------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews The Biweekly Newsletter For UniForum Members ------------------------------------------------------------ Issue Date: December 14, 1994 Volume VIII, Number 21 ------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews is written and published by UniForum's publications department. For information on articles in this issue or to contribute news to future issues, contact Don Dugdale at don@uniforum.org or (408) 986-8840, ext. 29, or (800) 255-5620 ext. 29. Copyright 1994 by UniForum. All rights reserved. UNIX is a registered trademark, licensed exclusively by X/Open Co., Ltd. UniForum is a trademark of UniForum. Printed in USA. UniNews (ISSN 1069-0395) is published biweekly for $12 per year (membership dues) by UniForum, 2901 Tasman Dr., Suite 205, Santa Clara, CA 95054. Except for individual use by member subscribers, no portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of UniForum. UniNews is presented in ASCII format. It is also available in PostScript by accessing the UniForum World Wide Web Server. Point your WWW client to http://www.uniforum.org. ------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents: o UniForum '95 Holds Full Slate for Applications Developers o Affiliate News o Members Get Reduced Fees o UniForum Open Awards **Ad** o We've Put Some Great Careers Into Motion-COMPAQ **Ad** o Personality Profile: The Travels of Arun Taneja o Recruitment and Positions Wanted o ANALYZE your opportunities ... **Ad** o Tell Colleagues About UniForum Membership o UniForum Member Benefits ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum '95 Holds Full Slate for Applications Developers --------------------------------------------------------- Lively sessions planned on three-tiered architectures, portability Application developers will be presented with a full slate of sessions tailored to their interests at UniForum '95, scheduled for Mar. 12-16 in Dallas, Texas. The following are key sessions in the track titled "Developing Applications for Open Systems": o "Designing for Modular Portability" will be chaired by Heinz Lycklama, president of Open Systems Technology Associates, and include three end-user panelists. "Initially I labeled the panel 'Using second generation client/server tools to develop applications for the enterprise," Lycklama says. "What we want to do is look at experiences users have had with these second generation client/server tools." He defines second-generation as a three-tiered solution, consisting of the host, typically a mainframe, an application server in the middle, and PCs on the users' desks. "With the first generation, all you had to do is partition the application between the PC and the mainframe, or between the PC and the application server. Now you have to partition the application into three parts, so that's a bigger challenge." There are a lot of companies today providing tools for first-generation client/server solutions, and there are about half a dozen companies offering solutions in the second-generation space, Lycklama says. "One of the things this panel is going to address is, of those users using these advanced tools, what kind of experiences have they run into, what kind of problems have they encountered, what solution were they trying to build, and why did they look for these tools?" Products from Cognos, Forte, Dynasty, Visix, and Seer will be examined. The one end-user panelist confirmed for the session is David Doucette, a project manager with Multitasking Systems, who is using Cognos tools. o "Portability Between UNIX and Win32" will be chaired by Pat Higbee, president of DataFocus. Win32 is the application programming interface (API) for Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows95 operating systems. "Our session is going to handle several issues regarding portability and interoperability between UNIX and Windows NT," Higbee says. DataFocus produces the Nutcracker family of tools that allow developers to move UNIX applications to Win32. Panel member Randall Howard, president of Mortice Kern Systems and a director of UniForum, will talk about the tools and utilities that UNIX developers are used to. "Between the APIs and the tools and utilities, that's a significant portion of what people need to be portable," Higbee says. A speaker from Digital Equipment Corp., Peter Lieberwirth, will address the X Window System components. "Digital has an X server and an X toolkit on the market," Higbee says. "He'll bring out the X aspects and Motif aspects to allow those applications to be both portable and interoperable, because an X server running on NT allows people to run applications that are running on UNIX but display them on their Windows workstations. Finally, George Stevenson, from Beame & Whiteside Software will speak on an NFS product that provides NFS compatibility and utilities like a Telnet server that allow additional interoperability. "When you put all the panel members together, it presents a very comprehensive solution for UNIX developers to be productive on the Windows NT environment," Higbee says. o "Transaction-Based Application Development" will be chaired by Jim Johnson, chairman and founder of The Standish Group International. Johnson says, "It's going to be a discussion and debate on the merits of developing for a three-tiered architecture-what are the pros and cons, and how should you go about developing mission-critical transaction applications on client/server technology?" The subtopics will include scalability, ease of development, availability, and possible conflicts with certain other technologies. Reasons for project failure will also be discussed, including ways of avoiding others' mistakes. "I'm trying to make it lively," Johnson says. He'll use his paper Client/Server Goes Business-Critical as a partial basis for the session. "I want to get into some interesting discussions about what the real-life experiences have been. I want to ask some probing questions; some that panel members haven't thought about and that some of them might have a hard time answering. I want them to sweat a little bit. The most important thing is that people who come to the session get something out of it." Those who will benefit most from the session include "anyone who's developing mission-critical applications, and developing applications where they need availability, robustness, integrity, and security-the kind of things you would put on a system that is running a business," Johnson says. "The technical person may get something out of it, but the focus will be more philosophy, design, and architecture." Panel members will include Jeff Eppinger, director of project management with Transarc; Tony Storey, chief technology officer with IBM; Scott Silk, vice president of worldwide marketing for Unisys; Dave Carnese, chief scientist at Independent Technology; and Randy Snerik, a product development manager with AT&T. Other sessions in the track include: o "Developing for Distributed Systems Management," chaired by Chet Geschickter, director of research for Hurwitz Consulting Group; o "Integrating Client/Server Applications with Legacy Systems," chaired by Carol Realini, president and CEO of J. Frank Consulting; o "Object-Oriented Application Development," chaired by Adrian Bowles, managing director of Atelier Research; o "Integrated Application Development Environments," and "Scaling Open Applications Upward," both chaired by Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz Consulting Group; and o "UNIX, Mac, and Windows Cross-Platform Development Tools," chaired by Rebel Brown, president of Cognoscenti, Inc. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Affiliate News -------------- Dallas-Fort Worth Provides Home for Texas UNIX Users *** Plans special meeting at UniForum '95 in Dallas The Dallas-Fort Worth UNIX Users Group (DFWUUG) has been a center of open systems activity in Texas for about 12 years, according to President Evan Brown, who is manager of workstation services for the switching products division of Digital Switch Communications. "Our primary focus is a monthly meeting to get people together and involved with the local UNIX community," Brown says. "We assist people with job placement. We try to bring technical forums out before the people so they can be exposed to some of the newer technologies." Membership varies between 100 and 200, each of whom receives a monthly newsletter in either electronic form or hard copy. Currently distribution is electronic only. "We've tried to encourage people to get connected to e-mail," Brown says. DFWUUG plans to hold a special meeting in conjunction with UniForum '95 in Dallas March 12-16, but a date and time have not been set. "That will give people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who have never attended our meetings a chance to meet us, find out who we are and what we're doing," Brown says. The regular meetings are held at the Hewlett-Packard facility in Las Colinas on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. "We've got people who will travel consistently 75 to 100 miles to come to the meeting," Brown reports. "We have a guest speaker come in for about a one-hour main presentation following introductions and business. Then we do some socializing afterwards." Recent presentations include ones by Convex, Cray Research, and SoftTool. Job placement is especially popular, Brown reports. "Recruiters who attend our meetings will come in with job position papers, and people who are looking for work will have a chance to network with a number of recruiters and find out exactly what positions are available. When we take a break after the meeting, it's a chance for these people to get together. We also try to post in our newsletter any openings we are aware of." DFWUUG sponsored a special job placement meeting two years ago when the area was hard-hit by semiconductor and telecommunications company layoffs. The function was attended by 200-300 people. Brown uses contacts with UNIX user groups in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston to keep others aware of the DFWUUG activities, and also publishes information in local technology magazines. For more information on DFWUUG, contact Evan Brown at (214) 519-2121 or send e-mail to evbrown@dsccc.com. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Members Get Reduced Fees ------------------------ Members of UniForum and Northern California's Software Entrepreneurs' Forum can now get discounts on membership in the other organization. SEF members may join UniForum at a $25 savings, $100 for the first year. UniForum members may join SEF at a $30 reduction, $105 for the first year. These discounts are an example of the joint-membership advantages available to all UniForum affiliates. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum Open Awards **Ad** --------------------------- You've Designed, Developed, and Managed Custom Solutions for Open Systems Environments. Now Get The Glory You Deserve! If you're an information architect dedicated to interoperability and open systems computing, your day has come. Announcing The First Annual UniForum Open Awards Sponsored by UniForum Association and Open Systems Today. Here's the opportunity to show the world your innovative achievements - and to win acclaim and glory. If you want a chance to be among the honored, call for your official entry kit today. Deadline is January 6, 1995. Call 800.758.1452 for your UniForum Open Awards Entry Kit! The UniForum Open Awards Entry Kit contains all details and rules for the contest. Contest is void where prohibited by law, no purchase necessary. UniForum is a registered trademark of UniForum. The International Association of Open Systems Professionals. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ We've Put Some Great Careers Into Motion-COMPAQ **Ad** ------------------------------------------------------ Yours Could Be Next GREAT IDEAS AT WORK Recently, we reported another record-breaking quarter. Just another reminder why some analysts call Compaq the best-positioned computer company in the world and why Computerworld has listed us as one of the top 10 companies for IM Professionals. Our family of successful computer productsÐhardware and software, desktop PCs, servers and portablesÐhas now been strengthened even more by a whole new class of powerful servers, astounding multimedia home PCs and the next generation of full-featured notebooks. As our products continue to speed into the market, the opportunity for great peopleÐand great ideasÐcontinues to grow. SAP training will be provided for some of the positions listed. *** Senior Systems Analyst In this high profile position, you will support the Cost Accounting organization. Initial responsibilities include providing technical day-to-day support interfacing with software vendors, conducting interviews, mapping process flows, designing and implementing process changes, as well as presenting to management. The ideal candidate should have the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the user community, a BSCS, along with 5-8 years' experience in information systems including 2-4 years in financial systems. Equally important, are the ability to multi-task concurrent assignments, project management experience and excellent verbal/written communication skills. PowerBuilder and Sybase RDBMS required. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SSA, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Analyst Utilizing your 4 years' experience in information systems including 1 year in financials, you will participate in system design, system integration testing, user training and implementation as this application is rolled out to organizations throughout Compaq. Post implementation responsibilities include accountability for providing superior levels of support, coordinating with users in various organizations, troubleshooting problems, designing enhancements, programming in GUI/4GL environments, as well as providing on-call support coverage. A BA/BS in Accounting, Finance or Computer Science or equivalent; the ability to multi-task concurrent assignments; project lead and fixed asset experience; and excellent verbal/written communication skills are essential. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA3, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Analyst We're seeking a technically astute analyst to assist in providing a tested and integrated worldwide desktop system software environment. Your challenges include participating in the definitions of standard desktop configurations and being an integral part of a test team assigned to deploy Windows 95. Investigating and testing new components for the standard desktop, as well as participating in combining components into an integrated desktop configuration are also involved. To qualify, you should possess a BS/MS in Computer Science or Information Systems coupled with 3-5 years' administration desktop operating systems. A working knowledge and understanding of DOS, Windows, TCP/IP, and SQL*Net; the demonstrated ability to meet project deadlines and experience with project management; and strong verbal/written communication skills would be paramount to your success. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA3, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Analyst Our IM Office Application Systems has an immediate opening for a Systems Analyst supporting the Desktop Applications area. This position will encompass providing technical support for a variety of applications within this area including calendaring, imaging, document management, employee data directory, message enabled applications and Microsoft Office. Other responsibilities include providing end-user support, troubleshooting problems, evaluating productivity packages and providing on-call support coverage. Key to your qualification would be a BA/BS in Computer Science or Business; 4+ years' experience in information systems with 1 year in application development and 1+ years in support of desktop applications; as well as knowledge of LAN based systems administration. Excellent verbal/written communication skills, project lead experience and the ability to multi-task concurrent assignments are key attributes. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA3, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Analyst This opportunity involves providing technical support for the payroll/personnel and time and attendance systems as you participate in the selection of a new payroll system, as well as package implementation for North America. Also involved will be providing end-user support, troubleshooting problems, designing and implementing enhancements, as well as on-call support after the package has been implemented. The ideal candidate should have the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the user community, possess a BA/BS in Computer Science or Business and 4+ years' experience in information systems with 1-2 years in payroll systems. A working knowledge of payroll and/or personnel systems, COBOL, HP Turbo Image DBMS, and Cognos QUIZ, QTP and QUICK products is necessary. The ability to multi-task concurrent assignments, project lead experience and excellent verbal/written communication skills are necessary. Collier Jackson payroll experience a plus. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA2, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Administrator In this position, you will provide second-level Banyan Vines operating system problem diagnosis and technical support in our Network Management Center (NMC), as well as work with internal IM support groups and third party system/database vendors to diagnose, isolate and recover from problems detected in production servers. You will utilize your knowledge of installing NOS and O/S upgrades to production application servers and supporting infrastructure services as needed. Monitoring, recommending and implementing configuration changes to our Enterprise servers and applications; providing systems availability, performance and capacity reports for managed applications; in addition to developing standard operating procedures will also be among your responsibilities. The successful candidate should have an AS/BSCS, 2+ years' experience administering and supporting enterprise level relational database applications and servers coupled with experience administering systems or databases. Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a customer service oriented environment are key. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Administrator The primary focus of this position will be sustaining the availability of tools and applications which support our Information Services Operations Center and assisting in the implementation of new tools that play a key role in ensuring the availability of our enterprise computing environment. Key responsibilities include providing day-to-day support for tools and applications, proactively assessing the needs of the user base to recommend and implement enhancements to existing systems, as well as assisting with internal technical support, training and QA testing on implemented products and services. A BSCS, previous experience as a Systems Administrator dealing with client/server software systems or tools, a working knowledge of support requirements in a production systems environment and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously would be key to your success. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SA, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Supervisor, IM Services You will manage, recruit and direct a staff of 4-6 people responsible for providing second-level operational support of our enterprise communication and computing systems. Your primary group responsibilities include detecting and diagnosing performance problems, providing second-level technical support to our NMC console providers, as well as supporting the installation or reconfiguration of production computing systems and communication services. Establishing and maintaining goals and objectives for the group; developing and presenting management reports; participating on teams to plan, schedule and implement enhancements to our production computing systems, in addition to managing projects and participating on teams to develop global operating procedures will also be involved. A BS/MS in EE/CS or equivalent and 2 years' experience as a Technical Lead, Project Manager or Supervisor in a network control center are imperative. Demonstrated formal presentation skills, experience administering servers and 2 years of hands-on experience diagnosing systems and network problems are necessary to qualify. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SIM, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Manager We're seeking a highly motivated leader to manage a three-way team with geographic IM and user groups focused on customer activity. Establishing user requirements and developing product solutions which address specific user defined needs for remote and LAN-based users, managing and developing solutions, as well as providing product support will be among your responsibilities. Also involved is managing the maintenance of existing Lotus Notes, Oracle and PowerBuilder in addition to developing and supporting a staff of technically skilled individuals. You should possess a BS/MSCS, 5+ years' professional experience working in a technological environment and 2+ years' experience as the Manager, Project Lead or Team Lead of an application area. Dept. KRHH-UNI-1214-SM2, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Other IM Opportunities For other IM Opportunities, contact: Dept. AGSH-UNI-1214-OTH, Fax (800) 408-0419 *** Systems Analyst In this position, you will participate in the design, construction, testing and implementation of projects using a standardized methodology; support the implementation of factory floor data collection/manufacturing execution application; as well as perform quality assurance testing on new releases of application software. Configuring or modifying the shop floor applications, developing and recommending manufacturing process improvements and interfacing with manufacturing and production/engineering staff will also be among your responsibilities. A BA/BS in Information Management or Computer Science and 1 year experience in manufacturing applications are key attributes. Familiarity with SCO UNIX¨, TCP/IP, Windows, Oracle DB Version 7 and SQL is essential, as are strong verbal/written and interpersonal skills. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-SA, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Systems Analyst In this position, you will support users on daily operations, manage and control small to medium sized projects, work with users and project team to determine and visualize future requirements, as well as assess and program proposed system modifications based on new business requirements. A BA/BS in Computer Science, Information Management or related (or equivalent); 5+ years of experience in information systems development; as well as a strong knowledge of Windows, client/server environment, Lotus Notes development, Lotus VIP/ Visual Basic, RDBMS and OS/2 are imperative. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-SA, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Systems Analyst, Manufacturing Systems In this challenging position, you will coordinate project activities, make efficient use of internal and external resources, work closely with users to help them realize practical systems solutions to business problems, provide consistent and reliable support for existing systems, as well as ensure a proper level of integration is maintained between systems. Transitioning user requirements through design, programming, testing and implementation using a structured methodology will also be among your responsibilities. A BA/BS in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business or equivalent with at least 5+ years' experience in information systems and 3+ years with project leadership or management are necessary to qualify. Knowledge of Oracle, C++, Visual Basic and PowerBuilder is also essential. A strong ability to communicate well with users and analysts at all levels and an in-depth knowledge of manufacturing and sales operations are key attributes. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-MS, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Systems Analyst, Manufacturing Systems You will participate/coordinate the design, construction, testing and implementation of projects using the department endorsed methodology. Key responsibilities will also include providing support and stability for one or more of the Houston Service Operations systems; modifying and enhancing existing applications to meet the changing needs of our service operations environment; ensuring the integrity of our current systems and their ability to exchange data with upstream and downstream processes; as well as working with other IM support and applications groups to resolve systems issues as required. Also important is understanding the service business requirements and how they relate to service marketing aspects of the business and providing procedural and system solutions as applicable. A BA/BS in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business or equivalent and at least 2 years of information systems experience are imperative. The ability to communicate well with users and analysts is essential. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-MS, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Product Planning Manager In this senior level position, you will liaise closely with worldwide logistics staff and be responsible for planning systems in supply chain management, as well as support product development teams throughout the product launch cycle. Experience in competitive pricing, bill of materials, life cycle volume plans, sales plans and order systems, supply/demand forecasting and allocation a strong requirement. You should have 12-15 years in large corporate manufacturing operations planning, excellent management and communication skills, in addition to a strong working knowledge in a client/server environment. Your technical skill set should include SAP, UNIX and Microsoft NT. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-PPM, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Supervisor, IM Services In this position, you will manage, recruit and direct a staff of 4-6 people responsible for providing second-level operational support of our enterprise communication and computing systems. Your primary responsibilities will include detecting and diagnosing performance problems, as well as providing second-level technical support to our Enterprise Management Center, console operators and operational resources to support the installation or reconfiguration of production computing systems and communication services. You should have a BS/MS in EE/CS; 2 years' experience as a Technical Lead, Project Manager or Supervisor in a network control center; and demonstrated experience leading teams in the analysis and repair of operating system and network performance problems. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-SIM, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Communications Analyst Your responsibilities include assisting internal users with technical troubleshooting including identification, resolution, escalation, referral and follow-up with PC, network and applications issues. This includes Banyan and UNIX network services, applications, gateways, remote access, viruses, communications software, PC configuration help for DOS, Windows and memory. You will also provide first line support for client/server applications and high quality user support, escalation and follow-up of difficult priorities to other IM support groups and ensure timely problem resolution. To qualify, you should possess a BSCS/EE, 3 years' related experience with 1-2 years of telephone support and a strong working knowledge of network operating systems and Banyan. Excellent verbal/written communication skills would be key to your success. This position involves a 7 am-7 pm shift rotation. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-CA, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Network Administrator Your responsibilities will include assisting internal users with technical troubleshooting including identification, resolution, escalation, referral, and follow-up with PC, network and applications issues. This includes Banyan network services, applications, gateways, remote access, viruses, communication software, PC configuration help for DOS, Windows and memory, as well as first line support for client/server applications. You will also be responsible for representing the user, staffing the response center hotline, providing help, resolving request and problems and/or ensuring a coordinated effort with other IM support groups. The successful candidate should have a BA/BS preferably in Engineering Technology, Information Management or Computer Science, coupled with 2-6 years' related experience, strong working knowledge of network operating systems, and excellent analytical and verbal/written communications skills. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-NA, Fax (800) 408-0422 *** Systems Analyst - Transportations, Import/Export In this position, you will work directly with Transportation users to determine system requirements and justifications; manage the design, construction, testing and implementation of small to medium sized projects; as well as effectively communicate status, plans and issues to customers, peers and management. Ensuring the integrity of existing systems, troubleshooting problems, working with users and pursuing issues to resolution will also be among your responsibilities. To qualify, you should possess a BA/BS in Information Systems, Computer Science or Business with at least 5 years of systems experience. Equally important, is the ability to program on a variety of platforms and system environments, as well as communicate with users and analysts at all levels. Knowledge of U.S. customs import/export regulations is essential. SAP, Access, Oracle, UNIX, 4GL, TCP/IP experience is highly desirable. Dept. PEOH-UNI-1214-SA, Fax (800) 408-0422 Compaq offers competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits and an environment that supports creativity, open communication and team involvement. To find out more about joining the Compaq team, Fax your resume to the appropriate # listed, or send it, indicating Dept. of interest, to: Compaq Computer Corporation, MC 050510, P.O. Box 692000, Houston, TX 77269-2000. Please list Dept. code on your resume and envelope. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer m/f/d/v. All trademarks are registered to their respective companies. COMPAQ - ONE OF COMPUTERWORLD'S BEST PLACES TO WORK - 1994 End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Personality Profile: The Travels of Arun Taneja ----------------------------------------------- Name: Arun Taneja Age: 47 Place of Birth: Dehra Dun, India Position: Vice President of Marketing Axil Computer, Inc. Santa Clara, CA Time in Current Position: 1 month Years in the Industry: 21 Car He Drives: Mercedes 300SE (black) Favorite Non-work Activity: "My free time is spent mostly with my kids (aged 9, 12, and 14). Whatever they want to do, that's what we do. I let them drive me in that regard. They're growing up quickly and I have a guilt factor there, no question about it." Pet Open Systems Peeve: "Open systems is a double-edged sword in that it takes a lot longer, sometimes, to get the job done. Microsoft doesn't have to deal with those issues. But if I had to pick between one or the other, I'd pick open systems; it's like picking democracy over communism." He moved to open systems in 1985, coined the name Sparc Arun Taneja's career goals have taken him from his home near the Himalayas to a general management training program with IBM, to top marketing positions with open systems companies on the cutting edge of technology. In the process, he's learned what it means to be a pioneer. "What is most enjoyable to me is the pioneering part of anything," Taneja says. Now, as the new vice president of marketing for Axil Computer, a supplier of Sparc-compatible workstations and servers, Taneja is responsible for marketing a product line that is both compatible and competitive with Sun and other Sparc-based UNIX machines. Taneja knew he would be an engineer from an early age, taking his cue from his father, an electrical engineer in India. He attended private schools and earned his B.S.E.E. from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. Then, to pursue his education and career, he left India for New Hampshire. But the culture shock was eased by his English-based education and his weekly reading of Sports Illustrated. "Somewhere deep down in my heart I always knew that because of the way I was brought up, I would come here," Taneja says. "If you wanted to do further education, you had to do it somewhere else, so why wouldn't I pick the best place in the world to be in?" He earned his M.S.E.E. and M.B.A. from the University of New Hampshire on a scholarship. "It was a wonderful experience," he remembers. "The school said there was no reason for me to go elsewhere, that it was all paid for." While in graduate school, Taneja made another decision that helped guide his career-he chose to focus on the business of technology. "I wanted to be in the business side rather than in technology for technology's sake," he says. *** Starting with IBM In 1973, after graduation, Taneja joined IBM, where he went through a training program and then worked in a variety of areas for several months at a time-sales, marketing, finance, and customer service. Marketing and business became his specialty. Then, after five years with IBM, Taneja decided to leave his IBM job in Toronto, Canada, and return to New England to take a marketing position with Data General. After moving through the marketing ranks, he was named product marketing manager for the 32-bit minicomputer whose story was chronicled by Tracy Kidder in The Soul of a New Machine. "It was the creme de la creme product line to have in that company if you really were on the fast track," he says. "The minicomputer industry was very hot at that time, having been created by DEC, and Data General was the aggressive, upcoming company in that segment of the market. It was very exciting to be there at that time and go through the growth path." Taneja began to get some exposure to open systems in his last position with Data General, during the development of a PC-compatible portable laptop. "I saw the revolution starting, and how critical that whole phenomenon was going to be," he says. "Within the company, some of us were also talking about UNIX, because UNIX had just started to take on a life of its own. It had come out of the scientific environment, even though it wasn't truly in the commercial area, and companies like Sun were beginning to demonstrate that it could be brought into the commercial area. Some of us at Data General felt that the company needed to consciously look at getting into the UNIX marketplace. That was such an antithesis to what Data General stood for. It got a very negative response and it was almost considered disloyalty. "We tested the waters and it was pretty obvious to me that the company wasn't going to direct its energies, as a whole, toward open systems. Clearly they did, later, but in my view they did it very late in the game and may not make much difference in the marketplace." Taneja looked at the marketplace and made another decision. "It became clear to me that, architecturally, two things were happening at that time. The open systems phenomenon was taking place, and also the architecture was beginning to move away from the classic minicomputer and more toward client/server. I liked what Sun was doing, even though there was a tremendous amount of resistance any time I discussed the situation with anyone on the East Coast. [They thought] Sun was a flaky California company and was doing something that didn't make any sense, because they were essentially taking components available in the marketplace and buying an operating system which was available to anyone. 'Therefore, it can't have any value. They're just putting the pieces together,'" Taneja notes, remembering the attitude in Massachusetts. "I thought differently, and it took awhile to bring my family to a situation where we were ready to make a move." *** Moving to Sun In 1985 he made that move and accepted a position with Sun Microsystems. "The company was still very small, it was not yet public, and there was no guarantee that it was going to go anywhere. But the fundamentals seemed to make sense to me at that time. It was a risky thing to do but I felt comfortable taking that risk. After that, it was open systems galore." Taneja started at Sun as marketing manager of high-end workstations and servers, but quickly gained responsibility for a broader range of products. Then, when Sun decided to venture into its own Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor architecture, Taneja managed the marketing effort. "Until then, Sun had bought the Motorola product line, the 680x0. Now we were doing an architecture for the first time and we needed to play the architecture in the marketplace." Taneja selected the now-pervasive name Sparc for both the architecture and the product line. The initials originally were to stand for "scalable processor architecture for RISC computing" but that was thought to be too long, so it was shortened to "scalable processor architecture." Taneja believes the move to Sparc was vital to Sun's growth, although the company has been criticized, both for pursuing its own architecture and for selecting RISC. "There were tons of surrounding issues about a computer company like Sun trying to do a microprocessor architecture. And then the question arose: Was Sun going to become closed? The criticism continues in the general marketplace, and the concept was not validated until 1989, when Sparc became real, the products became real, and the difference between Motorola stuff and the RISC smart processors became very clear. All that took awhile." Sun essentially changed the rules of open systems, Taneja declares. "Until then it was thought obvious that you got parts from Motorola and got a license for UNIX from AT&T, and modified and adjusted them. It was much easier to play in the open systems game. All of a sudden, here was a company that was doing its own microprocessor architecture. The risk was that it would very quickly become known to be a closed company. And so the whole strategy of licensing the architecture, of having companies like Fujitsu and Cypress come in, was part of the puzzle. There was a method in that madness because that was the way the company could maintain the image and perception of being open. The architecture was not going to be confined only to Sun and the implementations were not going to be done just by one company. "Intel could have participated if they so desired, but Intel would not. It was pretty obvious that they considered the whole thing to be a big threat. And initially we also had very negative response from companies like Fairchild, because it wasn't clear to them why a company like Sun wanted to participate in their playground. The whole strategy was built around making sure the company's image was not tarnished. It gave me a very good opportunity to build some of that strategy and to implement it. The company thrived because of the fundamental decision that was made to jump into RISC. Most of the other companies came into RISC later. Mips was there before but was never accepted in the market all that well. I think Sun was ahead of the curve in that regard. It was a pioneering step, made with all the risks that come with taking a chance of that type." Taneja was at Sun a little over three years before being recruited by Convergent Technologies, where he served as vice president of marketing in the distributed systems division, responsible for a $700 million product line of workstations and servers targeted at mission-critical applications. "My primary motivation to go there was a fine opportunity to take something that the company had and bring it into the open systems marketplace," he says. "The original Convergent operating system and product line was based on the Intel chip set. It was connected with the hardware and it had never been presented in the open systems environment. That gave me a different opportunity, one I may not have had at Sun for some period of time, to build a really extensive marketing operation, not just focused on the product marketing side but across the board in terms of channels, in terms of marketing communication, in terms of PR. In hindsight, it offered me more than I had bargained for. Unisys ended up buying Convergent, so my responsibilities actually expanded and covered products flowing through the Unisys channel." *** Univel: A Missed Opportunity The next stop for Taneja was at Univel, the former joint venture between Novell and the former UNIX System Laboratories (USL), that was absorbed by Novell after its acquisition of USL. There Taneja served as vice president of marketing for 18 months. Univel's product, UnixWare, was to combine UNIX with the networking capabilities of Novell's NetWare in an Intel-based operating system. "The premise on which the company was formulated was very interesting to me. UNIX was now really quite prevalent in the corporate world but participating primarily in the server side of the business-the technical workstation side. On the other side, there was a distinct world forming with PCs and Macs that would be melded together into the Novell NetWare environments, and the applications were very distinct in these two environments. With the new client/server and downsizing phenomenon, the larger customer was saying that the PCs needed to move into a distributed environment, that he couldn't have islands of computing. The premise of the company was to do a UNIX operating system for the mainstream market and integrate it so tightly with NetWare that the two worlds would in fact come together, and put it through a channel that lends itself to mass buys. The concept was that the Novell channel was that channel because they were selling hundreds of thousands of units a month. UNIX had still not clearly reached into that space. UNIX needed to have a break to have any opportunity to compete with the likes of Microsoft." Taneja believes Novell lost the opportunity by not letting Univel be its own company, focused and dedicated to putting UNIX on the desktop. "As a division of Novell, it is now my belief that the opportunity to make UNIX a mass kind of product on the desktop is not feasible," he says. "In a bid to own UNIX from soup to nuts, that opportunity was lost. Novell was very worried about Microsoft, and ownership of UNIX became more important than the issue of making UNIX prevalent under the original premise." Now at Axil Computer, Taneja finds himself in charge of positioning a product line that is simultaneously dependent on and competitive with Sun. While Axil is a customer of such Sun planets as SunSoft, it must compete head-to-head with the workstations of Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Sparc compatibles now constitute an estimated 12 percent of the Sparc market. While Axil began as a clone manufacturer, Taneja is careful to distinguish Axil's products as non-clones. "Over the past year, the company has done phenomenal changes away from just being a clone. We have a product that's still 100 percent Sparc-compatible, but has many differentiations." For example, upgrading is simpler because many fewer parts have to be replaced, he says. In addition, "The channel focus is 100 percent indirect, which means that we don't go make a direct sale to any account anywhere in the world." The marketing angles that come out of that are freedom of choice and protection of investment, Taneja says. "We want to stay focused on that segment of the marketplace and make a real company happen on that basis." End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Recruitment and Positions Wanted -------------------------------- For inclusion in the UniNews Classified Section, please provide the following information, being as specific as possible. 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