Large Firms Join Technology Group to Avoid Making Costly Mistakes in Buying Software

Things like not buying software that could have been a $25,000 to $50,000 mistake are why 45 large companies are willing to pay $10,000 dues to Office Technology Research Group in Pasadena.

Allen Smith, manager of corporate information services for Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield, said he didn’t buy a particular software program after another group member told him of its faults.

“That saves the membership fee several times over,” he said.

The research group, headed by executive director John Connell, brings together managers from large companies coping with the installation of technology in offices. Members include Bank of America, Hughes Aircraft, Warner Lambert and Eastman Kodak.

As they meet, members are just as likely to discuss how employees react to products as which products work in what applications.

The managers need a forum for anticipating, measuring and then dealing with the impact of installing computers and other systems, said Connell. “They help each other address the key issues of what happens when they move technology into the office.

“There are no books to learn this from, so higher-level professionals learn from each other, and share with each other their experiences,” he said.

The group is user-oriented and not keyed to vendors, he said, meaning that it functions less like a particular company’s user group and therefore has no particular brand loyalties.

The group’s meetings are held twice a year, but Connell and staff are available to a member company in the interim, should they need some extra help.

First formed in 1977, the Office Technology Research Group now has affiliate offices in London and Brussels to serve overseas members.

In addition to the meetings, membership fees entitle participants to a library of reference materials and a newsletter.

For many companies facing the upheaval that massive automation projects cause in the office, the group offers a sympathetic, if not totally reassuring, voice.

“Advance office systems change the way people do their jobs,” Connell told the group at its spring meeting.

“The evidence is overwhelming that, as people use the machines, they change procedures, processes, communications patterns and operating relationships in ways that cannot be predicted beforehand.”