Corporate Computing in the ‘90s

The computer departments of large companies, traditionally known as management information systems, or MIS, were once dominated by giant mainframe computers with sprawling networks of “dumb” terminals. The rise of the personal computer has changed all that.

Many companies are now moving toward client-server systems, in which a powerful central computer, or server, in each system controls a network of personal computers, or clients. The server portion is often a computer workstation from IBM or Hewlett-Packard or Sun Microsystems, and the software is often either an old but powerful program called Unix or a new one from Microsoft, Windows NT.

In many offices, PCs are connected to one another in local area networks. While most of the these PCs use Microsoft’s Windows as their operating system, those with IBM’s OS/2 work even better on networks. Novel’s Netware is the software of choice for managing traffic on the entire network.

The latest innovation in tying PCs together in a company is called groupware, a category dominated by Lotus Notes. Notes and similar programs enable people in far-flung locations to work together on documents and have access to the same updated databases.

Notes is generally purchased to join hundreds or even thousands of people in an organization and requires costly customization to get the maximum benefits. The same people who once earned their pay buying IBM mainframes--the MIS managers--are now the targets for Notes. From that perspective, IBM’s bid for Lotus makes a great deal of sense.