Axel Hvidtfeldt
email: ahv@mail.dk

de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

The program committee for this Conference asked me to describe the precursor events that lead to the closure and subsequent development of a range of turnkey computer and network project contracts for Christian Rovsing A/S during the period 1970 to 1984. I will describe some such projects and the events that preceded the closure of contracts.

The company Christian Rovsing A/S was founded in 1963 by Christian Rovsing and worked the first years mainly as consulting engineers. The transition changes from punched cards to computer systems lead to a requirement for skilled engineers and programmers to work with this new technology. This group of personnel was in high demand. The company hired and subsequently contracted out the staff as consultants to the European Space Agency and to various airlines. During the first 7-8 years the company in this way built up a cadre of very skilled computer engineers ready to take on more demanding tasks, and over the next 15 years the company carried out very large projects for space agencies, airlines, and both military and civilian authorities. I will discuss how the contracts were obtained and how we succeeded with projects like: Satellite communication Military communication networks Airline reservation systems Terminals and network for the Danish debit card "Dankort"

Applications

By 1970 there were many so called minicomputers on the market. Very few potential customers knew how to use the computers and no one wanted to start a software department for the development of the application. HP, DEC, SAAB, Norsk Data and many other manufacturers tried to sell their hardware, but the costumers had to do the programming themselves. (For acronyms please refer the enclosed list). We had the skilled engineers and started therefore to contract for the delivery of turnkey systems, where we took responsibility for hardware and software and a system answering the costumer's functional requirement. This included a fixed delivery date and a fixed price. If the costumer wanted a particular minicomputer we bought that and made that part of our turnkey delivery.

This was a new approach at the time and half the sales work was already done by the computer vendor. We had an unwritten arrangement with several computer vendors that when they met a requirement they could not handle themselves they referred to Christian Rovsing A/S.

We could of course not finance such projects which often lasted many months. We therefore introduced advance payments, usually one 3rd of the project sum with stage payments under way. The last payment fell when the project was completed. This method was good for the customer but also for ourselves, because this meant that we had to complete a project. We also included a point in the contract which was called systems engineering, i.e. the number of engineering hours which were required to complete the project. Often a project was extended over and above what was agreed in the original contract, but in that case it was newer disputed that these extra services also could be invoiced.

Sometimes the costumer's wishes were very vague. In that case we initiated a project with a paid definition study which lead to a functional specification report. The costumer was now free to place the system for implementation into international public bidding and thereby making the formalities all right in relation to public institutions.

During the following years we contracted and delivered 12 widely different turnkey systems through using bought in minicomputer equipment. The company was now no longer "consulting engineers" who advised others what to do. Now we had become computer systems contractors with the focus on delivering total systems. This lead to many engineers and technicians becoming deeply involved in the solution of practical computer systems for customers, who were willing to pay for it. This released a closely knit togetherness in the company because everybody was keenly interested in solving the application within the given framework. We did not need a large sales department because the same engineers, who were to implement a system, were also those, who wrote the proposal documents. This gave our engineers a greater insight into and understanding of the customer's wishes and problems and guaranteed that the project could actually be implemented. This was an important success factor. In some cases our engineers became personal friends with our customers.

TOSCA

In 1971 the Danish Air Material Command had formulated a request for quotation for a Tote System Computer Assisted, TOSCA. This was a system, which on data CRT terminals displayed a whole range of information for the Airforce to carry out their missions. Such as amount of fuel to be loaded, type of weapon, route to fly etc. etc. This data was previously displayed on white boards with pencils and sent by video link to the adjacent command center. We placed our bid with a SAAB D5 minicomputer. Mainly because the Airforce had bought SAAB fighter aircrafts and I thought that they would offer us a good deal when buying their computer. That they did, but the Air Material Command was still not satisfied that Christian Rovsing A/S, who were consulting engineers at the time, could manufacture the required equipment. I therefore proposed to the managing director of the Maersk owned DISA Electronic to write a letter saying, that if Christian Rovsing A/S could not manufacture DISA would. This is a blank check he said. When the letter was presented to the Air Material Command we won the contract. The system was delivered on time and was for many years a great success. Later on the Royal Airforce in the UK lend a TOSCA site and wanted to copy it. This project was to become the basis for many additional defense projects for the Danish Military and for NATO.

Meteosat

In 1971 European Space Agency built a series of meteorological satellites. To process the enormous amount of picture data streaming down from the satellites the Agency built a large computer system, which consisted of British ICL computers. In this connection there was a need for a fast communications front end. We bid with a so called array processor of our own design and won the contract in 1973. We could not call it Christian Rovsing Array Processor short CRAP. There is no need to tell you what that means in English. So a bottle of whiskey was put up as a prize. The winning name was CR80 and this was to become the key element, which we used during the next 10 years for demanding communications applications.

FIKS

The Danish Army, Navy and Airforce had for some time worked on the idea of connecting the three services with a common communications network. In 1973 Christian Rovsing A/S obtained paid definition study contract. A working group was assembled consisting of a Senior Sargent from the Airforce, a Major from the Army and a Navy Commander and myself as the team secretary. The intended system was named Forsvarets Integrerede Kommunikationssystem, FIKS. A series of meetings at the existing communication centers of the three services were conducted. It fell to my lot to write the functional specifications and I took a couple of days The operational integrity of the network was to be extremely high. System was not to fail even if one nodal point was knocked out. Data were to automatically find new ways through the network through redundant connections. We were to use the existing public telephone infrastructure and the data was therefor to be encrypted. The nodal points were to be protected against an electromagnetic impulse, EMP as a result of a nuclear attack. The Air Material Command sent the specification into international tender with a slightly smaller configuration of 8 nodes. We placed our bid and in 1977 I could sign a 46 million Danish kroner contract for the turnkey delivery of a FIKS system.

In 1978 I participated in a symposium about network security at Washington DC sponsored by US Security Authorities. I came to talk with a person from DARPA the US Defense Research Establishment. He told me that he was writing a doctors thesis on a self-repairing data network for the US Military. I invited him to Denmark to inspect the FIKS system which answered those criteria. We at Christian Rovsing A/S were then at the forefront of technology. Four years later in 1982 DARPA was credited for having invented the Internet we know to today.

CAMELOT

The company's cooperation with ICL developed over the years and we supplied a number of CR80 communication frontend systems for banking and private videotext applications in the UK and in South Africa. For the National Health Service, NHS in the UK the company delivered a packet switching network called CAMELOT. The system connected 5000 CRT terminals via 15 nodes throughout the UK to ICL computers for the processing the country's health program.

NICS TARE/CAMPS

NATOs radar air defense system was interconnected via a telex type paper tape system. A network connected the easternmost point of Turkey through all the NATO countries to northern Norway. If a threat was observed in Turkey a message was initiated and relayed through the network to Norway. The scientists at NATO headquarters thought that this process could be speeded up and automated with modern technology. After a couple of years they produced a specification which was sent out for bidding. Christian Rovsing A/S could not undertake this task alone so we teamed with Litton Industries. We had two engineers stationed for a period with Litton in California to help write the proposal. Litton won the bidding and in 1976 I could sign the contract for supplying CR80 front end computers to Litton back end computers. This was the first large scale use of the CR80 for a military application.

With the encrypted network in place the next step was to see if the contents of the messages could also be automated. So NATO sent out for international bidding a specification for a Computer Assisted Message Processing System, CAMPS. This time we submitted a proposal alone and won a 305 million Danish kroner contract (fig. 7). The messages were to be processed after a standard military procedure called ACP 125.

Today we do not think twice that the contents of a message can be read and processed electronically by a computer. Today we have the "hyper-text -transferprotocol", http, to do the job for us. But in those days the processing of the contents of text messages was new. The unique feature of the CR80 computer was the line termination unit, LTU, which could be programmed to process many different protocols. This feature proved very useful for the large airline projects as we shall see.

Protocols

The reservation systems for the airlines grew in 1970'es increasingly more complex with many different terminals connected to a network. The introduction of CRT terminals also increased the demand on the network. The mainframe manufacturers each had their own proprietary communication protocol. Their marketing strategy was that also the terminals had to be supplied by the same main-frame vendor. In the case of Air Canada they even had two different mainframes, IBM and Univac.

This not easily read diagram in fig. 8 shows a summary of the network protocols our company could handle with the CR80 computer system. From the diagram you may discern, that we also handled the TCP/IP protocols which here at this early stage are labelled ARPANET. The TCP/IP protocols were years later to become the Internet standard protocols. The company developed a unique computer, the CR80, including a line termination unit, LTU, which was capable of handling a wide variety of communication protocols. This printed circuit card performed a whole range of communications functions, which today is included on a single chip.

9

Air Canada / American Airlines

We convinced Air Canada that we could solve their problems with a CR80 front-end communications computer. And they let us have an engineer stationed in their computer center in Toronto for a period to help write the specifications which were sent out for international bidding. About at the same time American Airlines had invited proposals for their network to an IBM mainframe configuration and the bidding was closed. At that time I was visiting Motorola in Boston and they told me that they were to make a presentation on their modems to the American Airlines computer team the following week.

I would of course also like to make a presentation to American Airlines. My friend at Motorola phoned American at Tulsa, Oklahoma and it was agreed that we could make a presentation in the afternoon with Motorola having the forenoon. But American wanted some documentation in advance. I rushed back to Copenhagen and had our engineers compile a stack of documentation 12 cm high. This was sent by courier to American in Tulsa. This was relatively easy for us because we had almost finished our proposal to Air Canada. In the rush we had in the text in a few cases forgot to substitute Air Canada with American Airlines I assembled a team of four of our engineers and the following week in the afternoon we made our presentation to American at Tulsa. After a short break the American engineers came back and handed over the bidding documents with a smile saying that they were a private organization and therefore could let us bid even though the bidding officially was closed.

It was agreed that we could make a proposal within two weeks and we submitted our proposal. Then followed a period where we conducted clarifications at Tulsa. One day the American evaluation team wanted me to meet their boss William (Bill) Perry. They brushed themselves up and we went to the boss's office, where he greeted me with a "Hallo Axel" and I responded with a "Hallo Bill". It turned out that Bill a few years earlier had shown me around his Californian company, who were interpreting the secrete aerial photos taken from the American U2 spy planes. Bill Perry was also advisor to the US government on communications and we had met in connection with our European NATO networks. So the chemistry between Christian Rovsing A/S and American Airlines was excellent and we were selected to build 320 million Danish kroners worth of network.

Here is a little anecdote that happened in connection with the American Airlines contract. Before signing the contract the Chairman and President of American Airlines Bob Crandall wanted to meet this Christian into whose hands he was placing the fate of his Airline. If the reservation system and the operations system do not work then the Airline is dead. Moreover this Christian Rovsing company was located 60 miles from the Iron Curtain. So a meeting was arranged. That was to take place in an apartment, which American Airlines owned on 5th Avenue in New York. On the day Christian and I turned up at the 2nd floor apartment. Present were Bob Crandall, the chief financial officer of American Airlines, Bill Perry, Christian and myself. The caretaker of the apartment served a cup of coffee. After about 15 minutes of general discussions Bob Crandall suddenly turned to Christian Rovsing and said: "Tell me Christian, what happens to my Airline, if you decide to close your company and go fishing". Christian mumbled something about that he had no intention of doing that. Then Bill Perry cut in and said: "I know Axel, so it is all right". That was the end of discussion!! And we returned to Copenhagen after a cup of coffee in New York.

Bill Perry later became the US Secretary of the Defense under the Clinton administration.

A few weeks later the contract was signed. In the meantime I could also sign a 195 Million Danish kroner contract with Air Canada.

Dankort

I will now turn to the events that transpired before the contract for the Dankort system was awarded to Christian Rovsing A/S. In the latter half of the 1970 the Dan-ish banks and the retail organization formed a joint company, PKK, which was to develop a Danish electronic payment system. That company had representatives from the banks and the retail institutions. The head of the company was a person from the retail institutions. The banks had a few years earlier introduced a credit card of plastic, which could be used with a paper slip. Christian Rovsing A/S obtained a small paid study contract from PKK and that enabled us to look into the production of plastic cards with a magnetic stripe. We also studied the use of cryptographic algorithms for use in the civil sector. Previously we had experience of cryptography for military applications. During the study period the requirement specifications developed:

-The system was to be a Debit Card, i.e. the payment transactions were to be booked on line directly on the customer's bank account immediately. A Credit Card on the other hand works through the transactions being collected off line by the bank that at the end of the month sends an invoice to the customer with interests and charges. -The existing wired telephone infrastructure was to be used. It was a prerequisite that the telephone infrastructure was well developed. This was the case in Denmark were even the most remote place could be reached with a wired telephone connection.

-The system was to be operationally absolutely safe and no single transaction was to be lost. -The payment transaction as well as the terminal was to be encrypted.

-A very important prerequisite was that the Danish Government and the Trade Unions same years earlier had agreed that all Danish citizens were to have a bank account.

-The system was to be used by the entire Danish banking community. Therefore banks with a well-developed computer infrastructure were not to be favourized over smaller banks and savings institutions. -The intended system was to be jointly owned by the Danish banks, so that no single bank could obtain a monopoly. -

The point of sales terminals were to be protected so they could not be compromised by electric radiation.

-The specifications were to be structured so the project could be sent into international bidding by PKK.

After several months of joint specification work the project was sent in for international bidding. On equal terms with other bidders Christian Rovsing A/S submitted our bid.

We bid with a so-called "fault tolerant" CR 80 Computer configuration. Our computer architecture was well suited for "transaction processing" i.e. the fast handling of large amounts of short transactions. This was at the time a new technology that a very few companies in world mastered.

The transaction data in our Dankort system were transported through the wired public telephone system by means of an 800 Hertz side channel on the ordinary 3 300 Hertz telephone cannel to the local telephone exchange. By agreement with the telephone companies the transaction data were sifted away and transported by high speed digital link to the central Dankort CR80 computer system located in a building with special physical security which was to be built at Ballerup for the purpose.

The transaction data were encrypted at the point of sale terminal and double encrypted with the terminal number. This meant that the data when travelling on the initial Dankort transport network could not be compromised unless you had physical access to the network in the telephone exchanges and at the same time could crack the crypto keys.

We used a so-called DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithm. DES applies a 56-bit key to each 64-bit block of data. DES originated at IBM in 1977 and was adopted by the US Department of the Defense as a standard because it at the time was considered unbreakable and was therefore restricted for export. This export ban was later rescinded and the algorithm was placed in the public domain. We knew that the DES crypto algorithm could only become public if the US Security Agencies, now NSA, could crack the code. But we were at the time not unduly worried because our data travelled in a closed network. This was as we shall see to change later.

When the encrypted data arrived at the CR80 Dankort computer this was decrypted in a closed hardwired module. This meant that the operators had no access to the transacted contents. They could only see that a transaction had taken place and take corrective action in the data flow. This was as we shall see also changed later.

The CR80 system was scalable and was designed to operate in both civil and military environments. The Dankort configuration consisted of 10 CR80 computers, which were capable of handling up to 700 transactions per second 24/7/365. The Initially the retail industry boycotted the system because the banks were greedy and imposed a large bank charge per transaction on the retail industry. At the time a payment transaction by cheque or paper slip which was carried by the banks, cost more than 6 Danish kroner, whilst a Dankort payment could be made for less than 25 øre. Fortunately the banks rethought their charging policy because they saved so much by operating the Dankort system.

After a few years the Dankort system became the most widely used online payment system in the world measured per capita.

During the first 10 years of operation Dankort fraud was negligible and system downtime was almost nonexistent. By 2006 there were 676 million transactions per year and a turnover of 249 billion Danish kroner. This was a considerable part of the Danish economy.

The Dankort system subsequently joined with VISA and this opened up the world market. The data transport net was subsequently changed from the original closed network in Denmark to the Internet. But this meant that the system could now be accessed from any point in the world. If you at the same time you could crack open the encryption code the transaction content could be disclosed to 3rd party. It has now been revealed that this is exactly what US NSA is doing in their hunt for terrorists, but at the expense of law abiding citizen's privacy.

In our original Dankort system encryption and decryption was performed by means of a closely guarded hardwired module. The system operators therefor had little or no access to the contents of the transactions. This has also changed dramatically by introducing the chip in the card under the pretext that a chip was safer.

However, the chip enables the bank to compile a personal profile of each cardholder. This profile is for security reasons used to supervise each individual transaction and alert the cardholder if the card is used in an abnormal way. The cardholder's profile can also be used as a marketing tool, which today is known as "Big Data".

The jointly bank owned payment system company PBS subsequently subcontracted the task of data processing to an outside vendor and therefor no longer has full control over the system. As we now know that enabled a Danish subcontractor's operator to obtain and sell information about the card usage of the Danish Royal

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. CR80 Array Processor Fig. 1. Meteosat

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Typical FIKS Installation

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. CR80 Front End to ICL Mainframes

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. European Nato Countries

Fig. 9 .

 9 Fig. 9. LTU, Line Termination Unit

Fig. 10 .

 10 Fig. 10. The Danish Public Wired Telephone Network

Fig. 12

 12 Fig. 12. Refuse Dankort Fig. 13. Accept Dankort

Family and other dignitaries.

Lately the control of the system has passed from semipublic ownership (the Danish National Bank was part-owner of Dankort) to a private American investment company, whose only purpose is to make a profit. As a result it is unclear whether the American laws of privacy can overrule the corresponding Danish laws.

More than 30 years ago we at Christian Rovsing A/S started a technological development process in Denmark for payment systems, which in the near future will replace cash payments with wireless payments by smartphone.

A Lesson to be learnt

It seems that the lifespan for international companies that are based on developing a niche in new technology is about 20 years. There are several examples in the Nordic countries and many such companies have disappeared internationally. Christian Rovsing A/S was no exception. The company based its original success on focusing on a direct relationship with the customers in solving their specific network problems. The success was so big, that the company moved one step away from solving the customer's problems. The company moved to become a computer vendor in competition with many other companies on the market, almost back to where the company started 14 years earlier. Such a change in marketing philosophy requires a completely different organization and above all large capital resources, which were not available at the time.

Christian Rovsing A/S was an engineering company consisting of enthusiastic engineers, who took great pride in solving the customer's problems using technology in the forefront.

Appendix

The table below explains most of the acronyms used in this paper.


Carina Sørensen

Michael Nielsen

de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Navision Stat -Growing Up

Navision Stat was built with very few governmental customizations of the standard product. Focusing on integration into the government's master system (SKS) and on paving the way for collecting accounting data for more than 400 decentralized government offices. An integration with the government's payroll system (SLS) also made it possible to exchange human resource data.

In addition to this, a number of governmental audit trails have been implemented to support the separation of work functions. Also, a bank integration solution for manual file exchange was acquired and added to the solution.

Since then, Navision Stat has been upgraded to new standard versions from Microsoft and extended with new governmental functionality where the focus has been to deliver as robust and coherent a solution as possible.

At Additionally new internal application functionality for various purposes has been built into the solution.

All governmental agencies were migrated from SCR to Navision Stat in the years 1999-2003 except for a few cases, where an exception was granted for specific governmental agencies

5

Creating the Accounting Service Center (ØkonomiServiceCentret)

In the spring of 2008 it was decided to establish administrative service centers across public administration. The centers were tasked to provide service for the majority of government agencies within the following areas: 1. Payroll 2. Accounting 3. Travel 4. IT maintenance and support Areas 1-3 were initially established within Økonomistyrelsen, but are today handled by the government administration in ØkonomiServiceCentret (ØSC). Area 4, ITmaintenance and support, is today handled by the central government IT department, Statens IT.

One of the purposes of establishing ØSC was to increase efficiency as an effect of centralizing tasks combined with an expectation of the employees getting higher mobility.

Those accountants, who were already working with Navision Stat, were transferred from each individual government agency to the governmental administration. The specific databases and all included customizations were also transferred to the central administration. This meant initially that the mobility of the employees, process improvements and consolidation of the solution into one, was limited at the time of transfer to the ØSC.

On the positive side, 50% of the customers collocated to the buildings where development and maintenance of Navision Stat takes place. This provided a unique opportunity to establish an agile work collaboration between users, consultants, and software developers. In other words, the establishment of ØSC ended up being of high importance and influenced strongly the current product strategy for Navision Stat.

Navision Stat product strategy 2014

To benefit the governmental agencies outside the ØSC, who still are allowed to do their own customization based on their requirements, and at the same time secure that all ØSC databases stay based on the same standardized codebase, the Navision Stat product strategy were adjusted accordingly. The strategy defines the overall development of Navision Stat and consists of the following underlying strategies:

General functionality D istribution ØSC Upgrades

Integrations Functionality specific domains Reporting The strategy for general functionality defines the framework for standardization and lay out the guidelines for the other strategies.

The latest up-to-date base version of Navision Stat consists of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV base product, including the required government customizations that are based on the following general rules:

1. Customizations must be avoided if at all possible. 2. If not, they must be implemented: o In the most generic way possible to make it reusable by as many customers as possible. o In the leanest possible way without interfering with the logic of o the underlying standard functionality. o In a way so that changes are perceived as native to the product. o In a way so they have the same look and feel as the standard o product. o In a way so that all changes are documented and traceable across code, requirement documents, tests, and end user documentation. 3. When customizations can be replaced by new functionality in the base product in a reliable and economically viable way, the customizations are eliminated and replaced with standard functionality. 4. Navision Stat is maintained continuously as a modern accounting system and upgraded to support the newest technical platform. This is based on an ongoing evaluation of new versions of the base product released by Microsoft.

The implementation of governmental customizations is derived by the following:

Government rules for accounting and auditing, where they differ from what applies to the private sector. New legislation where system support is a precondition or a main drive for implementing the laws. Customer-driven demand for extending the solution that is judged to be of common value for all customers. Considerations based on strategic choices such as:

• Process optimizations • Demanded increase of efficiency • Security optimizations to control logging and approval processes.

The distribution strategy defines which services and limitations the customers must adhere to, depending on whether they are an ØSC customer or not. is responsible be downloade Danish IT comp en is also resp vidual custome

Fig

  Fig. 1.hey created an ernight. By cop on calculator th ftware.

2.

  Since then all 250 private agencies within the Ministry of Education decided to migrate anyway to Navision Stat in 2007. The current Navision Stat solution is based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 SP1 Update II, representing 473 active licenses that cover 417 government agencies and 388 databases in production, where each database typically contains two companies, with different charts of accounts. Most recently, in January 2014, the University of Copenhagen with 9000 employees and 400 concurrent Navision Stat users replaced an Oracle solution with Navision Stat.

Fig

  Fig

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  Fig. 6. ØSC mo

Only the large governmental offices with SAP installation such as Statens Serum Institut, Vejdirektoratet and Bane Danmark, are today exempt from using Navision Stat.


Karl Ib

cand. merc. Roed Sørensen
email: roedsorensen@ddf.dk

Online Infrastructure in Supply Chain for Hardware Shops A solution for 260 hardware and DIY stores based upon DATEX (X.21)

This article describes how the Scandinavian network communication system DATEX was used to build an online infrastructure in a retail chain of privately owned hardware shops and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) centers. The solution gave the staff in the shops the possibility to use EDP as early as in 1983. The Internet did not exist at the time. EDP was not part of the daily work in the shop and was for most employees something unknown that took place at the headquarters The DATEX solution made it possible for shop assistants to do online order entry which gave the store employees knowledge of EDP. Delivery time became available to customers, when an item was sold out. Price calculations were available online, and the distribution center got an online communication system to all the shops. End users were involved in the development process already from the beginning, one of the main reasons for the success. Companies in the hardware and Do-It-Yourself businesses merged during the 1980s.Communicationssystem played an important role when decision about the administrative solution was taken. The solution has been developed much through the years and is still being used. The Internet is the current communication system and the application programs are based on a web platform.

Introduction

In the 1980s DIFA was a chain of 260 independent privately owned hardware shops and Do-It-Yourself centers. The yearly revenue in the shops varied between 2 and 50 million Danish kr. Owners of one or more shops each had one share in the distribution center for all the shops.

The management and the board went on a business trip to US in 1982 where they visited a business connexion -Home Hardware. The hardware business worked on developing a new order switching system. Hardware shops and DIY centers transmitted orders batchwise to an EDP system that distributed the orders to connected vendors of hardware and building materials. The US visit was a big inspiration for the management and resulted in bigger EDP investments at DIFA. Rationalization and merge of retail chains was expected, and the management and the board developed a strategy to bring the members (shareholders) closer together. They wanted to build a data forum where DIFA differed from others in the business.

The main task of a retail chain is to establish contracts, prepare marketing materials and deliver goods to the stores. All purchase chains could do this and the bigger stores had the resources to do the work even by themselves, which was one of the major challenges in the chain.

DIFA should therefore be able to offer something that was not technically and economically feasible to smaller competitors and the bigger stores to develop.

An online communications network to shops and vendors were selected as the strategy.

Online Communication should make the Difference

The internal EDP systems at DIFA were efficient, and EDP was chosen to be the area, where DIFA should make a difference to the competitors. In 1982 EDP had not been implemented in retail shops. Invoicing and bookkeeping machines was the normal equipment.

DIFA was going to offer an online communication network, by which all the 260 shops were connected to the distribution center. The online network should provide the shops with new services to give extra customer services. Basically the online system should provide the following functions: ─ To give the shops an online real time order entry system. It was also the ambition to build order entry functionality directly to suppliers of building material, in a situation where products were not delivered from the central distribution center.

─ To give the shops information on the precise delivery time. If an item was temporarily sold out, it should be possible to inform the customer when to come and pick it up and the price of the item. ─ To give the shops an easier method of finding information on updated prices to be used in price calculation, printing price stickers and updating the prices for the invoicing systems.

X.21Communication Network

I was the EDP manager at DIFA, and I was convinced that the cost and functionality of future communication network was very essential to achieve greater success. We decided early in the process that individual shops should pay the actual network cost directly to the P&T based upon consumed resources. The shops had very different economic sizes and cost was important to them. The success of the system was very dependent on the cost for the shops.

One of the first sources of inspiration came from the book selling industry. In the 1970s a publishing house -Gyldendal -developed a communication network for the booksellers. The network was based upon a DATEL multipoint communication network with leased lines and concentrators placed around in Denmark. The solution was very complex with high fixed cost. To reduce cost to the booksellers it was also possible to dial up to the network. In that case it took minutes to connect, and the response time was poor. The data rate was as low as 1200 bits per second.

Dansk Dataforening hosted a conference in November 1982 where the new Nordic communication network DATEX (X.21) was described. The DATEX system was a circuit switching system, running full duplex with a data rate up to 9600 bits per second. Connection was very fast and in the order of milliseconds. Transmission cost was calculated only for the time when the line was connected. Line cost was the same regardless of geographical distance within Denmark. It was a very flexible system. The shops subscribed to DATEX modems with direct call functionality to the central EDP. All complexity concerning lines, multiplexers and concentrators was P&T's responsibility. The EDP department was only responsible for modems at the central site.

The application system was designed to minimize the connection time. Transmission cost was charged to the user only during the time the system was retrieving and transmitting data. The DIFA head office and distribution center were located in the Copenhagen area. The 260 shops were located all around Denmark, and telephone cost was a political issue due to geographical distances. The telephone cost doing ordering to DIFA from the western part of Denmark was higher than from the east part, and that was subject for discussions and the DIFA location. The DATEX price model with same price regardless the distances was a competitive advantage for the DIFA system.

DATEX was available only in Scandinavia and Germany and there were few suppliers of computer terminal equipment. DIFA had good relation with the Danish subsidiary of Burroughs Corporation. The company agreed to develop an interface box between a DATEX modem and a Burroughs Terminal. The function of the box was to send a signal to the modem to establish a connection, when a user pressed the transmit button on the computer terminal. The central computer disconnected the circuit, when print or a response to the terminal was delivered. The logical connection was open all day without cost and the transaction cost was about 0,05 Dkr. each. The shops could have more computer terminals and a printer connected to one DATEX modem. A comparison between a DATEX solution and DATEL showed that a shop could have up to 1000 transactions per day, before a leased line was more cost efficient and even without counting on the advantage, that DATEX was much more flexible and that the P&T did the invoicing. This external invoicing reduced a great deal of internal discussion about communication cost.

Order Entry System

The EDP department realized from the beginning that it would not be a success offering the old internal systems to the new external customer group. It was extremely important that the user interface was simple and tailored to the user(s), who had a lot of other tasks to do in the shop. They would be only occasional users of the new online system .All data in the system were created and maintained by internal users at DIFA head office and normally only used by at small number of employees The new system gave access to data to a much broader range of users, and the importance of updating data was evident but not always that popular. Employees at DIFA head officespecially in the buying department got extra job to do for benefit in other departments -at customers and in the EDP department. At that time it was new to the middle management in buying departments.

In 1980s Index sequential was the normal access method to a data file. When a user is looking for an item in the database system correctly spelling of the name is Selected product ranges were available only for certain customer groups and filtration systems were developed, so a store could only see and order the products which were available for just that store and to the individually agreed price.

The order entry system controlled the entire order books. Christmas gifts, e.g., were ordered midsummer and delivered to the shops several months later. Invoices were archived in the system and it was easy to find invoices concerning earlier deliveries and their prices. By using this system the shops could get better estimates of future deliveries, which was not an easy task, when no purchase system was implemented even in bigger DIY centers.

TUN Product Database

The system also contained an industry database of 100,000 building materials, numbers, names and prices from 500 suppliers. The database was updated weekly. The stores got electronic mail with information when a supplier had updated the products. With a single keystroke a DIY store could print their own price lists or price tags with individually calculated and rounded retail priceswhich previously was often neglected or postponed "until we have the time."

TUN -Timber trades Union-are the trade association for the building centers. The members are DIY centers across Denmark and suppliers of building products. The membership gives the possibility for the suppliers to market products in a common product database and gives the DIY centers the right to access the database. Fig. 3. TUN product database is the fundament of the data structure in the DIY business.

The system's ordering function for different suppliers was never a success. The suppliers were very different and their order and pricing systems were developed only for internal use. It was not constructed for external use, and it was not possible to develop a standard system which could address all the different business needs and still being easy to use. There was also a significant resistance in the sales department at the suppliers. The sales staff was also afraid to lose contact with the stores on a daily basis. Their salary depended on orders taken.

User Involvement in Development

The Board was very dedicated to the vision and helped to identify five test stores that were involved in the development phase already from the beginning. Test installations were selected geographical nationwide: two from hardware shops and three from DIY centers. The selected test stores were highly regarded within the industry. In the test stores designated test users with good product knowledge were pointed out. Ideas and prototypes were tested with test users during the development phase. The development took only ½ year -starting in November 1982and the system was in operation in April 1983.

System Release 1983

The announcement took place in March 1983, and the installation of test users was carried out in April 1983. Installation of other users started August 1983.

I was the IT manager at DIFA in the period 1979 -1989, responsible for project management, development, and deployment of the new online solution.

The project was kept secret until 7 March 1983, when there was general meeting in DABYFA -a DIFA subsidiary known as HANDY. All the building material suppliers were invited to a meeting after the general meeting. It was the first time that DIFA arranged a meeting where all the suppliers were gathered with all their customers in the chain.

The only item on the agenda was the presentation of DIFA Terminal System (DTS). I had prepared a live demonstration where the system was showcased with a large screen projector to an audience of 200, and I still remember the thrill in the room as the system appeared on the large screen.

Large screen projectors at this time were not so good, and the room had to be almost dark -but the effect was even greater when the free text search "blue nails" resulted in all the products, where the words nail and blue was found in the name.

Prices of products contained the buying price and suggested retail price calculated individually with consumer-friendly rounded prices. The user could just type a number in front of a product number, and then the product was ordered.

The large screen was new for most people. The free text search was brand new. The audience had not seen such a user-friendly system before. It was never seen before and not on a large screen.

DTS require a product database with all building materials from different suppliers. The database was under construction within the industry. But the enthusiasm at the building material suppliers was not strong and it was difficult to maintain the discipline in submitting updated product information. But a live online demonstration of the suppliers' products to their customers -the directors of DIY centers -had an amazing effect. They could all see the idea and the future use of the database. DIFA contributed a lot to the realization of the TUN Product database.

This system is still being used today (2014). The only difference is that prices are no longer printed on paper, but downloaded onto local invoicing or cash register systems. The database contains 500,000 updated product data and is the nerve in the supply chain in the DIY industry. Building a product database has subsequently happened in Norway, using the model from Denmark.

Test Installations

The system was installed in five test shops a month after release. Test users have played a very important role. One of the key factors was where the equipment had been placed. Accounting and invoicing machines were always placed inside the office far away from the customers. But this equipment should be placed in the store, not by the cash register, but as close as possible to the customers, so that the staff could use the system in a customer expedition. The shops liked to demonstrate the system to customers, and the employees were very interested in using it. The staff got an easy way to get access to knowledge of EDP. It was now something that could be used and not just something that took place in the office.

DTS solution was very easy to use without any prior efforts with data entry and related disciplines.

Applications were used by the shops assistants and often close to customers. Not all information was meant for customers in the shop -sales margin etc. It was necessary to have various screen pages depending on whether the terminal was used together with a customer..

In the retail business everything has to be fast and simple. Time is not available for logons and flicking through several menus on a screen terminal. Users log on once a day and the central system kept the session running all the day.

The "stupid display terminals" had multiple logical pages, and the systems was modified in a way so that the user could work with more pages simultaneously, simi-larly to multiple windows in the PC world more than 10 years later.

Example.

Page 1: relevant to customer Page 2: only for internal use The user could with one keystroke switch between pages and applications. DIFA's EDP department was organized in a consultant, operation, and development department.

Programmers and consultants were involved in the first test installations. It was very encouraging for the programmers to see, how their solution was received in the shops. They have gradually become much more positive to accept and implement changes.

The consultant department sold systems, managed the installations of equipment, and supplied hotline and support to the shops. Class courses were not given, but the necessary instruction was given in connection with the installation. All the consultants were recruited from the retail sector which had a very import positive influence.

The DTS solution was widely distributed in the hardware-and DIY industry. Several mergers of chains happened in the retail industry, and there were about 500 installations in the late 90s. One of the success factors was system optimization and easy terminal access from the beginning. Computer terminals were placed in the store, and when a customer requested for a product not available in the store, it was easy for the staff to find information on the product -when it would be available and at what price. It was very professional at the time and increased the sale. The staff was very happy with the system even if some older shop owners did not want the staff "to watch Television" during work hours.

Mergers

IMERCO was another big player in the hardware business. IMERCO had also invested in online systems. They had chosen Tele data. The concept was a Videotext service (a kind of interactive television).The user connected Tele data via a modem, keyboard and a Television monitor. The system was inspired by the French Minitel.

When IMERCO and DIFA merged in 1989, it was the DIFA EDP technology and architecture which was chosen as the continuing solution. The reason was that the DIFA DTS was much faster than Tele Data. DIFA solution included many functions for the DIY centers, and this played an important role in the decision. Tele Data was never a success and the technology was shut down in 1997. The Videotext service is still used as Teletext by many Television channels.

In the 1990's the DIY chain HANDY was merged with Danish Interpares. DENDEK became also part of the group of the independent DIY stores in 2000's. They got the new name XL-BYG which is also marketed in Norway and Sweden Danish Interpares consisted of the biggest DIY centers Their EDP strategy was based on IBM technology with distributed system/36 and AS 400 computers. The central computer was an IBM mainframe with SNA and 3270 user interface. It was decided to use the DIFA applications. The systems in their head office (DITAS) could be accessed from the distributed network and the local computers.

A great effort and many resources were used to integrate the Burroughs user interface in a SNA 3270 environment. Print management through the complex network was especially very challenging! PC's were widely distributed in the 1990s, and the Burroughs computer screens were replaced by PC's with screen emulators .It seemed profitable to buy a PC and use it for bookkeeping and for screen emulation. But bookkeeping was normally going on in the back office by a bookkeeper. It was particularly inconvenient for the staff to use the equipment placed in the back office in a customer service situationjust as experienced 15 years earlier.

The economy was especially important to the smaller shops. These shops bought only one PC, despite our recommendation, and the PC was only used by the shop owner during the evenings for order entry.

The ISDN network started to be marketed in 1992. It had the same fast connection time as x.21. ISDN circuits consist of two logical circuits. The first can be used for phoning and the other for data transmission. X.21 modem was not necessary any more, and the shops saved subscription cost for a telephone line.

The original DIFA communication network was migrated from X.21 to ISDN in the late 90's.

Application Development

A wish list was a nice little application, which was used a lot in gift shops in connection with weddings, confirmations and birthdays. The shops advertised in catalogues and newspapers that bride and bridegroom could come to the gift-shops with a wish list. All the wishes were keyed in and they could tell the guests that they can go to any INSPIRATION shop in Denmark and find an updated wish list. The shops were responsible for updating the list when an item from the list was sold. The guests were able to get information about which gifts already were taken by other guests. A lot of double gifts and changes were prevented.

The system was very valuable to the shops, which had calculated that every new wish list created a sale of about 25.000 dkr. DIFA did not monitor the systems during the weekend, and experienced complains and emergency phone calls from the shops especially when the system wasn't working during weekends. The shops claimed to have lost sales for 25.000 dkr. The problems were caused by technical issues with the ISDN interface and the data communication controller. The terminal could not get in contact with the mainframe and the communication line had to be reset.

Internet became available in the later 1990s, and the web applications were developed using the TCP/IP network protocol. The order entry system was the first which was converted to the web, and gradually more functions were added to the system. The web shop is still used B2B (business to business) by F&H who supplies products to hardware stores in Norway and Sweden. F&H is one of the biggest suppliers of glass porcelain and kitchenware in Scandinavia.

The XL-BYG DIY chain still uses a heavily expanded web version of the original DTS version with access to the TUN product database. XL-BYG produces weekly advertising brochures which are distributed to all households .All information about products such as description, prices and pictures in these brochures is available and updated in the system This system informs the stores about the products in the advertising, and the DIY stores do their ordering through a web system based on a Microsoft enterprise platform. Prices and bar codes to the cash register are also delivered by the system.

The Internet was the communication network from 2002

Summary

In the 1980s DIFA was a chain center for 260 independent hardware stores and DIY centers. Management wanted to bring the members closer together in a data forum and give the members up to date information on products, prices and distribution in order to improve their customer service.

The internet was not available at the time but the Scandinavian Datex system (X.21) was just released in 1982 The system offers connection time in milliseconds, high transmission rate and the charge was the same as standard landline chargebut only charged when connection was established. The P&T was responsible for establishing and operating the network. X.21 system was Scandinavian, and terminal equipment available to be connected was very limited. In cooperation with the machine supplier Burroughs Data Systems a box was developed to interface one or more Burroughs terminals to a X.21 modem.

The applications were order entry systems, price lookup and price calculations. DIFA sys- tems were extended with modules and functionality such as free text search like in web shop systems that became widely available in 2000 and beyond.

Approximately 500 businesses across the hardware and DIY industry used the system. One of the major success factors was customization to the businesses needs and terminals made available onside in the shops. The system was a huge success amongst the staff. The introduction of this new system in the early eighties exposed the retail staff to technology, which otherwise was something that was only available to the head office and administration staff.

The system also contained a database with 100,000 building materials numbers, names and prices from 500 suppliers. Businesses received electronic mail weekly with information about the suppliers and what products they had updated.

The system put pressure on suppliers to ensure that product prices and availability was updated on a continuous basis. The system is still used today. The only difference is that the prices are being downloaded into the local IT / invoicing systems.

The outlined system has inspired supply chains and purchasing groups in the rest of Scandinavia -for example Jernia in Norway and Sweden

The system's concept is still used in 2014 for example in XL-BYG and some hardware stores -implemented via the Internet and based on the Microsoft platform with browser-based web shop baskets.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. DATEX network with computer screens, special X.21 box, modems and central Burroughs Computer In 1983

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Information is available online

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Internet is the current communication structure.


The Start of a New Age for an Old Industry Mogens Knudsen M.Sc.

Former Chief Engineer

Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark mogens@mokn.dk

Abstract. The background for this history is the comprehensive renewal of concepts and solutions in connection with the rebuilding of Burmeister & Wain's shipyard at Refshaleøen in Copenhagen 1957-61. The project was started before access to digital computers was normal, but the parallel development of the first Danish computer DASK added new possibilities for planning and control of a more complex, but consistent production flow. The basis for this paper is the author's experience and personal files from participation in the project.

The old Shipyard

Burmeister&Wain has roots back to 1843 as engine-and shipbuilders in the port of Copenhagen. In 1872 some existing smaller shipyards were replaced by a shipyard on reclaimed land at Refshaleøen to the north of the Naval Dockyard. The production facilities included 3 building berths, a repair dock and all necessary workshops. During the first World War 1914-18 the building capacity was increased by 2 building berths and 1929 by further one.

The procedures were based on that time's facilities and handicraft, which in principal remained unchanged for a very long period. At the end of World W II in 1945 the production facilities were marked from years of stagnation and breaking-down and the maritime market demanded replacement of lost tonnage and bigger ships.

The technology during the fifties was influenced by transfer from riveting to welding, requiring new welding shops and bigger crane capacity, but also by the impact of the Marshall Help offering financial support and new ways of thinking within industrial engineering.

2

The Challenges

The period up to 1960 was characterized by progress, but also by some new challenges coming from the shipping market and the growing competition, especially from Japan. The market demanded increasing ship sizes, e.g. oil tankers up to 80.000 dwt. The challenge from Japan could be summarized in following issues: relatively few, three-dimensional units. The fabrication of the building blocks would take place in two closed assembly shops, of which shop no. 1 delivered subassemblies (up to 240 tons) to shop no. 2, placed in line with the building dock. Shop no. 2 and the building dock were covered by two common Goliath cranes for handling of up to 600 tons blocks. Input to the assembly halls came from specialised shops, each being equipped for production of technologically similar structures e.g. plane panels, curved panels, web frames etc.

• Th nan • Th que • Lab • Les vol
The building dock, assembly shops and adjacent buffer areas were placed on reclaimed land, which made it possible to run the production in the old shops simultaneously with the construction work. The basic lay-out, budget and project schedule were approved by the board early 1958 with an estimated date for start of operation July 1960. The construction works [START_REF] Knudsen | Modern Shipyard Development[END_REF] lasted 2½ years, so actual start of operation was three months late.

Simulation of New Production Flow

The design of the total lay-out including workstations, buffer areas and transport facilities was based upon manual simulation of complete production flows for a building program with a mix of different types of ships. For each type of ship structural design-drawings was used as basis for breakdown of the steel hull into main blocks and the main blocks into components, the components into subcomponents etc.

The block structures for each main block were visualized by assembly charts (hierarchical networks) with branches and nodes, where a node represents the start of an assembly process and a branch the processing of an ingoing component. See figure 5. Each of these processes was described by identification number, reference to workstation, assembly steps in the station, estimated lead time and number of man hours as basis for manual planning and calculation of the total need for shop area, man hours and crane lifts over time and as a basis for final evaluation of the need for shop areas, buffer areas, crane capacity and manning per shop.

The starting point for establishment of a new building program was the build-up of the hulls in the building dock, with estimated dates for delivery of each block and backward planning of main blocks, components and sub components etc.

The experience from this exercise was of great importance for the coming development and design of planning by computer.

Introduction of Digital Technology

The production technology had to be transformed from an old, decentralized system, based upon manual traditions, to a coherent process of production flows from various supply centres through different levels of assembly to a central bottle neck. It required new demands on technical coordination, time planning, presenting of work drawings and on the timely registration of use of resources and work progress. To achieve the planning-and registration task manually seemed to be impossible according to the experience gathered from the simulation exercises.

At the same time when the new shipyard concept was formulated, the first computers were introduced in some Danish companies and The Danish Academy of Technical Science had started the historic project for development and building of the first Danish computer 'DASK' [5] with inspiration from the Swedish computer 'BESK'. The project team, established as 'Regnecentralen', was very active in informing about the new possibilities, creating a lot of interest and inspiration. Part of their costs was covered by contributions from companies and institutions with commitment from RC to supply program assistance and computer time for a defined task, corresponding to the contribution, This opportunity was fully utilized by B&W by agreement on the development of a set of programs which, based on B&W's system specifications, should solve the needs for planning of the hull production for a complete building program.

This was quite a challenge at that time due to the big amount of data compared with the computer capacity, the needs for developing special techniques for sorting, for limitation of runtimes and for definition of algorithms for specific planning calculations. The programming language at that time was machine code, which later was replaced by Algol. It was an exciting learning period for pioneers, who with ingenuity set the standards for the future.

The planning technique [START_REF] Knudsen | Styring af Enkeltbygningsproduktion. Nordisk Industriell Årbok[END_REF] was based upon interactive planning of open networks (one per main block with defined finish date), backward planning of ingoing subassemblies on multiple levels according to the assembly diagram (Fig. 4), and calculation of start-and end-time and time for delivery to the buffer store for each subassembly. With starting point in these dates and parameters, recorded with the input, load per time period and shop is calculated and presented as curves showing need for man hours and shop/store area to be compared with the upper limit of capacity. A new sequence will for each shop calculate the need per day for 'moving' the actual subassemblies forward or backward in time in order to balance the load with the planned capacity and create a new time schedule. The result will normally lead to a new iteration with modified input.

Processing of a feasible building program required normally three times iterative running on DASK. Development of system specifications and computer programs took place 1960-1962 and the final program was implemented as basis for daily shipyard planning from January 1963.

At that time a complete planning of the hull production with three iterations occupied DASK continuously for 32 hours. When the B&W main office in 1966/67 acquired its own computer (CDC1606) the same runtime after reprogramming could be reduced to 3 hours. With the same planning concept as developed before IT became a normal tool, the computer program currently has been re-programmed and extended and has been in use all the following years.

Data Collection

With the improved possibilities for detailed and quick work planning it became clear that the existing ways of data collection and feedback not were sufficient, due to missing and uncertain data and the time needed for manual preparation of input to a new work program. Introduction of digital technology could solve these problems by a better timeliness, means to exclude false references and extension of recorded data with e.g. start-and end-time per person per job. Equipment for data collection existed already, e.g., Olivetti RP60.

Beyond the existing come-and go-registration at the gate, new stations for collection of person and job information were installed in all work shops.

The data collecting was done by means of punch cards, one representing the person, a second representing the actual job and a third special extra information plus automatic registration of time. The total output was printed on paper tape, in this early version of IT without online facilities, and sent to the computer centre for update of the administrative and planning systems. In this way planning and follow-up would be based on more reliable data that were just one day old.

Further Electronic Production Equipment

Stepwise assembly of the steel hull requires controlled accuracy on all steps to assure the quality of the final building block and its correct assembly with adjoining blocks.

It was obvious that the existing manual methods for marking-up of big plane panels, or even shell panels not would be sufficient accurate, so it was decided to look for an electronic solution. With assistance from The Danish Technical University a system was designed, based on overhead gantries running on tracks in each side of the shop carrying a carriage with a projector, which by electronic control could move to any point in the shop with high accuracy. The projector moved in a planned sequence from point to point indicated by a light cross and marked manually.

This arrangement was abandoned after some years and replaced by automatic marking-up the plates during the cutting process on new acquired electronic cutting machines.

The End of the Era

Production in the new facilities started in 1960 when the shipyard had the maximum workforce ever corresponding to 3600 people. The first couple of years were marked by substantial start-up problems and extra costs, but the experience from this learning period became basis for the following year's success, especially with series building of bulk carriers.

The market conditions for shipbuilding were strongly affected by external factors like the Suez war 1956, the Oil crisis after 1972, and the competition from new shipyards in South Korea and China dominated more and more from the middle of the seventies.

The B&W shipyard had since the start together with the engine factory belonged to A/S Burmeister & Wain's Maskin-og Skibsbyggeri. Financial problems [START_REF] Lange | DASK -den første danskbyggede computer[END_REF] mainly caused by the shipyard and a power game between some leading Danish enterprices and individual persons, led to separation from the engine factory 1971. In 1980, after some stormy years, the engine factory (B&W Diesel A/S) was taken over by MAN (Maschinenfabriek Augsburg Nurnberg) and the shipyard was established as an independent company Burmeister & Wain's Skibsvaerft A/S. B&W's 150 years anniversary was celebrated 1993. The shipyard was then the last living part of the former glorious company, but only for a short while.1996 became a fatal year with stop of payments and subsequent liquidation. After 45 years activity in the new surroundings, delivery of 170 new-buildings and a number of other steel constructions the era finally was over, following the fate of most Danish shipyards. It should be added, that the realisation of the assets fully paid all creditors.

The ideas behind B&W's solutions and their realization have had big influence internationally as nationally.

Internationally: By the transfer of the new technology to shipyards in China, South Korea and other Asiatic countries. This contributed through their success to the decay of shipbuilding industry in our part of the world. This development was inevitable and in many cases assisted by persons with experience gained from the B&W project.

Nationally: By establishment of a comprehensive, country wide training program for the Danish industry fostered by The Danish Technical University and The Danish Association of Iron-and Metal Industry Employers (Sammenslutningen af Arbejdsgivere indenfor Jern-og Metalindustrien i Danmark). The purpose of the program was to support the growing awareness of the impact of information technology with practical examples and systematic understanding of methods and models for introduction of IT in production control, for a great deal based upon experience from the B&W project [START_REF] Produktionsstyring | Report from Sammenslutningen af Arbejdsgivere indenfor Jern-og Metalindustrien i Danmark[END_REF].

Fig. 2 .Fig

 2 Fig. 2. Buildi

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. The new Shipyard

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig.5. Assembly Chart


Jens Brammer Holte
email: brammer@paradis.dk

Time-sharing in Denmark in 1968

de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Background

During the years 1963-64 the first full-scale system for timeshared use was developed at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) offered time-shared computer time to many simultaneous users, who used the system from Teletype terminals accessing the computer via modems and ordinary telephone lines. The users at the Dartmouth campus could use Basic, Fortran and Algol as programming languages.

In 1965 General Electric (GE) introduced it as a commercial data-service working from Phoenix in Arizona where GE's computer department was located. In the following years GE opened the time-sharing service in many larger cities in the US, and in this period the author worked for GE, first in Phoenix and from 1966-68 as a senior consultant in New York, where he became leader of the Customer Services Group, that marketed the time-sharing service and supported the users. Among the users were large consulting engineering firms and research centers in New York and New Jersey.

In 1968 a group from ØK Data, headed by the managing director Ole Stangegaard, was in New York and experienced GE's time-sharing system. Shortly after that the author joined ØK Data in Copenhagen and was appointed the leader of a new DelData department. This department should introduce the GE-system in Denmark, negotiate a license agreement with GE and start a similar time-sharing service, which in Denmark was named "DelData".

Strategy for Data Communication in ØK Data

ØK had global business activities, and as a subsidiary of EAC (East Asiatic Company) ØK Data adopted the motto of EAC's founder H. N. Andersen: "The earth is not too great to be spanned by human thinking". Some of the reasons behind establishing ØK Data in 1966 as a separate, wholly-owned company in the EAC concern were:

• Ole Stangegaard had, while he worked at Datacentralen, been involved in maintaining a business-model that monopolized the data-processing for all institutions under the Government or supported by the Government. This led to many frustrations because in the mid 1960s the requests for dataprocessing were few. A similar difficult situation could easily arise if the Data section had been a department of EAC. • In the 1960s IBM were heavily dominant in marketing computers in Denmark, and Ole Stangegaard wanted the EAC-based company to support a more open vendor supply.

• A new IT-company created to support EAC, which had very diversified and global activities, should in the long run be able to develop and support coming needs for IT solutions anywhere in the Danish society. Based on these reasons and also more general discussions with EAC's management the mission for the future work in ØK Data was formulated in four points:

1. More than 50% of the sales in ØK Data shall -in the long run -come from IT services and activities outside the EAC concern. 2. Prices and services shall be the same for customers within and outside the concern. 3. Price rates for computer usage and support services shall be based on market demands. 4. ØK Data must -as soon as possible after business start in 1967 -deliver a positive income. The creation of ØK Data led quickly to the start of some data-communication activities: Some EAC departments were connected point-to-point on leased lines to the central IBM computer, using well-known technology to give access to centrally stored data and computations.

EAC alread used TexCom, a Telex-based 'store and forward' message switching. The EAC centers in Hongkong and Singapore specified together with ØK Data an improved message switching system, that was developed and implemented by Regnecentralen A/S in Denmark. The system was to be used for all telex correspondence but also for many data on container movements, container ships and harbours.

ØK Data started a project to introduce a time-sharing system in Denmark, open for anybody. After signing a license agreement with GE on using GE's Computer Timesharing, the system was launched in August 1968 under the name DelData.

DelD