 |
InfoWorld 100 September 18, 1995 |
Top
companies build on innovation
Client/server:
The bedrock of new business, by Deborah Asbrand
This year's
InfoWorld 100 is about solving real problems. There's no hype here; there are
only solutions.
"Because of client/server, we are more responsive to our
customers and their needs. This also has allowed flexibility in our internal
systems."
How we found
them
We chose the most
innovative companies by analyzing their overall client/server strategy;
technology use in general; and implementation of client/server technology
through their most important project.
The
InfoWorld 100 At a Glance
The InfoWorld 100 companies
were chosen from nearly 500 companies based on their profiles in the InfoWorld
subscriber database or replies to a published request for information
about use of client/server technology.
1 Florida
Power Corp.
Challenge:
Distribute real-time and archived data and replace an aging minicomputer system.
"At a nuclear power plant, we're always planning for
the worst."
2 Cigna
Systems
Challenge: Reduce the
time and cost of ordering supplies.
"When we started, we thought the technology would sell
the system, but that's not the case."
3 Intelligent
Electronics Inc.
Challenge: Develop
and electronic information channel between Intelligent Electronics and its
customers to simplify order entry, processing, and tracking.
"Object messaging allows resellers to be automatically
notified of each order's status."
4 Boston
Emergency Services Team
Challenge: Establish
an on-line patient-record system that is scalable and low cost.
"With this application, we can reconnect people in crisis
with the people who know them best."
5 Shepard's/McGraw-Hill
Challenge: Provide
production capabilities that won't hinder new product ideas and are capable of
growing with the business.
"We have vastly increased the number of products we can
offer while decreasing our data processing costs."
6 Metropolitan
Water District
Challenge: Replace
existing applications that were inflexible and unresponsive to the needs of the
business.
"We wanted to get out of the application development
business."
7 Domecq
Importers Inc.
Challenge:
Delivering information to the field in a timely way.
"The system lets us make information accessible from the
road, from home, from anywhere."
8
Questar Corp.
Challenge: Create new
business systems in response to regulatory changes.
"Believe it or not, we took our Oracle databases and
migrated them up to the MVS mainframe host."
9 American
Credit Indemnity Co.
Challenge: A reliance
on mainframe legacy systems was resulting in high technology costs and the
inability to respond to the needs of the business.
"We have moved from assembly-line, batch processing to
real-time, on-line processing."
10 Orlando
Health Care Group
Challenge: As the
practice grew in staff size and patient population, inefficiency increased
because patient call-intake staffers and doctors did not have easy access to
patients' medical information.
"The absence of this system would have led to a scenario
you would not have wanted to look at."
11-100 Who
are the InfoWorld 100?
Details
on 90 more client/server projects.
"The limitation of mainframe systems can no longer define
the end use of data."
Common
roadblocks to success
Technology is often
the smallest problem facing companies embarking on client/server development.
Management attitudes and user apprehension can be more difficult to
overcome.
"There was resistance to change."
The
1994 Top Ten
The Top 10 from 1994
are continuing their deployment of client/server technology.
"Without client/server technology, we would be dead."
Does
your company deserve a spot on the InfoWorld 100?
If your company has
deployed a client/server project that you think deserves to be on the list,
please let us know.
Copyright © InfoWorld 1995
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