Application Software for Insurance in the 1960s and Early 1970s
نویسندگان
چکیده
As Martin Campbell-Kelly [5] notes in his paper on this panel, data on the emergence of the software industry is sparse, and "In the absence of hard quantitative data, the best historical approach appears to be one based on case studies." While his paper provides case studies of specific software firms, this paper provides a different type of case study: a study of the emergence of application software, especially packaged software, from the point of view of one user industry, life insurance. From the first adoptions of Univacs and IBM 650s beginning in 1954/55 into the early 1960s, firms who bought or rented computers were faced with the formidable task of programming them. From the very beginning of insurance use of computers, programming time and costs, consistently underestimated, were a major part of the expense of installing computer systems. Early estimates ranged from one third to two thirds the cost of equipment rental [ 11 ]. The representative of one insurance company [30, p. 16] explained that many insurance firms turned to computers in response to a cost squeeze; yet, "This interest in using computers to perform many of the routine tasks of data processing, in turn, introduced a new factor into the price cost squeeze": "the tremendous costs being incurred by companies in the area of systems design and programming required to install computers to perform these various functions." He went on to claim that in many cases, companies "were pointing out that programming costs had far exceeded predictions, and the anticipated cost savings were not forthcoming." Initial attempts to reduce programming costs (for other user industries as well as insurance) came in the adoption of programming languages easier to use and more powerful than machine language, ultimately including COBOL for business programming [11, p. 235; 2, p. 364]. At the same time, hardware vendors were also providing increased support o all users in the form of programmed routines given
منابع مشابه
The Role of Sociolinguistics in Second Language Acquisition
Learning a new language also involves learning a broad system of norms for social relations.This study broadly showed how EFL learners’ speech act is conveyed from their nativecultures when they are communicating in English and demonstrated that there are somepossibilities of cross-cultural misunderstanding when interlocutors are engaged in the speechact of complimenting with native speakers of...
متن کاملA Study on the Evolution of Designing approach of the Modern Mosques in the Second Pahlavi Era by Emphasis on the Critical Regionalist Approach (Case studies: Al-Javad Mosque, Tehran University Mosque, Jondi Shapour Mosque)
The beginning of the second Pahlavi era was accompanied by the rise to power of a generation of academic and technocrat architects of the first Pahlavi period, which in the 1960s led to maximize attention to modernist architecture. Modernism was supported at the cultural level of society in a way that led to the design and construction of Modern mosques such as the al-Javad Mosque and the Unive...
متن کاملThe Reading Crisis in Iran (During the 1960s and 1970s): A Critical Discourse Analysis
Purpose: Reading is one of the challenging problems in contemporary Iran. After the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), reading becomes one of the factors that Iranians considered it necessary for modernization and development. For this reason, most people, even who were literate, had no desire to read. This situation was unpleasant for intellectuals, publishers and cultural activist...
متن کاملEvolution of the female roles in the US (Case study: The Hollywood movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s)
Prior to the 1980s, numerous charges of discrimination were noteworthy among women in Hollywood. In those years, women were in uncertain situations, so they seemed aimless and vulnerable. In the period that this article focuses on, the female characters are or have become intelligent and therefore open-minded and potentially independent. Although, they are still vulnerable and unsure of themsel...
متن کاملArtificial Neural Network Model for Predicting Insurance Insolvency
In addition to its primary role of providing financial protection for other industries the insurance industry also serves as a medium for fund mobilization. In spite of the harsh economic environment in Nigeria, the insurance industry has been crucial to the consummation of business plans and wealth creation. However, the continued downturn experienced by many countries, in the last decade, se...
متن کامل