Conference heron::euro_swas_ai

93.0. "AITC Business Plan" by SELECT::KELLY (grasshopper) Thu Mar 16 1989 23:19

                            COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL


Greetings,

          We just had our AITC Quarterly Review meeting, and I thought someone 
in Europe might have some interest in what the TC plans for the future - as 
these plans may affect some of you as well.

          We were shown the Three Year Business Plan for the AITC as presented 
to Jack Smith a couple weeks ago. It outlined the AITC's visions, goals, 
strategies and plans. 

The first speaker was Dennis O'Connor.

          It was emphasized to us that the AITC is under much greater 
scrutiny from above now than in past years. The TC is apparently perceived now
as large enough and mature enough in its development cycle to undergo such
scrutiny.

         Jack Smith suggested that the AITC concentrate its efforts in
5 specific areas, rather than spreading itself over many projects. One area
of particular concern to him was XSEL and AI's assistance to the salesforce.
But the 5 areas of concentration still have yet to be selected.

         DEC's competitors in AI:
IBM has targeted AI as #3 in its list of 5 most important thrusts for the
   next 5 years.
SUN now gets 7% of its revenues directly from AI.
Japan Inc. has embraced AI as one of its national programs.

         DEC's AI population worldwide is now 480 people.
349 US
28 Europe
103 GIA.

         The AITC now has an operating budget of $30M.

         The goal of the AITC is to more than triple its sales of products
and services in the next three years.

         There will be a new thrust toward dealing with Complimentary
Solutions Organizations (CSOs=third parties) in order for us to embed AI in
their products or use their products in integrated AI projects.

         Internal applications will return $360M to DEC in fy89.

         Future integration of AI into DEC products at all levels should mean
that AI has a 10-15% effect on DEC revenues as DEC crosses the $20B threshhold.
------------

Norma Abel was the next speaker.
         
        DEC will emphasize products and tools to be used by non-sophisticated
users, not technically sophisticated people. DEC will emphasize "productivity 
shells" such as Vax Decision Expert (ne� GEnex). In future, internal 
productivity tools such as DICE and CANDLE may see light.

         LISP and OPS will continue to be supported and developed.

         50% of DEC's tool product efforts will now be focused on "productivity
tools", 20% on "general purpose tools" such as OPS, and 30% on domain and
application - specific tools (such as CLUE) (These will be arranged through
marketing groups.)

-----------

Jack Rahaim then spoke.

         AI Marketing wants to increase DEC's AI market share to 20%.
         It will increase the number of its agreements with CSOs (third 
parties).
         It will position itself as the leader in integrated solutions.
         Embedded AI will be its new thrust.
------------

Steve Gutz then spoke.

       DEC AI's new service strategy is to centralize AI skill centers
except where local business needs prevail (e.g., NYC).
       A new group under Ed Kalee (sp?) will manage interactions with customers
and other DEC groups while AITCers continue to do the technical work.
       There will be a new effort to integrate AI into giant contracts
(over $5M).

       We will embed AI into
         DEC standard products
         application marketing platforms (CLUE)
         enhancements to 3rd party tools
         "data-vision" and "concept-based" systems (John McDermott).

       Most DEC AI resources are now, and will continue to be in the future,
focused on INternal applications (such as XCON, XFC-financial closing, APES-
VLSI design). It is still an AITC goal to transfer technology internally.

----------------

Neil Pundit then spoke.

            DEC is now mostly a software and services company, not an
ironmonger. This will be even more true in future.

            We specifically want to reduce the transaction cost to DEC of
each customer order from $50 to $5/transaction. This will be done by Digital 
Services Network - a machine installed at a customer site for ordering and
information.

------

          There was a rewards and recognition ceremony to give plaques
to deserving folks in the AITC. They were:
   Mitch Tseng's group:
Klaus Nitschke
Alan Fraser
Ray Coomb
   Norma Abel's group:
Marcia Roland
Louise Leary
Kathleen Kelly
Roger Carr
   Ginny Barker's group:
Traci McDonough
Keith Jensen
Bob Breau
   Neil Pundit's group:
Jeff Benham
Anil Chipathi
   Jeff Clanon's group:
John Spencer
Jude Patridge
   Steve Gutz's group:
Lesley Chesler
Jay Shaughnessey
   Barry Reynold's group:
Wendy Zeismann
   Jack Rahaim's group:
Dino Lachiusa
   Barry Marshall's group:
Andrea Crow
   Frank Lynch's group:
Theresa Gentile