Entrepreneurs—the missing link

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 35

Entrepreneurs—the missing link

Volatile is the only description for the computer industry in the south at present. The apparent coma of Roger Nixon’s Adata Software, staff being laid off with pay owed for the second time in a year, represents the rusty side of the coin. The shiny obverse is the runaway success of Cardinal Network, the offshoot of the LINC developers, Peter Hoskins and Gil Simpson. With power to burn in A-series mainframe computers around the country, marketing money from the LINC success, and plenty of enterprise at the top, Cardinal is making a dent in the market. Also promising are a number of smaller enterprises developing niche software, mainly in the microcomputer sector. But the traditional data-processing industry in Christchurch has been hammered with the privatisation of the Health Computer Centre, the loss of a number of head offices to the North Island in recent years, productivity devices such as LINC, and the growth of microcomputer networks. One recent data-processing job advertisement drew 40 applications. The skilled work force is available in Christchurch: missing are the entrepreneurs. Imaging criticism The general manager of the Government Printing Office, Mr Simon Arnold, says computer companies are sending New Zealand companies and Government departments on a wild goose chase over new imaging technology. Imaging is the scanning of whole documents as images into a computer system for storage and retrieval. Mr Arnold suggests potential buyers are being misled and dazzled by the technically possible to the exclusion of what is “realistically feasible.” Even with the best compression techniques, storing a typewritten page in image form takes 10 times the storage of traditional files, and the image form cannot be accessed for other uses, he points out. “The costs and the benefits do not stack up for most applications involving correspondence and reports. Storage costs are 10 times as high, transmission times are 10 times longer, and there is little you can do with the information but look at it.” He urges companies and organisations in the market for large storage applications to be a little less credulous and for some computer sellers to be a “lot more responsible.” Star Trade EDI Valuation New Zealand follows Mobil Oil in signing an agreement with Telecom’s electronic data interchange service, Star Trade. Mobil Oil and its partner Fuelquip Services, Ltd, are using Star Trade to transmit invoices electronically. EDI differs from electronic mail in that it translates the business transactions into an international standard format, and checks it meets standards, before transmitting the electronic “document” to the recipient’s mailbox. At present most forms from property transactions move between local authorities, conveyancing firms, and Valuation New Zealand is by mail. Often forms

need correction. The result is a torrent of paper from the 100,000 or so property transactions each year in New Zealand. The goal is to have the long and detailed notice-of-change forms transmitted electronically to any of Valuation New Zealand’s 27 offices for processing the day the forms are received. Wang’s new chief Mr Rick Ellis, the northern region manager of Wang New Zealand, has been appointed national general manager. He succeeds Mr Steve Trotter who has become president of Wang Canada. Word helper Franklin Computer Corporation, of the United States, which disappeared from the micro scene after court cases when it tried to market an Apple clone, is producing small “calculator”-type word machines, being distributed in New Zealand by Business Distributors, of Christchurch. The Spellmaster ($199) contains 70,000 words from the Collins Dictionary. You type in your best guess and the machine comes up with the correct word and a few other choices (as in word processor dictionaries). It also has word games. The Wordmaster ($299) has a dictionary list of 80,000 words, a thesaurus of 35,000 words and the Language Master series (from $599) has full dictionary definitions, with the top model able to pronounce words.

The latest machines in HewlettPackard’s Vectra PC line. From left a 12MHz laptop powered by a 80286equivalent microprocessor, and the 20MHz and 25 MHz systems powered by 386 processors. The laptop comes with IMb of RAM memory (expandable to 2Mb), a socket for a numeric co-processor, two expansion slots, and a 1.44 Mb diskette drive, with a 20Mb hard drive the laptop costs under $lO,OOO. The 4.Bkg machine can use a 6.7 kg battery pack which drives it for three to four hours. The larger, floorstanding machines, are part of HP’s strategy to win a share of the market in computer-aided de-

sign, computer-aided manufacturing, and multi-user systems. They have a memory subsystem that includes 32Kb of fast memory and an Intel cache controller. By bringing the data used most frequently into cache memory, the cache controller saves the processor from searching through slower main memory for needed data. Internal storage options include up to two hard disks storing a total of 620 Mb and up to four diskette drives. The price range Includes $15,619 for the 20MHz machine with a 103 Mb hard drive and $32,408 for the 25MHz model with a 310 Mb hard drive (both machines with 4Mb of memory).