Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Life Insurance (actuarial use), the governments of Ontario and
the Northwest Territories, and
NASA
.
There were some satisfied customers. “My first introduction
to the
MCM
/800 was in 1978 when I was with Halifax Insur-
ance,” recollected Haron Ezer,
At the time I was involved in five-year modelling plus
actuarial calculations. I was using I.P. Sharp [an
APL
time-sharing system] to program all those tasks at very
high cost.
In 1978 one of Gord [Ramer]'s colleagues came to demo
the
MCM
/800. I saw great potential with the screen and
the 8-inch floppy [drives]. I felt that I could do all the ac-
tuarial formulas and the 5 year model that I had with I.P.
Sharp. I convinced my boss that I could make it pay for
itself within 3 months … I actually had so many applica-
tions running on it within 3 months that it actually paid
for itself 3 folds [sic].
However, by the end of 1978, only a handful of the /800 comput-
ers were installed, and there was no doubt that Berg's
MCM
/800
computer could not keep
MCM
afloat. The company's earnings
plummeted from $1.25 million in 1977 to only $866,145 in
1978, almost a thirty per cent drop, with the total loss climbing
to almost one and a half million dollars. Neither Berg nor any
of his successors was able to come up with a winning marketing
strategy for
MCM
products. From the very beginning of its cor-
porate history,
MCM
had made the decision to sell its products
through a worldwide network of distributors. Such an ambi-
tious marketing structure required thorough market analysis,
training of distributors' sales personnel, development of dem-
onstration software, extensive national and international adver-
tising and promotion campaigns, participation in trade shows,
and production and distribution of promotional literature, bro-
