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These various application areas of data processing by computer have continued to the present day but perhaps not surprisingly, accounts of systems such as we have seen above diminished in the Journal so consequently by 1963 (Volume 6) the number of papers describing computerised data processing case studies had decreased considerably although areas such as Government National Insurance contributions (Drummond, 1963) and the modelling of life assurance scenarios (Giles, 1964) were still featured.Īlready by the mid-1960s, data transmission had become topical as businesses tried to optimise use of the computer by sharing processing time. Thus, from about 1956, a number of UK companies had invested in a variety of different computers which were used either for payroll/personnel type activities or were used for gaining competitive advantage through tighter stock control and decision management (mainly operational research type modelling). The Royal Dutch/Shell Group (Galer, 1959) had been using a Ferranti Mark I for some four years to model the most economically viable scenario using linear programming techniques. Indeed, production control was a very popular application area for computers with EMI Electronics Ltd ( Hickman, 1959) and International Computers and Tabulators Ltd (Bryen, 1959) being amongst the earliest. Even so, computers were being used for both statistical and non-statistical forecasting ( Douglas, 1958b), for example, Unilever used an Elliott 405 ( Hickman, 1959) for stock recording and control ( Douglas, 1958c) and management decisions based on operational research techniques such as linear programming ( Douglas, 1958d). In addition, form design, both as input and printed output, could be problematical as could the reliability of the hardware. These two examples alone show that project management and requirements specifications were issues even with earliest computers. However, Thompson (1958) concluded that staff at Lyons were working well and all seemed happy in the work associated with the computer installation.įuture diagnosis would suggest that this approach was 'inward looking' (Aris, 2000) but the LEO project achieved a number of 'firsts' including flow-charts for specification and the concepts of systems integration (Aris, 2000). It is tempting to suggest that in the last 40 years this aspect of business computing has scarcely improved in spite of the work of Jackson, Beer and Wood-Harper amongst others. Rationalising the many facets of an involved procedure was a concept the understanding for which many members of an organisation lacked mental capacity (Thompson, 1958). In addition, requirements may be prejudiced by past (irrelevant) experiences as well as conservatism of staff at all levels. In large organisations no one person knows all the ramifications of a procedure involving many departments and seldom is there a person in a position to make comprehensive decisions. Thompson listed the most frequent difficulties, the most problematic being 'finding out precisely what the job is required to do' (Thompson, 1958). Maintenance of the hardware also posed a problem with valve deterioration taking a prominent role but Thompson (1958) recommended that fault diagnosis should closely follow that of medical diagnosis, where symptom knowledge is used to eliminate faults until the root cause is deduced. Problems occurred with form design and checks were needed to ensure that only the correct program could be used for a particular task (Thompson, 1958). Errors needed to be planned as they would inevitably occur and programmers could be trained so that the coded program could be quickly prepared. However, it was essential that the tasks for the computer were organised carefully so that computer run-time was minimised. Thus he was well placed to consider the cost effectiveness of using computers in business, stating that if there were sufficient work to keep the computer running then 'there should be no doubt' about cost savings. Thompson had visited the USA and recognised that computers could prove useful in business data processing (Land, 2000). Lyons and Company Limited, persuaded the company to give £3,000 to The University of Cambridge in exchange for advice about building its own computer and, consequently, in 1951, the LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) computer was running its first business application (Land, 1998 Aris, 2000).