clear by the chairman of the parent company (Mr C. C. F. Laidlaw) on his recent visit to New Zealand. Mr Laidlaw said that the group attached a lot of importance to New Zealand and had recently added New Zealand to its “major country” list, the others being France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and the United States. In addition. I.C.L. had introduced its own version of closer economic relations with Australia with crossboard representation between the boards of the Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries. The CASPER installation for the New Zealand Customs Department, which Mr Laidlaw visited, would in itself be a world reference point for selling the system, Mr Laidlaw said. CASPER, for Customs and Statistics Processing of Entries and Retrieval, is based on an I.C.L. 2980 computer at Trentham, supporting a network of regional ME29 computers (also by 1.C.L.), which themselves support a large number of • terminals throughout customs locations in major centres. Mr Laidlaw said that CASPER was recognised world wide as an application of the most advanced networking techniques. “It is a compliment to the expertise of the State Services Commission in developing such an impressive and sophisticated system, which is notable as an international leader in the use of hierarch; ical networks," he said. “I.C.L.’s networked product line clearly satisfies the requirements of the sophisticated CASPER system,” he said. Nevertheless, all was not rosy on the New Zealand front, with the 40 per cent sales tax on computers being a major thorn, Mr Laidlaw said. “It’s too high, the highest in the world, but we are very glad to see this shifting towards more flexibility,” he said. Mr Laidlaw described the 10 months since he was appointed chairman of an ailing I.C.L. as a “very exciting time." With the aid of a £2OO million guarantee from the British Government, an entirely new board, and some heavy staff pruning — by 30 per cent or 10,000 jobs world wide — I.C.L. was well on the road to financial recovery, he said. In the middle of last September, the company's paidup capital was only £33.4 million. Since then a special short-life preference stock and a one-for-one rights issue has brought the parent company’s capital up to £ll5 million.

Government guarantees for the company will now continue until 1986, reducing at the rate of £5O million a year. Losses have been reduced sharply, from £133 million in the company’s last financial year to only £l6 million in the first six months of this year. “The motto has been profit

before growth,” Mr Laidlaw said. As a means of pursuing this policy, the company has forged collaborative links with firms such as Fujitsu, of Japan, Three Rivers, in the United States, and Mitel — links which, Mr Laidlaw emphasises, are collaborations and not partnerships. “The independence of I.C.L. must continue and is seen as vital to the computer industry at large,” he said. The ties with Fujitsu will give I.C.L. access to chip technology which Mr Laidlaw regards as “the best ini the world bar none.” A spinoff from this, with mainframe technology research being done by Fujitsu, has been that I.C.L. can divert more of its £75 'million research and development effort into developing smaller systems. About a third of the research and development spending this year will go on smaller systems. This collaboration was not “a Japanese Trojan horse," Mr Laidlaw said, because, although there would be increasing Japanese involvement in main-frame techno-

logy, I.C.L technology would still be essential around it. Through this system. I.C.L. was planning the 1984 machine with a . cube of seven printed circuit boards surrounded with their own technology and manufactured in the United Kingdom. Mr Laidlaw was confident that the company's DM 1, due for release in 1984, would provide either the same power as the company’s main competitors’ computers at less price, or more power at the same price. The collaboration with Mitel had given I.C.L. access to new technology for networks — similar to the CASPER concept — and that with Three Rivers access to technology for Perq systems of personal computers and work stations. Since the Perq technology became available from Three Rivers last September, and United Kingdom manufacture began last month, it had become a standard personal computer for the British Scientific and Engineering Research Council. (Perq system should become available in Australasia either late this month or early in April.) Together with these developments was a new approach to software, to reduce the number of packages available, but to provide in them a higher quality and greater bulk, thus reducing their specialist aspects and making them of greater universal application. Mr Laidlaw said that the collaborations were not all one way. I.C.L.’s marketing expertise and the linking of systems improved the sales of all concerned.

All of the designs emerging in I.C.L. systems through the use of Fujitsu chips were exclusive to I.C.L. and it was not surprising that Fujitsu itself wanted to obtain some of those designs, he said.