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Volume 8, #3_______________________________________________________________ April-May, 1989

 

The Role Of The Executive Committee In Decision-Making At Digital by Abbott Weiss, Secretary, Executive Committee

 

Empowerment, Not Power: Digital And Computing In The 1990s by Roger Heinen, Corporate Consulting Engineer for Software Systems and manager, DECwest Engineering

 

The Changing Role Of Customer Support by Joe Orlando, CSSE Systems & Clusters Marketing Manager

 

All Hands On DEC by Dave Grainger, vice president, U.S. Sales and Services

 

Telecom Efforts Save Digital More Than $3 Million A Year

 

‘Call-To-Arms’ Speeds Workstation Market Penetration by Don McInnis, vice president, Engineering Systems Group

 

DIS And The Role Of Enterprise-Wide Computing Inside Digital by Bel Cross, corprate manager, Digital Information Systems (DIS)

 

Digital Establishes Subsidiary In Turkey

 

Smithsonian And Digital Work Together

 

Leroy Saylor To Head Urban Development Group

 

New Corporate Consulting Engineers

 

New Senior Consulting Engineers

 

Martin Hoffmann Named Vice President And General Counsel

 

Appointments

 

JEC Project Nears Completion

The Role Of The Executive Committee In Decision-Making At Digital by Abbott Weiss, Secretary, Executive Committee

 

The Executive Committee is the senior management committee for Digital. Within the com­pany, it is responsible for setting overall corporate direction and strategy. The Commit­tee reviews and approves the highest level plans for products and solutions, technologies and markets. It monitors and guides issues of overall importance to Digital’s customers, employees and stockholders. The members are: Ken Olsen, President; Win Hindle, Senior Vice President; Jack Smith, Senior Vice President; Jack Shields, Senior Vice President; Jim Osterhoff, Vice President, Finance; and John Sims, Vice President, Strategic Resourc­es. It normally meets four days a month.

 

The people who bring proposals to the Committee "own" those proposals. They propose what they want to do, describe the issues, how to deal with them, and the likely outcomes. If the proposal is approved, it’s their responsibility to succeed with it.

 

The Committee invites participation by additional people on specific topics, particularly matters of strategic direction. So when scheduling items for the agenda, we try to iden­tify interested parties to ensure that we have the various points of view represented. For instance, when dealing with issues having international importance, Pier-Carlo Falot- ti, President, Digital Europe, or Dick Poulsen, Vice President, GIA, often participates.

 

Typically, the people who bring proposals to the Executive Committee are direct reports of Executive Committee members, or their direct reports. But, in theory, anyone, at any level in the organization, can go to the Executive Committee with a proposal.

 

Most of the important work of the company happens without day-to-day ratification from the Executive Committee. It’s just people doing their jobs. There are a great many things that people can do within their responsibilities, without having to go to committees. The Executive Committee wants employees to feel empowered to do what they need to do to suc­ceed in the responsibilities they have. The more empowered and effective they are at doing their jobs, the better the company will be.

 

Many people who are new to Digital ask, "How do I get a decision made?" And they look up.

 

Most of the time, the people who are asking already have the decision-making responsibil­ity, but not the authority. Authority means you can make whatever decisions you want without having to talk to anybody. Responsibility means you have to worry about it, think it through, and talk to people. You have to make sure that those who are impacted by your decision are aware of it. In the end, you own responsibility for success or failure of that project, even though you may not have full authority to make it happen. You succeed by feeling responsible and carrying it through in a way that will get results.

 

In a company as broad and interdependent as Digital, to be successful, you need to gather the support, understanding, help and insight of a lot of different functions, So as you go forward with your decision, you need to contact many people to have them do what they need to do to complement your work. Committees, like the Executive Committee, can help you to get the support of other groups, but you have to make your own decisions about your own project.

 

We try to encourage those who have responsibility, at any level, to execute that respon­sibility to the fullest. That means airing the issues well, arguing the various sides of a question, advocating what you believe is right, and listening to other people’s points of view. It means debate and discussion among your peers to hone those plans so the final decisions are in the best interests of the company.

 

Periodically, employees need to have their plans and strategies verified. But it is management’s job to foster ways to help people cut through the roadblocks and execute their responsibilities. There may be no need to go to the Executive Committee.

 

There are three main reasons for having proposals come before the Committee. First* this process encourages people to do their homework, to make sure they have thought out their plans. Second, getting ready to come to the committee, people tend to seek inputs from related functions and programs. Third, those preliminary discussions, if done well, encourage debate on all sides of the issue, so the various perspectives are brought to bear. The thinking of any one individual is broadened as a result, and the company tends to get better decisions.

 

The Committee strives for consensus, not unanimity. Consensus doesn’t mean that everybody has to be happy all of the time. But if there is strong disagreement on the part of any Executive Committee member on an issue, that generally means the problems haven’t been worked out, and we’re not ready to move. Such disagreement triggers more discussion and work. Sometimes, issues will be delegated to one or more members to resolve off-line. On any given point, what counts is what is best for Digital, not who is in power or who makes what decisions.

 

Often, if the Committee does not accept a proposal, it says, "You’re not quite there yet." That is not a rejection, but rather a request to do some more work and come back.

 

In addition to the Executive Committee, Digital has two other major committees: the Pro­duct Marketing Strategy Committee (PMSC), chaired by Jack Smith; and the Marketing and Sales Strategy Committee (MSSC), chaired by Jack Shields.

 

The PMSC deals primarily with engineering issues, determining how our product strategy fits together and what the marketing messages are. The MSSC deals with the introduction strategy for new products; sales and distribution plans; prices; and competitive marketing strategy.

 

These committees provide a forum where proposals are discussed and ideas are garnered. Only some of their decisions need to be ratified by the Executive Committee or the Board of Directors.

 

There is no formal set of layered committees in Digital. Proposals go to the appropriate committee where the knowledge and commitment exist to enhance the decision. Corporate guidelines are written in the Policy and Financial manuals stipulating which investments require Executive Committee or Board of Directors approval.

 

Since we operate on a budget, we try not to have individual proposals coming up for fund­ing all through the year. But the process of hammering out the budgets involves a great deal of discussion of various business proposals on many dimensions in the company.

 

Once a plan is in place, we review it on a regular cycle, typically quarterly. "Did you do what you said you were going to do?" By looking at how the responsible individuals are performing, the Executive Committee hopes to stimulate responsiveness to changing condi­tions so the overall objectives are met. Products, Areas and Services are reviewed quart­erly in terms of business performance.

 

The Executive Committee spends a lot of time discussing the long-term strategic questions of where we are going as a company, and how we should we get there. Organizational ques­tions come up frequently, such as "how can we segment the business in some meaningful way without losing the benefit of integration?"

 

We're concerned that as the company gets larger, there may be too many committees and too many interactions to get anything done. We need to be able to respond quickly to changes, opportunities and challenges in the market and in technology. But we also need to appear as a single company to our customers and provide a full range of products and services.

 

As we adapt to changing market conditions, we strive to maintain the right balance between initiative and teamwork. That means we often need to fine tune our organizational struc­ture and the roles of our committees, to make sure that people feel empowered to do what they need to do to succeed in the responsibilities that they have. Through all these changes, we are guided by Digital’s core values and philosophy.

 

Empowerment, Not Power: Digital And Computing In The 1990s by Roger Heinen, Corporate Consulting Engineer for Software Systems and manager, DECwest Engineering

 

(This article is based on a speech given as the keynote to the DEXPO Conference in New York on Feb. 9, 1989.)

 

We believe that the true power of information technology does not lie in the power of hardware, but in the empowerment of the individual. The real issue is not how much raw power the industry will supply for the desktop, but what customers are going to do with it.

 

Those of us who create and produce technology all too easily forget why it is that the users of technology need it in the first place, and what the challenges are for individ­uals and organizations that have to absorb new technology. The challenge that we face is to avoid the trap of technological futurism, of creating beautiful, sophisticated, techno­logically astute hardware, which no one has any use for.

 

Knowledge drives progress. Today, this is coming to mean a network of shared knowledge, not just information — across and within enterprises.

 

You turn information into knowledge when you add to it your own unique interpretation, either as an organization within a network or as an individual within an organization, and send it out enhanced by your own personal contribution. Creating knowledge is an act of power.

 

Computers have come to play a key supporting role. They can empower the individual to create knowledge. Having lots of computing power by itself is no guarantee of that capa­bility.

 

When we get caught up in a hardware speed or "MIPS" mentality and lose the forest for the trees, we are guilty of myopia — technology for technology’s sake. We must adapt our technology to meet the organizational, economic, and cultural challenges that shape the way individuals will adapt to new technology and eventually use information to create knowledge. This means creating far-sighted technology that empowers people be more effec­tive in what they do.

 

This far-sighted technology must address how people actually work - what their jobs are, how they’re structured, what their tasks are and the interrelationships of jobs. It must also address how work is organized across an enterprise, and the cultural milieu in which people work.

 

IBM's hierarchical computing was perfectly adapted to the hierarchical structure that dominated American organizations of the 1950s and 1960s. Today’s more decentralized organ­izations require computing that is peer-to-peer. And the industry is rushing to fill this need.

 

This technology must be economically feasible for the individual or the enterprise. This means more than having reasonable price-performance. It also means being able to balance the need to preserve your customer’s investment with the customer’s need to stay competi­tive and abreast of technology. It means genuinely understanding your customer’s busi­ness.

 

Understanding our customers — how they organize work to create knowledge, the cultures they operate in, and the business they do — and building technology based on that under­standing, is moving us onto unfamiliar turf where we may feel uncomfortable. Creating 100 MIPS on the desktop is purely a technical challenge. Creating a system designed to em­power a banker, for example, can, for the producer of technology, also be a psychological challenge.

 

Digital has chosen to focus its future in creating systems that empower individuals where they work. We’re committed to putting the most MIPS on the desktop - that’s not a pro­blem. But, we’re betting our company that the future is not just in powering the hard­ware, but in empowering the individual.

 

For example, let’s consider a project that we are working on — the corporate banker’s workbench. Banking is undergoing a major shift these days. Bankers who used to be ac­count managers or loan officers are being called upon to become credit analysts, account planners, and sales people responsible for new business development. For bankers, this is a fundamental shift, and information technology is the key to making it work.

 

A banker’s workbench combines office automation with service delivery — providing tools for account planning, credit analysis, relationship management, and customer service, unified by a visually sophisticated user interface, like our DECwindows environment. It empowers the banker to structure credits, package products, create and submit proposals, and identify and evaluate opportunities — in other words, to win business.

 

To offer a successful banker’s workbench, Digital must develop products based on what is best in our technology in a manner that addresses the needs of bankers in their own par­ticular organization, culture, and economy. That is why each banker’s workbench is geared to the unique focus of different banks, and different departments within the same bank.

 

The key to the corporate banker’s workbench is that it is not a packaged solution system, complete with part numbers. Instead it is an architecture or platform, a set of tools and technologies integrated by Digital, then networked to various third party applications, information sources or production systems.

 

These systems will require lots of distributed computing power, file servers, desktop devices, and very smart software. It might mean 100 or more MIPS right on the banker’s desk. Or it might be 100 MIPS distributed on the network, 20 here, 2 there, 10 there...

 

Digital is concentrating its investments on building better components, more intelligent data routing and better storage within the network. We will do the systems integration and provide the platform so that smaller companies with intelligent solutions to specific banking problems can concentrate on what they do best and not have to invent the "hard" stuff.

 

This type of work, to which Digital is committed, has some important implications for us. The first implication is that Digital can’t do it alone. Digital already has very broad relationships with third parties, but if success in the 1990s means offering the banker’s workbench, or the chemist’s workbench, or the executive decision support workbench, then the level of cooperation, integration, and business partnership with third parties will require an unprecedented level of intensity. It looks like the future of our industry is less dependent on who builds the first 100 MIPS for the desk, than on who can best inte­grate effective platforms with job-specific applications. Digital is known for this.

 

As Digital turns its focus to creating and integrating effective customers solutions, standards and architecture become vitally important. Digital’s success has been built on its single system architecture — VAX hardware running VMS software. This is the result of a vision of computing that not only included a compatible product range, but pervasive, consistent networking and distributed computing — all oriented toward empowering the individual in an enterprise.

 

When we talk about a unified system architecture today, we are talking about substantially more than just VAX and VMS products. Our system architecture now addresses the customer’s overall enterprise. It includes hardware and the operating system, as well as networking, data management, application integration, and core applications.

 

By concentrating on a layered architecture, we can change or evolve a single component independently of the others. For instance, we can replace DECnet with DECnet/OSI net­working software. We also can introduce new, parallel components to address the need for open systems standards and new technology, while still providing continuity with other components where customers may have made major investments.

 

Focusing on the system as a whole, we see another important benefit of a unified systems architecture. If central processors reach 100 MIPS, but networks, data management level, application interface, and core applications can’t take advantage of all that power, that is the equivalent of cars with 1000 horsepower engines in a society where the speed limit is 55. It is not going to get you from one city to another any faster. Intellectually, we all know this, but, practically, it is difficult to absorb.

 

If together we are going to supply far-sighted technology that is delivered in balanced systems for multicultural customers, we must have standards. When technology makes it possible, standards are good for the industry. Standards allow Digital to work on things that are truly unique. Without standards, we would all have to invest in everything, and that would inhibit the progress and development of technology.

 

Many people believe that standards level the playing field, and will open the door to Japanese competitors. We believe standards simplify the playing field, and provide a springboard to innovation. There are hundreds of ways to add innovation to standards: you can implement the standard better, deliver it better, deliver more standards, or improve upon the standard.

 

For example, Digital has created a Digital Compound Architecture that is a significant improvement on the international standard. Creating a Compound Document Architecture is harder to do than building a 100 MIPS processor. It means bringing together image, type, voice, data, graphs and tables in a single document. With the Digital Compound Architec­ture, each of the data elements in specialized formats can reside in different places on the system or network, and don’t come together as an informational entity — a document — until they are printed or you need them on the screen. So, if the data changes for my spread sheet, I see the updated data on my screen. When I send it to a printer tomorrow, it will include tomorrow’s newest data. In other words, it’s a "live" document. That is hard to do.

 

That is the future for Digital — doing the "hard stuff" — building platforms for third parties based on the effective use of standards. This is the road that Digital has chosen to take.

 

The Changing Role Of Customer Support by Joe Orlando, CSSE Systems & Clusters Marketing Manager

 

The old adage that service revenues follow system sales is becoming less true, as greater system reliability leads to reduced emphasis on traditional "break/fix" services. But bolstered by the expected growth rate in software support, professional services and international currency exchange gains, overall industry-wide service revenue is expected to grow at an average of 11% per year through 1992.

 

Customers now distribute their information across an array of mixed vendor processors that range from personal computers and workstations to large supercomputers. This is the customer’s "system." Therefore, the conscientious vendor plays an important role in managing the introduction and extraction of units from this system. Even distributors are gearing up service capabilities to prove they can provide ultimate integration with no vendor bias.

 

As we respond to the marketplace, we must become increasingly sensitive to the support needs of the customer’s computing environment. This means we must demonstrate an under­standing of the environment being impacted by the sale. Many of yesterday’s "luxury" value-added services are becoming today’s customer support requirements.

 

Digital is now selling solutions to customers who have been courted and supported for years by market leaders in transaction processing (TP), RISC-based computing, high per­formance workstations, fault tolerance, and high performance compute and file servers. If the economy continues to slow, market gains will have to come from displacement sales, with fewer "add in" opportunities. More sales and new customers will be leveraged by long-term differentiators, such as support solutions.

 

Positioned properly, service is not an insurance policy or a promise of a rainy-day fri­end. Customer support means fewer system surprises and failures, fewer reactive calls. It is how Digital demonstrates our commitment to the customer’s complex multi-vendor informa­tion processing networks.

 

Therefore, when a buying decision has to be made and comparisons are being made box-to-box and application-to-application, the principal differentiator is the magnitude of support that the customer can count on from Digital.

 

Successful companies continue to grow, and successful value-added service providers must match this growth and expansion with a constantly evolving support strategy. Value-added services are the tools that customers will rely on to leverage their investments in tech­nology. A sampling of value-added services includes:

 

o systems integration,

 

o systems optimizing ,

 

o systems maintenance management,

 

o planning and design services,

 

o application design and implementation,

 

o disaster recovery/back-up,

 

o disaster recovery planning, o network management, and o user and systems management education.

 

Software support is also a value-added service, not just the "bug-fix" sort of support. It includes tailoring the product to meet the customer’s needs and to perform the way the customer wants, instead of making the customer conform to the product. This activity should be a natural part of the vendor and customer relationship.

 

With rapid introduction of technological advancements blurring product differentiation, systems vendors are rushing to the market with price-performance banners and leading-edge claims. Customers are forced to look beyond the technology to the system vendor’s reputa­tion, track record, support abilities and a basis for maintaining a long-term relation­ship.

 

A long-term relationship with a single vendor gives customers confidence that they can avoid an information network that is comprised of an "alphabet soup" — technological wizardry that is difficult to manage and, over time, delivers diminishing returns. With so many choices and the growing need for technology, customers prefer to build a relationship with a vendor that can satisfy all of their needs.

 

Competition to become the "vendor of choice" is greater today, and systems vendors must rely more on selling into their installed bases while defending them. Influence on future purchases is gained through building an ongoing relationship between the systems vendor and the customer’s entire computing environment. Relationships are not based on a single product sale but on how this product and others build the customer’s information proces­sing system environment. No single technological marvel is showcased above another in a customer’s environment.

 

Customer expectations have risen with their level of sophistication. They now define good service as how often remedial maintenance and system failures can be avoided. Customers buy remedial service to make up for any shortcomings in system availability. The challenge to systems vendors, who provide services, is in leveraging technology to provide greater availability at lower costs, and to offset the lessening account presence that negatively impacts account control.

 

In other words, a lessening account presence and the more service opportunity the system vendor leaves to another service provider, the less influence the system vendor can expect to have on the customer’s future purchase decisions.

 

The focus on value-added services among systems vendors has intensified with IBM’s and TRW’s latest entries into managing multi-vendor contracts for customers and working toward simplifying the relationship between vendor and customer. Other systems vendors have recently introduced products or programs to produce the impression that customers can rely on the vendor as a single source service provider. Digital’s Enterprise Services initia­tive demonstrates our readiness and commitment to support the customer’s most complex information processing requirements.

 

Services effectively hedge a customer’s investment in technology. A service provider has to be dedicated to managing more out of the information systems customers already have and the technologies they will buy tomorrow. Digital services are delivering technology, like VAXsim Plus software, that will continue to reduce the effort and impact for needed reme­dial services. This provides Digital with a competitive edge by enabling us to concentrate more on adding value to the technology customers rely on in their businesses. Digital is ready to provide this level of support, we owe it to our customers to let them know.

 

All Hands On DEC by Dave Grainger, vice president, U.S. Sales and Services

 

Digital’s U.S. organization faces one of the most challenging periods in its history. One of the steps we are taking to meet the challenge is an organization-wide drive to close incremental business. The "All Hands on DEC," a program has been designed to focus maximum energy and resources on our Sales and Services performance.

 

All U.S. organizations, including Manufacturing, will participate in the All Hands on DEC program. In addition, Digital’s Engineering organization has established a special link into the All Hands on DEC program so that they can provide a quick response to requests for information or temporary help in the Field.

 

All Hands on DEC involves the temporary full- or part-time assignment of Headquarters and Field employees to Districts that have asked for help. Districts will identify required skills, locations and timeframes to a Headquarters "Resource Command Center" that will match the requests with Headquarters and Field talent. U.S. employees with needed skills are already volunteering to participate in the All Hands on DEC program.

 

Employees will return to their original organization upon completing temporary assignments in the Field. In addition to temporary assignments, a priority will be placed on filling permanent openings in the Field with skilled Headquarters employees. Expense targets for next year suggest that some resulting Headquarters vacancies may not be replaced. All U.S. organizations will be refocusing their near-term priorities on driving and closing business and helping the Field.

 

Bill McHale, area sales manager, Northeast Area (NEA), says All Hands on DEC has already benefitted NEA. As a result of the Program, NEA received eight acting district sales managers (DSMs) from Headquarters and Area staff. Bill says the regular DSMs were able to off-load a lot of administrative work and concentrate on closing business. The acting DSMs also made valuable contributions to the night brainstorming meetings called "barrier busting sessions." NEA exceeded their Week 13 forecast by more than 40 percent, and Bill believes that All Hands on DEC made a difference.

 

The Northeast Area Team hosted a special evening meeting in April to explain the program, and nearly 300 employees from greater Maynard and New England got an opportunity to meet and talk with representative from eight sales districts and nearly a dozen functional units.

 

It is clear that expense management will be increasingly important to the ongoing success of Digital. Yet, we cannot sacrifice or compromise Digital’s longstanding commitment to Customer Satisfaction and Quality. That means we have to maximize everyone’s contribution and make sure that it has value to the Company and to our customers. All Hands on DEC is one step in that direction.

 

Therefore, I would encourage all managers and employees in the U.S. to view All Hands on DEC program as a unique and valuable opportunity to acquire new skills and experience, thereby enhancing their ability to contribute to Digital’s future needs.

 

Telecom Efforts Save Digital More Than $3 Million A Year

 

By taking advantage of five recent volume discount programs offered by telecommunications providers, Digital is saving over $3 million per year in costs. This success illustrates the value of consolidated purchasing power and team effort.

 

"The long-distance telephone business in the U.S. is now very competitive," explains Arthur Molineaux, manager, Bandwidth Administration. "AT&T and its competitors are striv­ing to keep and attract large customers with a variety of bulk discount programs. We’re keeping close watch on industry developments and taking immediate advantage of programs that can save us money today, without sacrificing the flexibility to respond to anticipa­ted technology changes.

 

"Digital spends more than $40 million per year with telecommunication service providers, such as AT&T. By handling our purchasing of such services through a central organization, rather than site by site, we’re able to take full advantage of the discounts that are offered."

 

The Bandwidth organization was created in April 1987, under George Pendleton, as part of the Telecommunications Group in Digital Information Systems (DIS). Previously, the Digi­tal Telephone Network (DTN), and the internal computer network (Easynet) were administered separately, and numerous sites purchased their own telephone and other telecommunications services separately.

 

Bandwidth now acts as the focal point for ordering telecommunication services and alloca­ting the charges. That enables them to consolidate charges for the best volume discount, to choose the carrier, and to choose the best pricing programs.

 

"You want to get in on these things at the early stages, when the provider first files with the government for permission to offer a new tariff," notes Arthur. "That way we can take advantage of the new program as soon as it goes into effect."

 

‘Call-To-Arms’ Speeds Workstation Market Penetration by Don McInnis, vice president, Engineering Systems Group

 

To penetrate the UNIX* workstation market quickly, the Engineering Systems Group (ESG) has launched a "Call-to-Arms" program to help software firms modify ("port") their applica­tions to Digital’s RISC-based DECstation 3100 system. Introduction of this workstation in January established Digital as the price performance leader in this market. For example, it’s priced similar to the Sun 3, but provides the minimum of two times the performance of the Sun 4.

 

But capturing significant market share depends on the availability of application solu­tions for the system. The transfer of UNIX applications from one platform to another is sometimes time-consuming and difficult. ESG’s effort will ease and speed the process.

 

Thirty-four software development firms were selected, based on their potential, commit­ment, and timing. ESG managers-from functions across the board-have been assigned to each of these companies to program-manage the porting process. This effort includes gathering information, providing hardware, monitoring delivery, and maintaining close liaison with accounts to ensure Digital is responsive and supportive. Technical staff has also been assigned to provide technical guidance and support.

 

Mike Wells, manager of the Call-to-Arms Program, serves as the focal point for daily interaction and weekly meetings with the account program managers and technical support team. Issues concerning technical support, "bugs," and other related issues are discussed in an open forum, with individuals assigned responsibilities accordingly.

 

DECstation 3100 workstations are on site in each of the targeted accounts. Current pro­jections indicate that about half of the ports will be completed and available for revenue shipment by the end of June. An additional 20 accounts are being brought into the pro­gram. This brings the total targeted ports to over 50 - many of which include multiple applications.

 

*UNIX is a registered trademark of American Telephone & Telegraph Company.

 

DIS And The Role Of Enterprise-Wide Computing Inside Digital by Bel Cross, corprate manager, Digital Information Systems (DIS)

 

As the company focuses on improving individual productivity, information systems become increasingly important. We must focus on making it easy to transfer information well, and on standardizing processes.

 

Our work consists of integrating the extended enterprise, which includes the corporation, its suppliers, customers, trading partners, and research consortiums. Our vision is to use information technology for our own competitive advantage.

 

Enterprise-wide computing provides an environment in which all of the computing resources and information of an organization can be easily used by anyone to achieve the goals of the enterprise. We intend to ensure that Digital’s employees, suppliers and customers have secure, global access across time zones, to people, information, and resources so they can make the best decisions and best business transactions.

 

We emphasize revenue enhancements as well as cost-controlling efforts, because investment in technology can be an investment in market share. For instance, our strategy to support Digital’s business includes:

 

o connectivity and interoperability,

 

o business transaction-processing systems,

 

o information access,

 

o office automation,

 

o desktop products and strategies, and

 

o computer-automated support (such as CAD/CAM/CASE).

 

In today’s highly competitive environment, we must link IS goals to business goals. We must make certain we understand the business issues and also keep current with, or ahead of, the technology. We are moving in the following directions:

 

o multiple but integrated architectures to help separate the problem statement from the solution;

 

o separation of transaction processing from management information; and o centralized, decentralized, and distributed systems to run our business.

 

DIS now has three strategic groups to determine what has to be done (Business Systems Analysis Group), how it will be done (Strategic Technologies Group), and who will do it within the enterprise (Information Management and Technology Management Committee). These newly formed groups are in the process of defining their roles and direction.

 

The Business Systems Analysis group is aligned with Digital’s major business processes and incorporates the business architectures, coming from the Systems Steering Committee, into its strategic direction. Once the direction is set, the Strategic Technologies Group (STG) provides worldwide leadership in developing, integrating, and applying information tech­nologies to leverage and enable enterprise-wide solutions. STG recognizes and reinforces the close working relationship between computing and telecommunications technologies.

 

In the current business environment, we are dealing with increasing complexity and rapid change. We must influence how we build our applications and how the business builds the specifications, and we must raise the user knowledge-level to effectively use our tech­nology. Ultimately, our challenge is to influence and positively impact the way Digital does business.

 

Digital Establishes Subsidiary In Turkey

 

Digital has announced the establishment of its Turkish subsidiary, Digital Equipment Computer A.S., in Istanbul, Turkey. Digital has had a strong presence in the Turkish market for the past several years through a distributorship. The subsidiary initially will provide comprehensive support to the existing base of Digital customers as well as the infrastructure necessary to support short-term high growth sales projections.

 

Pier Carlo Falotti, president of Digital Europe, says, "The establishment of a Turkish subsidiary represents a major commitment on the part of Digital to the private and public sectors of the Turkish market. Digital’s strong relationships with its various customers will continue to enhance their ability to successfully compete in their own local and worldwide markets."

 

To date, Digital has installed hundreds of systems throughout the the Turkish marketplace. Over the coming year, the company will continue to target a wide range of markets: the various service industries, manufacturing applications, all aspects of the many technical and commercial markets, as well as educational and government sectors. Digital will continue to focus major efforts on improving the networking capabilities of its customer base.

 

Digital is also planning to enter into cooperative research projects with the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and the Bosphorus University in Istanbul, to develop local language software packages that will run on Digital’s systems. Digital’s engineering groups also will customize and localize hardware and software products, and develop mar­ket-suitable software applications and Turkish character sets.

 

Smithsonian And Digital Work Together

 

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) and Digital are working together on a major exhibition which will open to the public in May, 1990. Called "The Information Age: People and Technology," the permanent exhibition will explore the history of information technology, beginning in 1835 from a social and cultural perspec­tive, focusing on how technology has changed the world.

 

Digital’s relationship with the NMAH began last July, when the Corporate Contributions Committee awarded a grant of close to $600,000 in cash and equipment to assist the Smith­sonian with the planning, administration, and fabrication of this exhibition. As a result of the grant, Digital joined other corporate sponsors of "The Information Age."

 

In addition to the grant, the Museum is working with Digital on two additional projects: the acquisition of several classic Digital computers for the Smithsonian exhibit and collection, and an oral history interview with Kenneth H. Olsen for the national archives.

 

Through the Digital Historical Collection Program, the National Museum will acquire three of Digital’s early computers for its permanent collection. The three systems are a PDP-1, introduced in 1960 and popular in interactive computing environments; a PDP-8, the first true minicomputer; and a PDP-11/70, introduced in 1975. Some or all of the Digital acqui­sitions will be on display as part of The Information Age exhibit. The equipment also will be preserved and used for study purposes.

 

Leroy Saylor To Head Urban Development Group

 

Leroy Saylor has been named group manager of Urban Development, reporting to Jack Smith, senior vice president, Manufacturing/Engineering/Marketing, and John Sims, vice president, Strategic Resources. He will work with communities and other companies to develop educa­tional and job opportunities within urban communities. This is seen as an investment in the future for Digital as well as industry in general.

 

"Over the years Digital has made investments in communities throughout the world with excellent results," explain Jack and John. "Two of the most significant achievements have been the manufacturing plants in the Springfield and Boston areas. These projects were proposed and managed by Leroy, for which he and Digital have received high acclaim from business and civic leaders. We believe that we should build on this type of experience not only to continue the quality organizations we now have, but also to work with other companies and communities to develop the workforce of the future."

 

Leroy joined Digital in 1970 as a new products engineer, and later served as plant manager in Springfield and Boston, Mass. He was most recently manager of the Corporate Manufac­turing Customer Integration Programs in the Southern Area.

 

New Corporate Consulting Engineers

 

Richie Lary and John Shebell have been named Corporate Consulting Engineers. Richie has been part of Grant Saviers’ Storage and Information Management Group for several years. Currently he reports to Bob Rennick, Senior Engineering manager for Subsystems in Colorado Springs, and to Mike Riggle, Senior Corporate Consultant. He is a member of the Storage Systems Strategy Task Force, and has made many innovative contributions to the design and improvement of storage subsystems and database systems.

 

He has authored or co-authored 11 patents, the most for one person in Digital. Four of them are on the VAX system architecture alone. Richie has been architect and designer for key portions of many important Digital products, including operating systems for the PDP-8 and PDP-11 minicomputers; storage interface protocols and standards such as SDI, DSDF and UQSSP; the Digital Storage Architecture (DSA); and UDA, KDA, and KDB controllers; the HSC cluster storage controller; and the VAXcluster Computer Interconnect. Richie joined Digital in 1969.

 

John has been associated with Field Service for all of his 17 years with Digital, the last nine years as manager of the RAMP Group. In this capacity, he reports to Don Herbener, CSSE manager, and Don Zereski, vice president, Field Service, and is a member of the Field Service Management Committee.

 

During this period, John was responsible for a significant number of technology-intensive initiatives within the Corporate Field Service organization, including symptom-directed diagnosis, Al applications in service delivery and system level reliability assessment and design strategies. He also provides the technology liaison on behalf of Field Service to Digital’s Advanced Development and Research community and to established groups such as RAC and RAD. He has been a frequent contributor to both engineering and Field Service seminars.

 

New Senior Consulting Engineers

 

Mark Kempf and Jim Gregorich have been named Senior Consulting Engineers. Mark, who reports to Alan Kirby, manager, Communications and Distributed Systems Advanced Develop­ment group, will continue as the technical leader of the FDDI development program. He joined Digital in 1979 and participated in the design of an Ethernet adapter that off­loaded a significant amount of protocol processing from the host CPU. Mark also was responsible for the design of a low-cost, high-performance A/D prototype terminal server. He personally performed the hardware design, which was incorporated virtually intact into the DECserver 100 product. He performed in a similar capacity on the LANbridge 100 pro­ject. He also designed most of the hardware and supervised the design of the memory system and software. The hardware design was incorporated into the LANbridge 100 product, still the highest performance bridge in the industry.

 

Jim, who reports to Don Staffiere, manager, Power and Packaging Group, Mid-Range Systems, is the first power engineer in Digital to be named a Senior Consulting Engineer. He joined Digital in 1974 and is credited with bringing high-frequency off-line switcher tehcnology into the company. He developed a proportional base drive circuit that appears in all of Digital’s current designs. His other major technical contributions include power factor correciton topology to eliminate harmonic distortions on AC power lines to improve effective use of power; proportional current sharing for power systems operating in parallel; and ultra-high-frequency power topology.

 

Martin Hoffmann Named Vice President And General Counsel

 

Martin Hoffmann has been appointed vice president and general counsel. He will report to President Ken Olsen, and will assume responsibility for the legal functions of the cor­poration.

 

Marty has been managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office of Gardner, Carton & Douglas, a Chicago law firm, for the past 12 years. Prior to this experience, he held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. government. Marty was Secretary of the Army from 1975 to 1977, during the Ford administration; general counsel for the Department of De­fense from 1974 to 1975; and general counsel for the Atomic Energy Commission from 1971 to 1973. From 1969 to 1971, he was assistant general counsel at University Computing Company in Dallas.

 

Commenting on the appointment, Ken said, "We feel fortunate to welcome a person of Marty Hoffmann’s stature and breadth of experience to Digital’s senior management team. He has served both his clients and the government with distinction during his career, and we welcome the leadership he will bring to the task of helping to position Digital to meet our goals for the future."

 

Appointments

 

Max Dobres has been named Travel Services Industry manager, reporting to Peter Robohm, director, General Services Industry Marketing. A British citizen by birth, Max began his career with Digital in 1983 as manager, External Relations, in the U.K. Office Systems Marketing group. In 1985, he became responsible for the startup of the U.K. Retail and Distribution Industry marketing effort. In 1987, he joined the U.S. Wholesale, Retail and Distribution Industry Group as Retail Segment manager.

 

Bill Lynch has been named director of Corporate Partner Management, reporting to Jack MacKeen, vice president, Corporate Channels Marketing and Telecommunications Industry Marketing, and to Eli Lipcon, vice president, Direct Channels Marketing. In this newly created position, he will directly manage the negotiation of third party agreements that involve significant worldwide Field investments. Bill will ensure that these joint sales and marketing agreements and related investments make good business sense for both Digital and our marketing partners. Before accepting this position, Bill was Corporate Accounts Program vice president.

 

Bruce MacFadden has joined the Corporate Organization Consulting Group, which he will now manage jointly with Ben Fordham who has managed the group since 1983. In this new role Bruce will help extend the ability of management to participate directly in consulting assignments while giving strategic and operational direction. Both Ben and Bruce will be able to represent the organization and commit its resources to Digital change concerns. Ben will continue to be accountable for the group’s work to senior management. Bruce joined Digital in 1969. His experience includes assignments in GIA, U.S. Field, and Product Groups.

 

JEC Project Nears Completion

 

The Job Evaluation and Classification (JEC) project that started three years ago is now nearing completion. Its purpose is to ensure that Digital has a consistent methodology to evaluate U.S. exempt work and accurately classify exempt employees based upon the actual work they perform.

 

To date, the project has: o evaluated and described over 500 jobs;

 

o developed and implemented the Job Information System (JIS) as a source for on-line job descriptions;

 

o developed a new job structure;

 

o classified over 43,000 employees (based on information they provided on Job Overview Questionnaires); and,

 

o reviewed classification results.

 

The final step will be communicating classification results to employees. A short doc­ument, entitled "Communicating Classification Decisions to Employees," has been prepared for distribution to all managers. This document is intended to be used as a supplement to the JEC Binder and "Employee Classification Guidelines for Managers," which were distribu­ted previously. It will be given to managers by Personnel during salary planning training, along with new salary ranges and salary planning guidelines.

 

All job codes, both exempt and non-exempt, will change to four characters effective July 1. Non-exempt codes will be changed solely to accommodate systems requirements in order to fit on the new Job Table. No changes to non-exempt job content, descriptions or salary ranges have been made.

 

All new job codes (both exempt and non-exempt) will be available on the Salary Management System (SMS) for salary planning in May. Since these new job codes will appear on em­ployee paycheck stubs in the second week in July, it is essential that managers communi­cate changes in job codes to employees before July 1.

 

While the project phase of job evaluation and employee classification is coming to an end, the systems and tools which have been developed should help Digital to effectively manage these activities in the future.

 



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