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  LANguishing in the '80s June 14, 1999
At first, Bill used the mainframe--a logical move, since it stored all student data and was the no-cost option. Bill waited in line, genuflected appropriately as he negotiated the IT bureaucracy from senior management to systems analyst and eventually to the head of a programming team. His system took much longer to develop than anticipated, the interface wasn't intuitive and the jobs to generate reports didn't always run within the batch-processing window. Still, it was progress. He finally retired his sprawling paper-card filing system. Over time, more system-design errors came to light. Some occurred because Bill's group had not taken enough time to analyze its information needs and left it up to the programmers to use their judgment. It was only after Bill had reallocated the space where his old paper system sat that he discovered the new system's limitations. Were operations more efficient? Well, let's put it this way: In short order, Bill's staff could now easily match a student who had already accepted a job with an employer who was no longer in business. When Bill brought these issues to the attention of the programming-team manager, he was treated to a tutorial on the challenges associated with new system development and maintenance of existing systems; it didn't help him one bit. The bottom line was that he would need to be patient and wait in line for system enhancements. Shortly after this discouraging meeting, Bill learned of a new PC-based application designed for organizations like his. It was the brainchild of a colleague who understood the nuances of the business and also happened to be a dBase II programmer. Best of all, the program was network-aware. All Bill had to do was install a PC-LAN with a file server that would house the database. The program designer had paid careful attention to the need to import mainframe data and offered recommendations on how to configure a gateway machine to interconnect the LAN with the mainframe. As a bonus, the program would give Bill's group printer-sharing capabilities and e-mail. So Bill came looking for someone with LAN installation expertise. "You bet," I responded, "I'm the LAN guy." Why, I'd just installed one (my third, an eight-node Arcnet network) the week before. And this was exciting--the first time anyone came to me with a desire to install a LAN. To date, I had been the one looking for anyone with problems a departmental LAN might solve. One thing led to another, and before I knew it I had installed a new token-ring LAN running Advanced NetWare version 2.01a. Next month, I'll tell you how things worked out. Here's a clue: Bill has yet to put me on his Christmas card list. Send your comments on this column to Dave Molta at dmolta@nwc.com. |
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Bill was a nice guy--a manager at a university's career-placement office who knew his business, worked hard and cared about his 15-person staff. The economy was sputtering in the early '80s, so matching students with good jobs wasn't easy. It required the efficient organization of data on thousands of job candidates and positions from thousands of local, regional and national organizations. Some good information technology could really help Bill do his job.
