Using Mainframes

In the past, mainframes were used in large companies to perform nearly all computing tasks. As the company grew or as new applications were needed, more CPU power or terminals were added to the system. In the 1970s, many companies learned that it was less expensive and often more efficient to install a minicomputer in a department or division than to add on to the mainframe. In the 1980s, companies learned this same lesson again with personal computers and workstations.

As a result of these changes, computers are assuming different roles in the 1990s. Now, the mainframe is commonly used for applications that affect the entire company, such as accounting or maintaining the corporate database. Minicomputers are used as departmental systems in marketing or manufacturing. Workstations and personal computers are used by individuals or small work groups within departments. The notion that a single computer can satisfy an entire company's needs has been overturned. In the same way that a carpenter or a mechanic chooses the right tool for the job, there are a variety of computers to choose from.

Whitbread & Company PLC is a large English food-and-drink company. It brews Whitbread beer, distills Beefeater's gin, operates 6,000 pubs, and owns Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays restaurants, and a number of hotels and inns. In 1983, Whitbread reorganized 10 divisions into four: breweries, trading, inns, and retail. Ten large mainframe data processing centers were reduced to two, and Whitbread began installing new computer systems.

Whitbread's five breweries each has its own computer system for manufacturing. The pubs have a special terminal that is used to place orders with the mainframe computer and to file weekly sales reports to the bank. At London headquarters, a manager in the inns division can use a personal computer connected to the centralized mainframe database to learn which inn had the highest sales on, say, Fridays and Saturdays. Whitbread has diversified its computer facilities and in the process has gained what it calls flexible systems that help the company solve problems — not create new ones.