A Brief History of the Pick Environment in Australia - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 153

turned to a bureau solution. The new mini-computers [15-16] became attractive op-
tions and were actively pursued. Companies whose IT was agile enough to “move
with the times” often gained significant competitive advantage by simply having the
better IT solutions of their competitors.
Examples of this were the burgeoning Credit Union movement in Australia, so-
phisticated Insurance and Library solutions, and very popular manufacturing and
distribution systems reminiscent of the original TRW product and precursors to the
MRP and MRP-II 8 products.

3.8 The Pick Community in 1992

Australia had several State-based Pick User Groups active in 1992 and most were
called the “International Pick Users Association” (IPUA). The Melbourne group was
active and hosted several conferences called PickLab from 1988 till 1994. The 1992
conference attracted several overseas dignitaries and featured prominently in the in-
ternational press [17].
Local and international Pick identities were canvassed in 1992 to offer their opin-
ions on the future of the Pick marketplace. Table summarises their views.

Table 2. Leading Australian Pick Identities Views on Pick's Future

Identity Company Views

Peter
Fenwick

Fenwick
Software

Pick's future is rosy because of its acceptance of Unix (Open Systems) as
a host operating system. Pick is far more efficient than its competitors so
one can run more users on equivalent hardware [18].

Rob
Coulson

Idealogy
Systems

Unix as the host operating system is inevitable and needs to be adopted.
Pick's success will be driven by its breadth of applications [19].

Terry
Leister

VMark Asia
Pacific

Unix is the host operating system of the future. Pick needs to accept new
technologies such as client-server models and allow processing to be done
on the desktop. GUI such as X-Terminals is needed [20].

Tom
Couvret

Prime
Computer

The key to success will be standards, portability between platforms,
communications, distributed databases and desktop integration [21].

Al Dei
Maggi

Sequent
Computer
Systems

Pick's future depends on it ability to integrate with dominant industry
standard software layers and systems such as Oracle. Commitment to
supporting advanced GUIs and intelligent desktop integration [22].

Charles
Cave

Unidata
Australia

Adherence and support of Open Systems standards like SQL, TCP/IP
X.25 and X11 based GUIs. Integration with products such as Framemaker
(publishing), WordPerfect and various graphical applications [23].

Tim
Cianchi

Apscore
International

Pick cannot survive in its current form. New object oriented technology
will sweep everything away in the next 5-10 years. In the short term Open
Systems compliance, integration with desktop applications and adoption
of three tier architectures [24].

Mike
Ferris

UniPix Survival means interoperability with the likes of Oracle, Informix, Sybase

and Ingres where data can be exchanged at a whim. Pick systems will be
sold off within 5 years [25].

Frank
Gibb

Blue Circle
Southern
Cement

The Pick operating system will disappear and the DBMS legend will
include SQL support and perhaps a port into Latin language and hosting
on a games console [26].

The three prongs of Open Systems - portability, scalability and
interoperability. SQL compliance and seamless integration with new
products such as an Excel spreadsheet [27].
8 MRP: Materials and Resource Planning. Precursors to modern ERP packages.

John
Buchanan

Triad
Software