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Wang 2200 MVP succession in 1990s

pavery

Experienced Member
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Dec 29, 2008
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New Zealand
In 1988/9 I worked for a small software house programming Wang 2200 MVP's. Our typical clients were small businesses that used their 4-6 terminal systems for inventory control, payroll, debtors/creditors, etc. I left the industry in 1989 and now wonder what would have been a good migration path for these businesses? With the aid of hindsight, when did networked PCs become a superior solution in terms of cost & performance? Also, what PC software would have been used at that time, Visual Basic perhaps?

Thanking you
Philip
 
Wang's final refresh of the 2200 was based on the 80386 so it would have been before then that networked PCs had an advantage on price. The Wang 2200 CS 386 was considerably more expensive then the likely 386 server and a decent XT clone was about the same price as the terminals needed for the 2200. So by about 1985, a server based setup would have been cheaper than a new Wang 2200 install and in the early 90s, the server would have had been cheaper than continuing to pay for a support contract for the Wang.

Software would have mostly been canned solutions backed by custom add-ons frequently written in Turbo Pascal and Business Basic. There were a lot of PC and server accounting software packages. The one I am most familar with was Great Plains which was designed to run over Netware. Great Plains is now Microsoft Dynamics; as an amusing aside, Dynamics was originally the code name for the dedicated Windows based development language. Mid-90s and later would have been a transition to SQL for the data store and Visual Basic for custom front ends.
 
Thanks krebizfan for the insight. Yes, I remember clients reminding us of the significant monthly hardware-support contracts from Wang. With hindsight, this was a clear signal from the clients to assist them with migration to PC hardware. So even by my time there, PC server hardware was comparable, that's interesting.

Whilst the accounting side could likely have been replaced with canned solutions, I'm not sure about the inventory & manufacturing programs. These were often custom-built and were what attracted the client to us in the first place. I'm aware of a product from Niakwa that compiled Basic2 programs to run on PCs, but I don't think that would have been the long-term answer. I guess I'm asking: for our software house, what would have been a good language/product in which for us to upskill in about 1990, so that we could rebuild these systems onto PC hardware? We weren't installing new Wang hardware in 1988/9, in fact we hadn't added any new customers for several years. But we knew our existing customers' needs & systems well which would have given us an advantage in migrating them.
 
I guess I'm asking: for our software house, what would have been a good language/product in which for us to upskill in about 1990, so that we could rebuild these systems onto PC hardware?

I'd say from where I've been at the time it would be dBase/Clipper. But a friend of mine made a compete custom accounting system for DOS in forth - not sure which version/vendor he used.
 
Thanks vldmrrr. Right, dBase was a very successful product, this would have been a good move.

Maybe one day those from the software house will have a reunion or something & I find out for sure how things worked out.

Thanks for the input
Philip
 
Funny that I stumbled on this one just now. A couple of days ago, I processed a 9-track Wang VS tape for a customer. Didn't the VS systems pretty much obliterate the 2200 series?
 
Wang focused much of their attention on the VS line but sales in 1986 amounted to about $40 million per quarter* (though hoped to increase to $100 million a quarter) which wasn't the primary part of the $600 million in total annual revenue. The 2200 remained the profit generating star long after the line should have been retired.

* Numbers taken from New York Times article dated Dec 11, 1986.
 
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