L. R. SHEELEY

This is the start of the third day of our meeting, the half way point. So far we have covered many subjects. Vital subjects such as the GE 210, the GE 225, OCR, etc. All directed to make your sales job easier.

There is a lot more to come. . . of equal or greater interest. . . all important in your job.

We have talked for a long time about systems responsibility and the systems concept of selling. General Electric is noted for this concept. It is a sound principle. The principle of one manufacturer supplying a complete system to a customer and assuming the responsibility for the functioning of the entire system. In other words. . . selling the customer service instead of hardware.

Ideally, any manufacturer with the system philosophy should manufacture all the hardware components that make up the system. If such were possible the manufacturer could control the timely delivery of the components, the quality level of the equipments and have control over the cost of the products.

As you know. . . we have not yet reached this stage. Who knows, we may never go all the way. " We may never be in a position to manufacture all of the many peripherals for use with our systems. We will. . . and we now have plans. . . to manufacture the major peripheral devices. Let me be sure each one of you understands our philosophy. The General Electric Company was founded and has flourished on research and innovation, We have never been successful copying someone else's idea. We are innovators. We develop products where innovation is the key. Products that make a contribution to the state of the art. . , Products that provide extra value for the customer, This then is our philosophy in regard to peripherals, We don't want to build another mousetrap if a good one now exists, . , One that provides value to the customer. If it doesn't catch mice (or provide that value to the customer) however, we're interested.

I'm sure you have all thought about this important business the way we have. Peripherals constitute from fifty to seventy per cent of every computer system sold. Look at the dollars going outside the General Electric Company. . . Many times to our competitors. What a challenging opportunity to make a real contribution. . . to give our customers extra value. And not the least, to double the sales volume for our Department. This is the challenge ahead of us, And to talk specifics here is Ken Manning, manager of peripheral engineering.

OUR NEW CHALLENGE

K. P. MANNING

Now, in computer language, peripherals are considerably more than handles because they are the means of 'talking to' and 'hearing from' a computer. Without them, the best computer in the world is no more than a deaf, dumb and mute idiot.

Therefore, the importance of complementing our computer product complex with a solid selection of 'home grown' peripherals cannot be over-emphasized.

As Dr. Johnson has told you, Peripheral Equipment Engineering is a recent function of the Computer Department, It was organized as a separate and independent subsection early last fall, and since then, we've been working.

Effectively, this work has been directed along the lines of equipment development which can best serve your sales efforts. In a number of areas, we are making what I feel are genuine contributions to computer peripheral technology, and in others, exceptional improvements in existing types of devices.

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Generally speaking, we have set our goals, regardless of the individual unit, to accomplish five primary aims:

1. To fill a genuine need.
2. To innovate rather than imitate.
3. To build a better machine.
4. To increase reliability.
5. To do the job more economically.

As you've no doubt heard gentlemen, the Computer Department has a new document handler. Not just another conventional sorter, but what we believe will be the best document handler to hit the market since ERMA took checks and balances out of the age of the calculating machine and moved them into the era of automated banking techniques.

What's more, I'm not talking about a machine that's on the drawing boards, or in our plans; but rather the document handler which we will begin to deliver about the end of July.

The people in our handler program here in the Department were well aware of these problems. They were not newcomers to the problems they faced. Most of them had analyzed and evaluated sorters, helped select the best sorter we could obtain, and then had felt that same discontent which led all of us to realize finally that if we were to have the kind of sorter we wanted, we would have to build it 'Ourselves.

We did. We had a few problems, a few headaches. Nothing much, just the sort that made mountains look like mole hills, and some round-the-clock schedules which made eight hours of sleep all together feel like a two weeks vacation with pay.

1. Paper range from 2 1/2 mils in thickness to punched tabulating cards. . . and don't think those punched cards weren't a headache !
2. A single feed with no slowing down to change mode of entry to the machine when you changed document types.
3. Simple adjustments with critical tolerance broadened to within practical limits.
4. High reliability, and
5. A consequent low maintenance factor.

First, however, let's consider our new high speed card reader. Here, I could tell you almost

1. General handling of cards at high rates.
2. Freedom from read errors.
3. High reliability.
4. Low maintenance, and
5. A basic simplicity of concept which increases the reader's over-all performance.

Human engineering and appearance also were important to us in the finalized design of this equipment. So again we have a peripheral equipment to which we can point with genuine pride.

Now, let's see the high speed card reader in action.

(A short movie was shown at this time)

I've saved for last, gentlemen, the best news of all concerning the General Electric high speed card reader and that is its availability date. . .in or before December 1961

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That's what Manufacturing tells me. Mark it on your calendars, gentlemen, it's a big day for peripheral equipment engineering:

As Dr. Johnson has said, magnetic ink character recognition was a major achievement in our ERMA system. It has become a national banking standard and was a big help in putting the General Electric Computer Department on the map.

Now with our new General Electric character reader, we're going a step farther and taking the lessons we learned in character recognition with our banking experience into the much larger business field.

For here is a reader that will accept either the new GE 59-B Font or the ASA standard OCR Font and will read documents either magnetically or optically.. .. In its initial release, the character reader will be factory adjusted for reading in a fixed position which can be selected by the customer and which will depend upon the type of format which the customer normally employs on his credit cards, retail sales or insurance documents, to name a few specific examples.

To provide truly competitive costing, the character reader will take advantage of standard circuit packages, a major step toward achieving the kind of across-product-line compatibility which we must build into all of our peripherals.

Furthermore, to get the reader on the market as early as possible, we will utilize the existing document handler which will be ready and waiting for our use.

I have suggested credit cards, retail sales vouchers and insurance accounting as three general areas of application for the new character reader. Marketing has much broader and specific plans, and I'm certain, too, that you gentlemen here today will help us enlarge our field of sales as soon as you and your customers see what our reader can do.

To begin with, your customer may select either magnetic or optical recognition, depending upon the individual type of application required. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The chief advantage of the magnetic ink principle, of course, is that it is more nearly obliteration proof. It is not disturbed by pencil marks, oil smudges, stains and other such document defacing effects. On the other hand, magnetic ink is more expensive to work with because it requires special inks and higher cost ribbons.

While optical reading requires more careful control over the condition of the documents being serviced, it has the important advantage of accepting a wide range of general commercial inks and ribbons commonly in use by business firms.

Not that I'm here to discredit what we've done in the banking field. In fact, exactly the opposite would be my aim. E-13B has made banking and computer history, and Computer Department is proud of this record. Moreover, with the introduction of our new. encoder, we feel that we will make another firm step forward and increase our reputation in banking circles.

The General Electric full field proof encoder comes to you as the result of a project which was formed to meet the demands of the banking people for a device which would do a fast and effective job of proofing and encoding. Essentially it is important to note that this calls for simultaneity, a cardinal rule of automation.

In the document handler, for example, a document is sorted from the stack in order to read it, and in so much as it has been separated and read, it can be directed into anyone of a number of bins. Hence, the handler does a multiple job and increases the efficiency of the total banking operation.

By the same token, this concept of simultaneity which is directly related to efficiency became the fundamental motive of the encoder as design philosophy as we sought to accomplish proofing and encoding in a simultaneous process. This was an aim which we realized coupled with a degree of versatility not available in any other comparable and competitive piece of equipment.

Another important aspect of our design philosophy was a constant awareness of customer requirements, including such essential factors as:

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Moreover, we did not design the encoder in a theoretical vacuum. Rather, we took constant advantage of the expert consultation of bankers, specialists in banking procedures, product planning, and your communications and suggestions from banking circles across the nation.

Again, the most important news is last. The General Electric full field proof encoder should be available some time in February.

When the General Electric Company made the decision to enter the computer field with the advent of ERMA, we were forced by circumstances to concentrate on the electronics of the data processing field. In the early days, the make or buy decision was often as simple as saying, 'If it's electro-mechanical, we'll buy.' But now, the Computer Department has come of age. Now, we have made a full-fledged entry into the peripheral field and we mean to stay there, grow there, and to complement our computer systems with every peripheral it is to our advantage to produce for ourselves.

As I have shown you today, we have started with some big jobs to fulfill major needs in our existing computer systems. Because of what we have accomplished with our sorter, our card reader, our character reader, and our encoder, we will have better banking and better business electronic data processing.

Thank you, Gentlemen for your attention.

FROM OFF-SHORE

K. R. GEISER

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Regardless of typewriters, sewing machines and such, let's take a look at the facts as they are pertinent to General Electric. Last year, sales amounting to more than four billion two hundred million dollars placed us fourth among the nation's industrial concerns.

This means that nationally we topped in sales such major corporations as Socony Mobil, U. S. Steel, and Chrysler. The world picture was much the same with only Royal Dutch stepping into the hierarchy above General Electric.

Granting that this is quite an achievement, the big question remains, where do we go from here? What about 1962, 1965, and 1970. Does it not occur to you that if our company is to continue its dynamic growth, we can not concentrate solely upon the domestic market. That one computer in every bank, two refrigerators in every home, and 'keep the light bulbs burning' are not the sales philosophies which will provide the necessary answers to the over-all future of General Electric.

Therefore, giving up certain major products as home-produced items, it becomes increasingly important for us to concentrate upon the more sophisticated products which may be subjected to the most advanced of automation techniqueness with electronics as a prime example.

All this, however, is beside the point, and our business here today is to have a look at the foreign computer market, what our competitors are doing, and what we intend to do. Now the logical starting point, is of course, an estimate or prediction of what the computer industry outside the USA will amount to over, say, the next ten years. This chart shows our prediction of the world computer business. To get it in proper perspective, we have shown it relative to the USA prediction. The lower segment is the hardware prediction. . . and this includes maintenance, parts, and supplies. The extreme top area of each curve entitled, "Contract Applications" adds computing centers computing services. . . including machine time, programming, analysis, and contract facility operations.

The obvious question is, who is enjoying this business at the present time? This chart shows the major companies participating in the 1960 business. And while the U.S. off shore bar shows Remington Rand, Bull, I.C. T., and others making a significant effort, as might be expected IBM is getting the lion's share. Below this, on a world basis, the percentages get pretty small and have to be analyzed on a country by country basis.

fall in the category of being the most industrialized, or most rapidly developing. The size of the market, of course, is not the only criterion that is important in determining whether or not a country represents

Another category also representing a combination of many considerations, we have labeled, national political and this includes such factors as: the country's feeling concerning the acceptance of equipment manufactured in or by another country, trade barriers designed to eliminate equipment from other countries, whether nationals from other countries would be tolerated working in that particular country, and other conditions of a generally nationalistic nature.

As you observe, this chart shows these criterion rated on a scale from one to ten, where one is the least desirable and ten the most desirable. Also,

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First, considering General Electric's long relationship with Japanese industry, it no doubt came as something of a surprise to you that Japan showed up fifth on a list of six international markets. So, let's have a look at some of the factors that made this occur. Peculiarly, Japan is one of the few highly developed industrial countries where there is still no convertibility of currency. There is, it is true, the bright note that thinking people in Japanese banking circles believe this may be remedied by 1963.

Currency problems notwithstanding, the data processing business in Japan is getting a lot of foreign attention as the following chart indicates. The first box, IBM Japan is of particular interest in that it is ninety-nine percent owned by the IBM World Trade Corporation but is validated to manufacture punched card equipment only. So, in the next series of blocks with bird tracks between them, we note that IBM has licensing arrangements with five domestic Japanese concerns, including reciprocal arrangements with Toshiba for the manufacture of their equipments. As will be noted, Remington Rand has invested in Toyo and Nru as also have Toshiba and Mitsui. Nru will rent and sell imported Remington Rand equipments and Toyo will manufacture. Meanwhile Mitsui is the franchised distributor of General Electric process control computers while negotiations are underway to establish a similar arrangement for Marubeni to distribute our general data processing lines.

If this is not enough of an oriental maze, learned on my recent trip to Japan that Nippon Electric, the most experienced electronic company over there, is negotiating an exchange of know how agreement with Minneapolis Honeywell. Hitachi whom we already have listed above in connection with IBM has firmed an exchange of know how agreement with RCA while Oki is working out the same sort of arrangement with Burroughs.

Other important British concerns include Elliot Brothers, Emi and Ferranti, all of whom produce excellent computer equipments for the European market, the latter under such colorful names as Perseus, Pegasus, Orion and Sirius, perhaps so the Greek gods can help them.

In Germany, there is also a strong computer picture. Telefunken, a subsidiary of Aeg, is a strong contender who will become stronger, particularly in view of their contract to automate the West German postal system. The TR-4 is a good system and the TR-5 will be better, although some of their handcrafting, point-to-point assembly systems seem fantastic to those of us who have visited their operation. Standard Electric at Lorenz, a subsidiary of

I.T.and T., also is producing strong, effective products as is Olympia to whom we should pay particular regard for their relatively small, low cost computers of good reliability.

So much for our brief leap-frogging between countries. We'll return to specific foreign markets later. But now, let's take a look at one of our competitors in the world market. . . the one, IBM.

The IBM World Trade Corp. operates in 87 countries with 36 served by nationally incorporated companies and the rest by branch offices and sales agencies. With some 33, 000 employees, only about 370 are located in New York. And that, Gentlemen, means that nearly 99 percent of IBM's foreign operation is overseas with its effective power where it belongs in the various market areas. As a measure of its effectively, we may observe that for the last five years for which figures are available, IBM's World Trade's growth has averaged more than 22 percent per year.

IBM's World Trade Organization is a very well thought-out, well implemented setup. They are manufacturing and buying in many countries, and they are selling almost anywhere a computer may be

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Before we get down to computers in particular, however, let's make a brief survey of the General. Electric Company on the international scene.

For more than three-quarters of a century, General Electric has participated in international business. First through exports from the United States, then with investments in foreign enterprise, off shore manufacturing operations, and licensings. During this long international experience, world conditions, as we know too well, have faced continual change. Industrialization from a few bright spots in the British Commonwealth, on the continent, and in the United States, has come to encircle the globe. Governments, national sentiments, economies, and markets, all have changed, and changed again. And with these complex evolutions across the face of the earth, General Electric's international activities have learned to adapt to survive, and to grow.

In 1959, the increased importance of the world wide scope of the company was recognized by the consolidation of all international activities into a single company group under one vice president, Mr. James Goss, at the president's level.

INTERNATIONAL GROUP LOCATIONS

While we are starting to increase our export business, some markets can only be reached by domestic manufacture. Where the exportation of U. S. finished products is not practical in the face of such controls as high import tariffs, quotas and currency restrictions, our investment in foreign subsidiaries to serve their markets has grown substantially. For many years, the General Electric Company has invested abroad in manufacturing plants and sales subsidiaries. During 1960, we have stepped up our investment in markets where the potential for local manufacturing is good and where export sales to such markets are foreclosed. Our total foreign investment exceeds $250,000, 000 on a conservative evaluation basis and the number of employees is approximately 40,000, with facilities located around the free world.

There are service shops in subsidiary companies and technical field representatives in the

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following countries. . . United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Union of South Africa, Formosa, Philippines, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. It is estimated that some five hundred General Electric personnel exclusive of any IGE employees are involved abroad in service areas.

Major manufacturing subsidiaries are in operation in Italy where the Compagnie Generale Elettricita and its subsidiary fair manufacture apparatus, appliances, electronic equipment and lamps. In Canada some 13,000 people in five million square feet in eight communities are engaged in manufacturing essentially the same broad complement of products.

At present, thirty manufacturing plants in ten countries will be expanded and the volume of locally made General Electric goods will increase substantially by the establishment of additional facilities in these and other countries.

The General Electric philosophy is to form an integrated world manufacturing and sales organization which is linked together by the total General Electric resources and its patent and know-how strengths. The strongest effort will be applied to the international needs for technologies, processes and procedures emphasizing industrial automation and all phases of data communications and computation.

Now, where do the Computer Department's plans fit into the international picture of General Electric activities. First, let me point out an important evolution which is currently taking place in the company's world wide philosophy. This emerges from the fact that our enormous diversity of products are not in many instances best served through a single international agency. Granting the valuable know how the international group possesses, its ability to act for the entire company, its enormous and beneficial backup in strength of personnel throughout the civilized world. There exist, nevertheless, certain specialized product areas which may be better served at a department level.

In Italy General Electric has its subsidiary company. Cogenal, and although no firm commitments have been made in the area of computers, when we are ready to take steps into the Italian market, the way is open to us.

In Australia, the Australian General Electric Company has been reactivated, and the new president of this company will be moving there from New York in the near future. Here IBM is not so well entrenched and we not only have opportunity to be first, but are in an excellent position to move forward.

These are some key areas. They represent concrete and successful operations on which the Computer Department may depend. But they are by no means our entire world plan.

Undoubtedly, for example, we will be able to sell a few Phoenix made computers at New York City prices in many countries, but the disparity of labor is such that we can not in the long run consider doing business with American cost against foreign labor costs. This means that we must take steps to manufacture in the various countries we intend to serve. And this brings up one factor to which I have not given sufficient consideration in my talk so far. This is that the problem of getting established abroad is not so much that of adequate manufacturing facilities. . . I have already mentioned a few of our ways to such an end. . . as it is. . . First, where do we obtain the applications personnel, second, where do

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we acquire programming experience capable of programming in the language of the country, and third, how will we provide adequate service backup for our equipments at an economical figure. We believe we have the answers to these problems.

Also, in the off-shore market area, there is a very definite requirement for smaller size computers. For here, the ratio of small businesses is larger than we usually find in the United States. And here, too, we have made our plans.

Now, before I say, 'Good Morning', it is important that we both recognize the fact that what I have shown you here of our plans is about as much as you would see of an iceberg. . . that is the one-sixth you can observe above the surface of the sea.

The important thing, however, is this. As our plans become accomplished facts, you will be the first to know. Today, you are our representatives across the face of the nation, tomorrow, no doubt, you will be instrumental in helping the General Electric Computer Department to circle the globe.

I thank you now for the time you have given me on this spring day of year one in the Computer Department's international operations.

OFF-SHORE SALES

B. D. CREEDE

Ken Geiser has given you an excellent survey of the computer world as we see it at the present time.

It may seem so complete in fact, that you may wish to ask what we in sales are doing and what our relationship is to this department planning on computers.

In my talk today, I will try to do two things.. first, to explain our export sales plan and its relationship to the long range business planning. Second, explain where we are in our sales program.

There are details where the business planning operation and sales differ in analysis and approach, but in general this is due to the different restraints under which we work.

We in sales are, I must say, a little jealous of business planning who have seemingly boundless resources from our point of view since in making their plans they can, conjure up wealth and facilities, assuming the establishment of subsidiaries, acquisition of complementary corporations, or a joint venture with a top notch foreign company.

We in sales on the other hand, are confined to the stark, gray realism of available funds and recourses. Further, we must, in achievement of our goals, avoid commitments which would prejudice the inconstant and incomplete long range big picture. To do this we must work closely with business planning so that we will know their thoughts and contribute to them from our experience. . as we go ahead. As will be illustrated by our foreign selling activities to date, our most powerful source of business information is what we have learned by doing. We may get bruised a bit, but we learn.

In the past we have made substantial contributions to the business planning and in turn look to business planning to provide us with new resources with which to work as we go along in the future.

In beginning our activities abroad about a year and a half ago, we in sales took what we had to work with and with our understanding of the foreign market and began with little steps.

Our neighbor, Canada, was obviously the easiest step, and we started our efforts there in the fall of 1959. In Canada we had a wholly-owned company which was interested in expanding its product lines for the future. They had a mature organization with complete resources, trained people, equipment facilities, a nation wide sales offices, stable management, and a good currency. They did not however, know our business.

Our competitors were mainly American companies, some with substantial Canadian operations. In spite of a preferential tariff, English competition was low because of American technical superiority and closeness. There was peripheral (tab and typewriter) manufacture in Canada but no computer assembly.

I should, however, point out here that even in the case of Canada where we can go on vacation without passport, visa or money problems (except the problem of having enough). Even in Canada we are dealing with a different country with its

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different laws, money exchange fluxuations, tariffs and in most areas markedly differing practices and traditions.

Our second project, early in 1960, was Australia, with the help of IGE who had been studying the country for about two years, we in sales decided to probe for opportunities.

In Australia we found some conditions similar to Canada but there were major differences. We had a more equalized position with our U. S. competitors since there was no Australian manufacture of computer of peripheral items.

Here, however, we would really face the British preferential tariff since we were about equal to their transportation distance. Money was more tightly controlled and the Australians had a more pronounced individualistic national and political position.

We have had a full-time man in this market since February this year expect our first order within the next six months.

AGE now is going ahead with plans for an extensive marketing and manufacturing build-up with headquarters in Sydney.

The Computer Department is a pioneer in the new Australian General Electric Company, a company which is welcomed as a large step in Australia's much needed industrialization.

Again we learned a few more important things in Australia. For instance. . . . .

Two. . . we learned also that international computer customers demand local roots as well as a local support organization.

In the spring of 1960, Bob Davidge, Far East power systems sales specialist of IGE and

I planned to go after electrical utility computer business which was seen to be coming up in Japan. We approached it by beginning with the stimulation of GE' s traditional Japanese distributor, the very large trading company named Mitsui Busan Kaisha. I can calibrate very large for you by saying that their gross sales are two billion plus per year. After discussions with Mitsui they agreed to send two men to Phoenix for training, one for process

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computer,

one for business data processing.

You may have seen the two new Japanese visitors around our plant recently. These men are from Marubeni-Iida Company, our new distributor also a very large trading company. Mr. Honda is in our sales training course. . . Mr. Ichikawa who has now gone back is an application engineer here to help sell a GE 225 to his company's Osaka, Japan office, he will return for further training to become an application engineer for GE computers.

WE are making progress in Japan now, in a market, which is as Mr. Geiser pointed out, complicated by unique historic company relationships, government intervention, currency nonconvertability, language difficulty and oriental paperwork methods.

I see possible solutions for each of the above problems and possible success if we make the correct moves.

Our latest project Spring 1961 is Europe which is the most complicated and expensive market to reach, but should be the most rewarding of our foreign sales opportunities. You may think that the European common market will simplify our efforts greatly, but generally it will tend to make life easier for our competitors with local factories and more difficult for us in the early stages of our getting started. This will be true because of the rather limited European facilities which we have at the present time.

During the last year General Electric has purchased control of Compagnia Generale Elettricita of Milan and we are presently trying to work out a basis of cooperation with that Italian company. We also have other approaches in process which are short of the alternative of just buying your way in. That approach is, of course, very costly.

During the next few months we will  be testing

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Lastly, our future abroad will rest on your success here at home and we wish you great success...

BARTER WITH OTHER TRIBES

G. W. GAMBLE

By way of definition, the Special Accounts sales unit primarily serves the OEM. . . he can be a big market. . . he is an important market. . . he can serve us in a number of ways. the OEM is not to be over looked.

While most of our Department's sales activity is concerned with providing end users like banks, with our standard products, we consider it a definite advantage and plus business to provide the original equipment manufacturer with some of our products with which we can make a definite contribution. These include our standard products, with or without modification, sold to other manufacturers for incorporation into their products and systems, or even new or non-standard products sold to the original equipment manufacturer for resale. These include a class of devices which utilize our special engineering or manufacturing skills, which fit into out plans for standard product line expansion, or provide manufacturing load where needed.

Of equal importance are some special assignments which by their nature require marketing and other backup skills similar to those employed in selling to the original equipment manufacturer. I think this can best be realized by considering a division of effort in which selling to an end user is a more application oriented effort while selling to the original equipment manufacturer is more engineering oriented.

Ideally, there must be sound economic justification for our relationship to a particular OEM to exist. We must complement their skills. It also must be clear that our talents are sufficiently unique that we can both take a profit at competitive prices for the final equipment or system. Now for a few examples. . .

AUTOMATED POST OFFICE

The General Electric Company has long had an interest in the post office modernization program. There is planned considerable data processing and control equipment for post office automation, and while little has materialized to date, we have been working with the food machinery and chemical corporation on their project to automate the Oakland, California Post Office. Letter, parcel and flat sorting machines are each under the direct supervision of a separate electronic memory control. An electronic directory contains the locations of some 14, 000

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destination bins and performs the conversion from a code, which is an abstract form of the address information and the proper destination bin signals. In this manner 106 operators will sort 670, 000 pieces of mail each hour.

A general purpose computer will be employed to do overall production scheduling, accounting and reporting. FMC is about to place an order for a prototype of the electronic directory. We are in an excellent position to receive this order.

As an example of bringing our special manufacturing skills to the OEM, we are currently negotiating with Sperry Utah to provide magnetic core memory planes for their Sargent Missile Guidance Computer.

Other departments of our company are an excellent source of OEM business as well as an end user of Computer Department products. We have supplied engineering assistance to the Specialty Control Department on the logic design of a glass cutter control. They will use some of our printed wiring boards in this equipment. The Industry Control Department and the Communications Products Department will use units of our systems and components, such as printed wiring boards, 225 tape systems and even a complete GE 225 to complement their process control systems.

Now a brief summary of our products and services of current interest, for the OEM. We have magnetic ink character readers, and our general purpose sorter control, printed wiring boards, special magnetic core, tape, or other memories which require a minimum modification from our standard units. Special engineering assistance to other General Electric components.

Now what part do you play in this area of our business.

Let us take the hypothetical Kolossal Mfg. Corporation within your sales district which manufactures equipment for data handling. Up to this time, their manufacturing skills have been mostly electro mechanical. Competition in this age of automation forces them to improve the versatility of their product.

They call the General Electric Computer Department sales office, and ask you to talk with them about what GE products can do for them. Gather all the facts you can, if you think we have an opportunity here, contact me and we'll discuss it. If it develops that we can contribute we'll back you with engineering help. . . while for certain marketing strategy reasons it is not always clear that we want to do business with a particular manufacturer, you can, through a knowledge of our standard products and our engineering and manufacturing special capabilities recognize business opportunities and bring them to our attention. They then may be exploited by us. To give you the story first hand on the special engineering capabilities that you can count on here is Bill Bridge. . . . .

BARTER WITH OTHER TRIBES

W. H. BRIDGE

Thank you, George.

We have set out to accelerate the growth of the Computer Department by doing engineering work

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There are many things about Special Engineering that I want to discuss with you, such as the costs of doing specials and the ways of getting a quick answer from us. Some of these problems are outlined in the spec data in your mail box. From this point on, we want to work closely with you in developing the technique of getting the feature you need to make a sale at the price the customer will pay.

BARTER WITH OTHER TRIBES

G. W. GAMBLE

In summary, we can bring to the OEM our special skills and the available facilities of the company as a whole as well as our Computer Department. The OEM can provide an enlarged market for our standard products. . . additional use of components of our standard equipment to balance manufacturing loads where needed and provide a measure of future product offerings by manufacturers who are in fields allied to ours.

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NEW MOTHER LODES

D. F. CAYCE

This is blue sky. I show it here to remind you that there is no blue sky law in the computer business.

Putting it another way 'the sky is the limit' to the possibilities for serving customers with our products. Our own imagination and abilities are the only limitations that will delay our providing equipments and programs which are the opportunities that exist in this blue sky area.

Out of just such emptiness some six years ago came the idea and opportunity of MICR to break the paper handling bottleneck in the Bank of America. You all know how this has spread beyond the Bank of America, throughout all banks, and is now beginning to undermine those piles of punched cards that surround other customers.

The function of Advanced Systems Sales is to develop projects similar to the Bank of America which will lead to additional new concepts in equipment or programming which in a broad market. Because of the long term headquarters follow up work associated with such projects, continuing sales responsibility is usually retained at headquarters until the initial contract is completed. For example, the sales responsibilities for the Bank of America and Western Reserve University are handled in advanced systems.

What types of advanced systems are we looking for?

We want, ideally, additional large scale projects which will provide new system approaches, the development of new equipment and new programming all of which will contribute to the advancement of the art and expand the usefulness of computer automation to additional businesses.

An example of such a project would be a new approach to customer billing for large businesses like the Bell System Companies.

Many projects will naturally be of much smaller scale and might involve but a single area of development. Our information searching selection using the GE 225 for Western Reserve University is an example in which special programming is a new area.

Where will such projects be found?

Most will come from customers whose needs are expressed or developed by growth, changing conditions or constructive analysis either on their part or with our assistance.

Each of you has one or more customers that keep you on your toes with questions on how to do new jobs which today may be impractical.

A second and a most constructive source of new projects exists within our own organization. Ideas for equipment and programs constantly develop within the Laboratory, Engineering, Application, Product Planning and Sales. Many must be filed away for future use but the most obvious can be matched with customer needs in one or many areas for development into the product line.

A third source comes from ideas originating with other manufacturers. Every group working with prospective or actual customers continually develop new computer uses and as soon as these ideas become public we and others strive to develop and improve the vest applications.

Who are the groups that develop new applications?

Quite naturally, product planning participates in the development of any new system to lend their guidance for widest customer acceptance.

In Engineering we have the Special Systems Engineering Subsection under Bill Bridge who work with the other groups to design and engineer the special equipments which the new systems require.

While these groups share the responsibility for the development of specific new systems and applications for customers they have the assistance and cooperation of all others in the department for any help they need.

How can you the salesman help in this area?

You are the primary contact with customers and can provide both customer generated ideas and individual ingenuity for real advances.

We will appreciate --- we want --- your bird dogging of ideas and will be glad to work with you in

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the headquarters spadework needed to help you with your customers on their unusual requirements.

Don't leave these 'far out' ideas in orbit.

Bring them in.

So our outer space will be turned into a galaxy of useful satellites.

ACRES OF DIAMONDS

V. L. SCHATZ

Good Morning:

We can take justifiable pride in the fact that we are the only manufacturers to become established in this business without significant direct government aid. However, we are also the only manufacturer with the broad array of sister departments from which to draw business.

Let me make this job a little easier for you. Here is our immediate potential in the GE market, as closely as we could determine it.

133---EAM installations

20 ----305's

36---- 650's

15 ----1401's

4 -----704's

1 -----705

You all know what a 705 is. 705 times 2 is 1410. This makes it a half fast 1410.

1--- UNIVAC II

4---7090's

2---2000's

3---S.S. 80's

1---Burroughs 205

1---Burroughs 220

2---RPC 4000's

7---G-15's

Your competitor is not making it easy to replace this equipment. Just about the time you think you have made our equipment attractive to your customer, your competitor comes along with a used equipment sales price which is also very attractive, particularly to the unwary buyer. Believe me when he offers these low sales prices, he is not being overly generous. He knows better than anyone else what his junk, pardon me, equipment is worth. By no stretch of the imagination can this equipment be considered as first class merchandise. Our customers need to be told this.

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Our GE market will never be saturated!

Along with the danger of assuming saturation, we must never make the mistake of assuming that this is a captive market. It's open to everyone in this business, and that includes a number of companies. Your major competitor is doubling and redoubling his efforts within GE. This is right in line with his long standing policy of applying efforts where he hurts the most. Right now, that is the General Electric Company.

Applying a few of the principles of SSM, let's analyze this customer you are trying to woo. What does she look like?

First, you must recognize that five or ten or twenty years age, she was wooed and won by our competitor. Surely, she was out of her class, but it was the only man available.

This customer can be tough. She can not easily be encouraged away from the man she has been sharing her bed and board with for all these years. She's jealous of her independence and decision making responsibility.

As most of you have found out, she's not above needling salesmen from other departments, such as the Computer Department.

She is, however, usually quite cooperative when the facts are fairly presented.

We must point out the advantages of GE doing business with GE. An obvious fact, you might say, but you will convince yourselves otherwise if you

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consider the cases you know where our Data Processing people identify themselves with a competitor's equipment first and with GE second. If they must be convinced, cash flow analyses can be made available to you.

Use other department and services people to help you sell. Many of these people have demonstrated a willingness to help. They recognize the benefits accruing to all of us when the business is kept within the family. We have received some very effective assistance from such contacts.

Call on headquarters for support.

Use your high level management contacts. You all know the Cordiner philosophy of 'every man a salesman'. Our management has demonstrated more than a willingness to step in and help make a sale. Use these contacts with discretion, but use them.' In other words, use the monogram as a banner, but not a bludgeon.

Also, and very important, is the fact that you must follow up on your sales before and after installation to assure satisfaction. Your customer must be encouraged and assisted in using his machine to the utmost I think it is safe to say

that no computer manufacturer will make a nickel in profits on any line of equipment if no machines are used beyond one shift. A satisfied customer is still our best salesman and a dissatisfied customer is the salesman for our competitor. You know that all of our mistakes circulate around GE at leased wire speeds! We must minimize the cause of complaint. I've mentioned that you should call on headquarters for support. Our one and only function in internal sales is to help you see the GE market. . . now and in the future. Included in this support are such items as: Answering questions from the field. Developing and demonstrating sales tools and techniques such as the 225 slide presentation. Assisting with feasibility studies. Assisting with sales calls, particularly by providing answers developed during the feasibility studies.

Setting up and conducting visitor's tours at Phoenix. Incidentally, the working equipment has been an extremely effective sales tool in convincing our doubting customers. Developing better information sources and reporting techniques. Extending sales training through on the job assignments. Providing equipment for display at technical meetings. And, of course, we could list a host of other items if time permitted.

At this point I'd like to just summarize my tale of the new west concerning the GE market: Our GE customer is big and mighty important.

The GE market is not saturated and will not be. The GE market is not a captive market, our GE customer must be sold just like any other customer. Above all else, don't neglect her, your competitor doesn't.

SCALP COUNTING

C. DeGABRIELLE

The original copy of the schedule for this sales meeting listed this part of the program as 'Project X'. As we worked with this presentation it became increasingly evident that Owen Lindley had been clairvoyant in this designation since we found ourselves on the spot when it came to adequately covering the broad areas involved.

I guess in order to set the stage for our talk I would like to tell you about a set of twin boys that were causing their parents a great deal of concern.

The boys were approaching their twelfth birthday and although they had been born as identical twins, and had grown physically as identical twins their natures had developed as exact opposites.

One boy was the eternal pessimist and the other was the eternal optimist. In an attempt to achieve a more even balance in their sons personalities, the parents enlisted the aid of a psychologist. The doctor examined the boys together and then separately and at the conclusion of the examinations met with the parents. He said, 'I believe we can help the boys. They have a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks and I would like you to try my first treatment. ' First go out and buy a dozen nice small presents, wrap these in plain brown paper and put them in a room for the eternal pessimist. Next get the biggest box and the brightest ribbon you can find, fill the box with horseshit, tie it with the ribbon and put it in a room for the eternal optimist. On their birthday let the boys open these presents and I believe you will find a change in their nature.'

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The parents followed the doctor's advice and on the boys' birthdays led each boy to the room containing his present. They stayed to watch the eternal pessimist. He entered the room with his customary gloomy approach and looked over the table on which his gifts were placed. 'Well, here it is my birthday again, , he said, 'and I won't get anything I like. Look at that, this year they didn't even bother to wrap my presents in pretty paper. ' With that he unwrapped the first small package and found a beautiful watch, he opened the next package to find a pair of field glasses and now he began to unwrap presents with anticipation and as each new object was revealed he became more elated. When he had completed opening his presents his whole outlook on life had changed.

For the past year there has been a program in General Electric to get us into the data accumulation and data communication business. Some of you may have come in contact with various aspects of this program and with some of its products. To date, our sales, application and proposal activity has been restricted to internal General Electric contacts.

As of today, the General Electric Company is launching itself across a new frontier into the general marketing of a line of data accumulation and data communication products.

We are announcing through the press and industry journals our entry into this field with the 3100 "Shoptrol" Factory Feedback and Control System and the 3101 Data Collecting System. Advertising is being placed and will appear in July publications announcing these products.

Now that you are in a new business, lets find out something about it.

First, lets talk about our products. The 3100 "Shoptrol" factory feedback and control system is in current production and the first system has been partially delivered to the Metallurgical Products Department of General Electric. This system provides a shop monitoring, control and communication network to monitor and display at a central production control center the status of individual work stations and/or machines.

The central control center is the location for the termination cabinet which houses the master programmer, power supplies, a termination patch bay, an audio amplifier and space for mounting twenty status monitor panels per vertical bay. A maximum of 160 status monitor panels may be associated with one system's central termination cabinet.

The system has a built in voice communication channel which is reached through the telephone jack at each control station. This allows supervisory or service personnel who have been dispatched to the station to talk with the central control station dispatcher. Optional accessories include a simple operator alarm station and an operator page station.

Where the full capabilities of the operator control station are not required, this alarm station is used. This enables the operator to notify the production control room of an alarm condition at his work station or machine by flipping this switch. The dispatcher can then arrange for assistance to be sent to the operator.

The 3100 system offers manufacturing management a tool to better utilize the facilities of their shop. The 3100 can be used to control material both inventory and in process, it can assist in the

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The 3101 system is a data collection system, designed to provide transmission of fixed and variable information from various remote input areas to a central accumulation point.

The 3101 system is in final pre-production evaluation and shipments are scheduled to start in July. The more we work with this system the more its versatility of application becomes apparent.

Once again as in the case of the 3100 system the 3101 system allows your customer to make better use of his facilities, manpower and materials thus affecting a reduction in cost of operations, which leads to greater profits.

An information bulletin on the 3101 and firm selling and lease prices on both units of the 3101 system are included in your kits.

At the present time in the data communication field we are developing equipment to satisfy the needs of General Electric ' s Financial and Services Organization (FASO). This equipment allows communication between machines in machine language using commercially available communication channels.

One example of such communication equipment we are developing for "FASO" is the data transmission controller. This unit will unload stored information from a 225, or similar computer, and prepare it for transmission over a communication channel. In the reverse direction it will edit and prepare incoming messages for computer storage or inquiry. This preparation for transmission and editing prior to computer entry consists of: multiplexing, adding and checking parity bit for blocks, adding and checking parity bit for individual characters, updating line status in the computer, add blank transmission areas, compress out blank reception areas, automatically interrupt at end of message and turn line around for opposite mode of communication.

None of the data communication equipment is at this time ready for external sale, by fall we should have information in your hands on the first products in this line with early 1962 deliveries to customers. This is an extremely important area for us. AT&T estimates that nearly 80% of their communication traffic will be in the form of data in five years.

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In this area of support our first effort is the kit which you will receive here. In June and July we expect to visit with you in regional meetings to further acquaint you with these products and their application. As prospects develop and you need additional assistance headquarters specialists are available to you. We also plan to train specialists in data accumulation and data communication equipment with an eye toward establishing these specialists in the field to serve you in a support area. By the end of the year we want to have in each sales region at least one installation of 3100 and 3101 that can serve as a showplace for prospects.

With this planning and with this backup we issue a call to action to each of you. Learn about this new family - promote its sale in your area - and use it to get your prospects machine oriented. These products should take you into several new classes of customers. They can pave the way for future computer sales - and in themselves they are big business. Don't underestimate this product line and its business potential. A lot of people are going to take their first steps toward machine control of their business by installation of data accumulation equipment, others are going to find that these equipments

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