LINC packages selling like hot cakes overseas

Press, 27 July 1982, Page 25

LINC packages selling like hot cakes overseas

Within a few weeks of its international release 135 copies of the locally-devel-oped LINC software package have been sold. Another 12 New Zealand sites are already using LINC. The standard price for a single LINC licence is about SUS6O.OOO. The sales, then, will be worth as much as SL'SB million in revenue to Burroughs, making it one of the most successful introductions of a software package. In the United States, 88 copies have been sold to Burroughs users and six new 81900 computer systems have been sold with LINC included. Customers include Ford, in Michigan, Coca Cola, in Florida, and Rossig-

nol Ski. in Massachusetts. Outside the United States there have been a further 53 LINC sales, 30 of which involved the sale of 81900 hardware, including an elec-tricity-supply authority in Mexico which has ordered 21 Bl9oos with LINC. Sales have also been made in Britain. France, Canada. Australia, and South Africa. The rush of orders is expected to place big demands on the LINC support organisation now being assembled by Burroughs in offices around the world. At the top of the support pyramid is the LINC Development Centre, Ltd,' in Christchurch. Last week the

Waimairi County. Council approved a 400 square metre extension to the Sheffield Crescent headquarters of the centre. "We are targeting LINC initially to existing Burroughs users." said Mr Mel Weston, account manager for Burroughs in Christchurch. "We will move into the more competitive environments, once support is in place." Mr Weston described the overseas response as quite remarkable. One user in the United States placed a telephone order for the product after hearing it described at a Burroughs users meeting. ‘'We are looking forward to seeing people get the benefits from LINC," said Mr Weston. “We are confident it is a robust product that performs very well. "The acceptance of LINC in the international market place backs up the claims we have been making over the last two years. I hope that New Zealanders will see this is an endorsement of the product." No Burroughs user in Christchurch has ordered LINC, although the SIMU is now developing applications using LINC on a new 81900 system. ' "A number of our local

users are giving LINC very serious consideration," said Mr Weston. Some configurations were not able to support LINC, particularly when the computer's resources were already allocated to applications. But Mr Weston is hopeful that the customers considering LINC will eventually buy. “We are building up our support staff in expectations of decisions in our favour." he said. Burroughs in New Zealand is promoting the "information centre" concept to its customers, which relies on tools such as LINC to implement its function of providing the means for end-users to carry out their own computing. The information centre is a new philosophy implemented by many large corporations in the United States. It appears to be particularly benefitial to large organisations with associated large information-handling problems. The concept is intended to provide management of enduser driven computing and support for end-user driven computing. Its ultimate object is to speed the creation of applications which endusers require.

To achieve this result the end-users must be trained, encouraged, and motivated, and their competence developed to a point at which they can generate and manipulate the information they need. The information centre normally reports to the dataprocessing manager. Its staff consists of consultants who work with the end-users and specialists, who are experts on end-user products. The staff traL and assist end-users, create applications for them, solve problems. and, where practical, encourage them to use their own end-user languages such as LINC. In Christchurch, Burroughs has been successful in training end-users to develop their own applications using LINC. Mr Weston said that not every manager was suited to carrying out this function. “The user must have the aptitude to define and develop applications with LINC and liaise with other users," he said. "Our job is to identify those people who are best suited for the work. "In just eight days of training the person will be ready to start developing applications with Burroughs assistance."