1969-71: A better fit for Ireland
The IBM System/3 made its first appearance in Ireland at an exhibition in the Royal Dublin Society in late 1970 – more than a year after IBM had launched the machine in the US. At a time when it was still the norm for user organisations to rent, not buy, their computers, this one was attractively priced. The monthly fee for a System/3 was about half the cost of the smallest System/360 mainframe.
The System/3 was not the first minicomputer on the market but, because it came from IBM, it raised the profile of a new wave of smaller processors.
Few organisations in Ireland could justify the installation and running costs of a System/360. Even the biggest IBM customers, such as Aer Lingus and the Electricity Supply Board, could run their operations with low-end models from its mainframe family. The System/3 – the first ‘midrange’ computer in IBM parlance – was designed to handle more modest workloads than a System/360, making it a much better fit for Ireland.
In particular, IBM Ireland set its sights on manufacturing and distribution firms – companies that were relatively large by local standards, but might be classified as small businesses elsewhere. The System/3 also suited many financial institutions in Ireland. Its processing capacity was just about right for the country’s insurance firms and building societies.
Computing projects still unfolded very slowly. The system vendors introduced new products in some geographies long before others. The preparation and evaluation of sales proposals were complex and often cumbersome processes. The interval between ordering and receiving a new system could stretch to many months. Every user organisation was expected to employ in-house programmers and needed to select and retrain staff for these roles. Then they had to allow sufficient time for applications development and testing.
Many of the potential minicomputer users already ran electromechanical accounting machines. These often stored information on punched cards – as did the System/3, although the new computer used a different card format. IBM highlighted the benefits of upgrading from an accounting machine to an electronic system and mapped out the migration options. The company also set up a support centre in Dublin where System/3 customers could test their software before installing their own computers.
Bureau services offered an alternative route from electromechanical equipment to fully fledged computers.
Bureau operators introduced their customers to batch processing practices and assisted them to improve their information storage methods. Some provided their users with devices that encoded transaction data onto tapes that the bureau’s computers would be able to read. There were also specialist data entry companies that could rejig business information into computer-compatible formats. Many Irish companies learned the basics of computing when they availed of such services.
The number of bureau services increased in the early 1970s and many of their users set up minicomputer installations in later years.
IBM began to deliver the System/3 to customers in Ireland in 1971. The computer maker went on to introduce the System/32 four years later. This single-user model looked like a kitchen unit with a printer bolted onto the side. But it could handle accounting tasks effectively and expanded the potential market for minicomputers further.
Other suppliers, meanwhile, had already introduced computers that were even smaller and less expensive. The most significant of these rivals, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), was becoming a major employer in Ireland. The company started to assemble and test its minicomputers in Galway in 1971.
1972-77: Establishing a presence
Up until the 1970s IBM or ICL supplied almost all of the computers in Ireland – apart from specialist products, such as the desktop machines for engineers and scientists that were usually sold as ‘calculators’. Other mainframe vendors showed little interest in the slim pickings available in such a small market. The main exception to this trend was Honeywell, which had opened a Dublin office and secured a foothold at the Revenue Commissioners back in 1967.
The minicomputer era, however, brought new challengers into the Irish trade.
Digital Equipment logged its first customer in 1968, when it shipped two PDP-8 minicomputers to an air traffic communications facility near Shannon Airport. The company’s branch office in Manchester dealt with additional orders in the early 1970s, including systems for third level colleges and newspaper publishers. In 1974 DEC set up Digital Equipment Ireland to take over the responsibility for sales.
It was not long before DEC acquired the status of a ‘national champion’ in Ireland. With its manufacturing base in Galway it came to occupy pole position in contests for public sector contracts. There was a clear perception in government departments, state agencies and semi-state commercial companies that buying Digital’s hardware was a safe option. They would never be criticised for choosing a computer with a made-in-Ireland label.
DEC was also particularly good at forging partnerships with bureau services and software development companies. Its early affiliates included Applied Management Systems (AMS), System Dynamics and GC McKeown.
Nixdorf Computer arrived in Ireland in 1972, represented by a management team that had previously sold Olivetti’s desktop calculators. The German company differentiated itself from larger competitors through its emphasis on customer services. Nixdorf developed software for organisations that did not want to run their own programming groups, This approach led to the company becoming an early advocate of packaged applications, most notably when it released the Comet software collection in 1977.
Singer Business Machines, whose parent company manufactured sewing machines, entered the Irish computer business in 1973 with the launch of the System Ten – a machine whose name signified that it performed decimal rather than binary computations. ICL subsequently acquired Singer’s computer business, marketed the System Ten to smaller companies and ramped up more sales. ICL also offered the more powerful 2903, which bridged the divide between mainframes and minicomputers.
Data General appealed to more technically-oriented user organisations. The company made its Irish debut in 1975 when Neodata, a US firm that provided international business services from offices in the midwest, installed one of its Nova minicomputers.
Perkin-Elmer, BTI Computer Systems, Wang Laboratories and Prime Computer also contributed to the growth of the Irish minicomputer population in the years that followed. Out of all the new arrivals, however, Hewlett-Packard (HP) would have the longest lasting impact on the information technology scene.
The California-based vendor incorporated Hewlett-Packard Ireland and opened its first premises in Dublin in 1977. In the same year the Measurex factory in Waterford, which produced industrial control equipment, installed the first HP computer in the country. Measurex used this HP 1000 to ensure that its own systems were interoperable. The Waterford facility sourced its minicomputer as part of a corporate purchasing agreement, not through the Dublin office.
Over the next two years the new sales subsidiary signed up customers for the HP 3000 minicomputer and the low-end HP 250 system. It also partnered with Computer Company of Ireland and Cara Consulting to ensure the availability of applications and support services for these platforms.
There was a common pattern in the way that minicomputer vendors built up their businesses in the 1970s. In most cases they first appeared in Ireland when one of their existing customers ordered a system for one of its factories or offices. Then they asked their sales organisation in Britain to study the potential market in Ireland. Some employed local personnel because their Irish users needed technical support, but they were slow to appoint a distributor or to open a sales office. These became the final pieces that they added to their operational jigsaw.
Establishing a presence was thus a piecemeal process that unfolded over a number of years. Hewlett-Packard, indeed, spent almost a decade laying the foundations for its Irish subsidiary.
As a general rule the minicomputer companies that punched above their weight in Ireland were those with the shortest chains of command from, and best personal connections with, their corporate headquarters. Digital Equipment, ICL, Nixdorf and Wang were visibly more successful in Ireland than in other countries.
Whenever the hardware vendors were asked to identify their strengths, however, they talked about the availability and quality of applications software for their systems.
1978-82: Software as a product
System Dynamics was not only one of the first Irish companies to write applications software for minicomputers. In the late 1970s it was also among the first to give up on this line of work. The company and its highly regarded technical staff were always more comfortable working inside larger organisations with knowledgeable data processing managers. They grew frustrated dealing with minicomputer installations that needed constant handholding.
Nonetheless, when writing in the first issue of Irish Computer magazine in 1977, System Dynamics managing director Tom McGovern foresaw a future that few people had imagined before. He referred to ‘the prospects for indigenous export oriented software enterprises in Ireland and the type of support which should be provided by the state’. At a time when most applications were still written to order, he predicted the coming of an international trade in software products.
Further hints at things to come appeared in 1978. The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) set up an enterprise development programme to support start-up ventures. Engineering applications specialist Mentec was one of the first applicants, establishing a precedent for software entrepreneurs. In the same year the Confederation of Irish Industry launched its Irish Computer Services Association (ICSA) to articulate the concerns of information technology businesses.
The term ‘computer services’ had multiple meanings in the 1970s. It generally referred to bureau operations and the provision of support and maintenance services for data processing installations. But it also covered air conditioning facilities for computer rooms, special stationery for card readers and line printers, training schools and recruitment services. The ICSA’s most vocal representatives, indeed, turned out be management consultants from accountancy firms.
Software package developers had a relatively low profile on this computer services spectrum. The spread of minicomputers, however, was changing the norms for software development and procurement.
The foreign-owned manufacturing facilities that the IDA was subsidising played a key role. They typically required applications for production planning, inventory management, cross-border product distribution and customer billing in multiple currencies. In many cases their parent organisations had mainframe experience, but wanted less expensive technologies for the branch plants in Ireland. Such operations were clear candidates for minicomputers. The system vendors directed their local partners to address these needs and those Irish companies rapidly built up their project experience.
Digital Equipment’s PDP-11 and the IBM System/32 were the most popular platforms. It made sense to tweak the code that worked in one installation so that it could be implemented in others. Thus the same minicomputer applications were introduced in one location after another – not only around Ireland but also elsewhere in Europe. Software thus became a product in the late 1970s.
Computing services spawned a new international trade. Irish software companies were early movers in this field because of their focus on minicomputers and because, in contrast with other countries, there was just a limited demand for computing skills on large mainframes. Some service providers disliked the concept of software as a product, perceiving the trend as more of a threat than an opportunity, but this opinion was not widely held in Ireland.
The packaged applications developers evolved into a distinctive breed. Each of these firms was tightly coupled with a system vendor. AMS, COPS, Software Development Services and Real Time Software became IBM affiliates. GC McKeown and Mentec had close ties with Digital. Supple Software and Rainsford Computing worked with Data General and MA Systems with ICL. Cara and CCI supported Hewlett-Packard and Barrett Computer Sales was associated with Wang.
Some of these companies proved to be more durable than others, but the lessons that they learned were put to good use by their successors.
The business model for packaging and exporting applications matured very quickly. The basic practices and processes were all in place in the early 1980s, when software developers started to create business applications for microcomputers. Because the costs of these machines were so low, it became easier for newcomers to enter the trade. The next wave of software company formations, therefore, was much bigger.
Minicomputers, meanwhile, took on new roles in the 1980s. In addition to running ledgers, processing payrolls and controlling industrial machinery, they started to support everyday tasks on office workers’ desks. Most of the system vendors designed and launched their own office automation software. Suites such as Digital’s All-in-1, Data General’s Comprehensive Electronic Office and Wang Office offered text processing, screen-based messaging and information retrieval capabilities.
Data processing managers generally welcomed this new trend, because it looked like a way to expand their influence and authority. There were now two schools of strategy in office technology. Some organisations installed batches of single-purpose word processors that were not connected to their primary computers. People tended to regard these machines as fancy typewriters. Others preferred to place minicomputer terminals on office desks and then explore their potential as multi-purpose devices. The bottom-up and top-down philosophies clashed.
The arrival of text- and communications-oriented office applications also highlighted the difficulties of transferring information from one type of minicomputer to another. In the early 1980s the industry started to consider neutral standards for procedures like document transfer and inter-organisation messaging. Over the next decade common standards for databases and operating systems evolved as well, while different vendors started building their systems on the same microprocessors. Proprietary computing technologies gradually lost their sheen.
Minicomputers not only dominated data processing in the 1970s. They also accounted for the overwhelming majority of information technology expenditure in Ireland in the following decade. In terms of public awareness, however, the personal computer took centre stage in the 1980s. IBM launched its first PC in Europe in January 1983, opening a new chapter in the computing story.
Last edit: February 2024