Standardekonomisystem för stordatorer – EPOK, EPOS & FACTS, 1969–1986 : Transkript av ett vittnesseminarium vid Tekniska museet i Stockholm den 29 januari 2008

• The witness seminar ”Standardekonomisystem för stordatorer – EPOK, EPOS och FACTS, 1969–1986” [Standard accounting information systems for mainframe computers – EPOK, EPOS and FACTS, 1969–1986] took place at The National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm on 29 January 2008 and was led by Gunnar Hesse. In the early years of computing accounting information systems were tailor-made for each customer. In the early 1970s increased demand for financial knowledge coincided with new capabilities in database technology and the first standard applications appeared on the Swedish market. On the basis of the successful service bureau system Bore, IBM Sweden developed FACTS, launched in 1975 and later rebranded FMS for the international market. The second standard accounting information system to appear in Sweden was EPOS, developed by the consultancy RIAB in co-operation with the Swedish association of slaughterhouses and sold in the market from 1976. The third system, EPOK, was developed by the computing division of the building materials group Euroc by a group of controllers and computer technicians in close cooperation and marketed externally from 1977. A fourth actor represented in the seminar was the IT consultancy WM-data, which after a short attempt at in-house development settled in 1981 for importing American accounting systems to support their consulting business. Differences in systems design, customer orientation and business strategy were discussed at length. It was concluded that while the initial software development was very successful, all providers ran into a similar set of limitations of the market: the small number of companies capable of investing in a mainframe computer system, the divergent business interests and business cultures of different actors, the lack of de facto standardization because of customization of systems and a wide range of technical platforms, and the difficulty of expanding abroad in a fragmented market.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Teknikhistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History of Technology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Ekonomisk historia (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economic History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

datorer och databehandling

datorisering – effekter på samhället

historia – 1945-

historia – datorer

informationsteknik

teknikhistoria

vetenskapshistoria

vittnesseminarium

ekonomisystem

ekonomistyrning

programvara

redovisning

History of technology

Teknikhistoria

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)