1970 to 1979: Computers and Software Begin Creating Wealth - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 154

Advanced and Experimental Software
The kinds of applications that are deemed “advanced” change over time. In the
1970s, the fields of artificial intelligence and natural language translations were
being pioneered and were certainly advanced for the time. Later, mind/machine
interfaces and robotics would become topics of advanced research. Virtual reality
was also an advanced topic. Software that aids astronomers and physicists is often
both advanced and experimental. Medical diagnostic software is also an advanced
topic.
Some specific advanced topics from the 1970s included embedded medical
devices such as the software used in cochlear implants; GPS mapping, which
would later become the dominant method for navigation and map making; natural
language translation; robotic manufacturing; and artificial intelligence.
Business Software
Business software includes software that handles banking and financial transac-
tions, personnel transactions, order entry, accounting, insurance processing, airline
and hotel reservations, and many other kinds of general business transactions.
Business software evolved from earlier accounting and financial packages that
used tabulating machines rather than true computers. When digital computers
began to replace tabulating machines, the class of management information sys-
tems , or MIS, applications began to emerge. These soon shifted from using punch
cards to using magnetic tape to using disk drives.
The advent of business MIS software led hundreds of companies to create in-
ternal software development groups and also large data centers for their mainframe
computers. By the end of the 1970s, some of these software and data center com-
binations employed more than 5% of the total corporate workforce.
The comparatively high costs of such groups and their tendency to run late and
have cost overruns led to the development of software outsource companies, spe-
cialized management consulting companies, and the development of tools such as
parametric estimating tools that could help keep software projects under control.
CA was founded in 1979 and is an archetype of a company that marketed business
MIS applications for finance, accounting, fixed assets, and other common business
purposes.
Some specific kinds of business software include accounts payable, accounts
receivable, order entry, payrolls for exempt and nonexempt employees, inventory
management, and customer data.