Jim writes:

> > I have a request from our Quality Assurance Manager to locate some SPC
>  > software that runs on the HP3000.  Is there any such animal?
>
>  To clarify things:  We are looking for some type of SPC software, which is
>  not a brand name.  SPC stands for Statistical Process Control.

Statistical Process Control is just another name for report writing, but
don't just say "Just". This is where the power -- and the joy -- of all of
the data you've stored in your databases comes into play -- and can make all
of the difference in the way that your organization uses your HP3000.

There is a new TV crime drama on CBS this Fall starring Craig T. Nelson,
called "The District," that's played out three episodes so far. I've been
meaning to write to this list about this show for sometime. Indeed, I think
it should be mandatory viewing.

In the storyline, Nelson was hired as the new chief of police for the
District of Columbia, the most crime-ridden area in the United States. He was
hired because he gets things done. He has previously demonstrated his
capacity to turn the situation around in several other cities -- and he was
hired to do the same for the District of Columbia, using his very special
technique  -- (wait for it!) -- : data mining (no joke), which is also just
another term for report writing.

Nelson, as soon as he arrives at a new command, establishes a new internal
organization called COMPSTAT, meaning "comparative statistics," and the bad
guys immediately begin to fall, simply because he can isolate them and root
them out. Nelson is a firm believer in the Sielerian philosophy of "what you
don't measure only gets worse." He demands that everything be measured -- and
everything constantly be compared.

This is precisely the same message that every one of our customers has heard
me preach for the last 15 years. The most important thing that any
organization needs to know are what's making them money and what's costing
them money, and who their customers are and what goods and services they're
using and what's going unused.

All of this information is already in your databases. It doesn't matter
whether your databases were initially just set up for accounting purposes, or
whether they're there for manufacturing reasons. There's an enormous amount
of cost control information in every manufacturing database, just as there's
an enormous amount of demographic and marketing information in every
financial database. Most often, this information just goes unused -- and
that's the real crime -- because this information, once properly extracted
has the capacity to restructure the way your company operates and profits.

Our small customers, where the CEO or President is often the system manager
of the HP3000, and where no "data processing" staff actually exists on site,
virtually always know this instinctively -- and they tend to wring every drop
of information out of their databases. They develop their own COMPSTAT
division, even if it's only just themself. I have grown to love these people.
They're imaginative and extraordinarily powerful. And I see Craig T. Nelson
in every one of them.

Unfortunately, as our customers get larger and larger, the tasks of
individuals associated with the HP3000 become more and more task-partitioned
and more and more isolated from the business reasons for having the computer.
If you're using your HP3000 only to print statements, payroll checks and the
like -- which are all critical processes -- you're not beginning to use the
machine to its full capacity.

The tools are readily available on the HP3000 (and are relatively
inexpensive) for everyone on this list to create a COMPSTAT committee of
their own, to impose statistical process controls on every aspect of your
individual businesses. Let me say at the outset that if you become actively
involved in this process, you're going to find this the most rewarding aspect
of operating an HP3000. It's where every dime that has been paid for
hardware, software, networking and personnel finally begins to pay off.

Ultimately, all computers are going to become simple and reliable, in the
same way cars have become. At that time, a herd of mechanics hovering around
the machine will no longer be necessary. And at that time, COMPSTAT is going
to become what people will come to implicitly mean by "data processing." The
HP3000 allows you to do this at least as well -- and better than most --
other commercial dataprocessing engines right now. All it requires is asking
the right questions. And writing the right reports.

Wirt Atmar