As I look back on my 40 years with IBM, I have to give thanks to a lot of people and a lot of opportunities. Sometimes you can create opportunities, and sometimes they just come to you.
My first acknowledgement of thanks is for the U.S. Navy. During my four year enlistment, I must have received something like a year's worth of excellent training. My specialty was fire control computer equipment whose mission was the control of the ship's armament.
The last piece of equipment I worked with before being discharged was a target control system. Considering that it was 1956, the equipment was the latest technology at the time. The target designation computer was fed input from the ship's radar as well as airborne radar, both scanning the skies looking for any hostile or friendly aircraft. Inside the Combat Control Center (CCC) were two television-like displays and four consoles, one for each quadrant of the ship. The officer operating a given console could put the ship's armament in automatic control after selecting a target or could manually control the equipment.
As I got closer to the time of my planned discharge, I began looking for employment in which I could use my newly acquired skills. A friend of mine had applied for an interview with IBM but decided not to go. I called IBM Kingston, told them I had basically the same background as my friend, and asked if I could use his interview appointment. IBM agreed and I took the train from the Brooklyn Navy Yard up to Kingston on the day of the interview.
I think I had a good interview because at that time, IBM gave prospective new employees a battery of apptitude test, and I had a perfect score on two of them and a high score on the third. My interviewer was a bit puzzled though, because whereas I aced the math and logic tests, I scored least on the electronics exam. In any case, I was offered a job to join the IBM team supporting the SAGE contract for the U.S. Air Force. SAGE stood for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, a peculiar name perhaps for a high speed, large scale binary computer system, fully duplexed, with about sixty display consoles, tapes and magnetic drums.
I didn't realize it until later in my IBM career, what an excellent beginning this was for me. Here we are at the turn of the century and only now are some computer users thinking of large scale, fully duplexed, high availability systems, with multiple forms of data input and storage.
During my first six years with IBM, I worked at SAGE sites at Custer Air Force Base (AFB) in Battle Creek, Michigan and later at the Stead AFB in Reno, Nevada. Initially, I spent eight months in training at the IBM Kingston plant, and later came back for two more terms of three months each. Add this to my Navy training, and I had well over two years of intensive computer training.
Some highlights of my six years with the Federal Systems Division and the SAGE systems included such things as my writing my first graphics program in 1959. I wanted to learn how the computer controlled the various displays, so I decided to write a tic-tac-toe program, using the native assembler program of the SAGE system. Each display console was equipped with a 'light gun' (much like the light pen on an IBM 3270 display terminal). When finished, my program could execute sixty-four games simultaneously.
Given that SAGE was an Air Force contract, the eventual goal was to turn over the completed installation to the Air Force and its personnel. Among my observations were that rank meant little when it came to which Air Force personnel seemed to have the ability to use the equipment. This led me to write a number of computer-based training programs, for which I received some IBM awards. The programs simulated various operating conditions in the duplexed computer configuration, and in real time asked the operator to make an observation and take an appropriate action. The programs were distributed to all sites throughout the United States for the training of Air Force personnel.
In 1963, the IBM team at Stead AFB was being downsized and my best career move seemed to be with an offer from the IBM district office in Detroit. Management there knew that the IBM 360 was due to be announced the following year and they wanted some large scale binary systems experience on their staff. Add to this, I also had data communications skills, then called teleprocessing or TP. I moved to Detroit and immediately began teaching 7040/44 and 7090/94 operating systems classes, as well as an Introduction to Data Communications.
I was very busy during 1964-66 because of the increased emphasis on the IBM 360, the introduction of more sophisticated operating systems for the commercial customer and the initial installation of data communications by many customers. Other than the large automotive accounts, most customers were still using unit record equipment or possibly the 1401 or 1410 computers. I also taught some 1401 and 1440 programming classes.
In 1966 I was offered a job with IBM in Chicago, primarily to join the newly formed marketing training staff, but also to continue teaching operating systems and data communications such as QTAM and TCAM. My specialty on the marketing training staff was data communications.
In 1968, my manager at that time called me in one day and asked me to evaluate some products. He gave me a list of about twenty software products and asked me to come back with a recommendation for what the IBM regional staff should do to support whichever ones I thought were of most importance. On the list were products such as the Information Management System (IMS), the Generalized Information System (GIS) and something called the Customer Information Control System (CICS).
During the next few months I visited a lot of locations, talked with many people, attended classes and did as much research into the list of twenty items as I could. My recommendation to my manager was that I thought we, the IBM Midwestern Region (MWR) should provide marketing, education and technical assistance for at least IMS, GIS and CICS. My manager's response was, "fine", and gave me a team of four people to work with to build that support structure. Three of the people were new hires, fresh out of college, and the other was a Systems Engineer (SE) with about one year experience.
Because of the staffing, I gave IMS and GIS responsibilities to others on the team, and by a stroke of fate, I took CICS because it was the lowest code level and most complicated of the three. All of us on the team were cross-trained to teach all products, give presentations and make customer calls, but each of us had a primary responsibility as well. Mine was CICS.
Ben Riggins was the 'father of CICS'. Originally, Ben was located in Richmond, Virginia and his primary account was the Virginia Electric Power Company (VEPCO). In the 1964-67 time period, IBM was selling many of the new IBM 360 computers, as well as much of the new teleprocessing equipment. The problem IBM had however was a lack of both IBM and customer skill knowing how to implement these teleprocessing systems. This concern was most pronounced in the utilities industry but could be found in most any other industry as well.
In the 1967-68 time period, IBM was producing Type I, II and III Application Programs. These were given away with no charge, much like sample programs. Ben came up with the idea that what customers needed was a comprehensive sample program that could read and write TP terminals, initiate transactions and read and write files. This was quite an ambitious proposal at the time because it involved typewriter- like terminals (e.g. teletype, IBM 1050, IBM 2740/41) and access methods such as ISAM (index sequential) and BDAM (basic direct access).
Ben was asked to relocate to Des Plaines, Illinois on Chicago's northwest side, and to lead a small team of programmers to develop his idea for what we know today as CICS. Until I met Ben, late in 1968, I didn't realize that I had trained him and others on his team in such topics as BTAM (basic telecommunications access method).
Since I had assigned myself to be responsible for CICS marketing and education support, I found myself spending a lot of time either out at the Des Plaines facility or talking on the phone with members of Ben's team. I reviewed all the early CICS manuals, and taught my first CICS topic in October 1968.
In 1969, IBM announced 'unbundling' of software and services, and introduced the notion of fee software. Initially, CICS was to be a Type II application program, given away as a free sample, but instead it was selected with other software to be among the first licensed IBM Program Products. IMS and GIS were also selected.
In 1969, I conducted quite a few CICS classes and in 1970, I received an IBM Outstanding Contribution Award for the development of early CICS education. In the period, 1966-68, I continued to teach data communications as part of the marketing training program, as well as internals classes for early versions of the operating system we know today as MVS and OS/390. But because the volume of interest in CICS became so intense, I then restricted myself to supporting just CICS.
In 1970, CICS introduced what was called the Language/Terminal Feature, which added support for COBOL and PL/I and support for terminals such as the binary synchronous 2780. I taught my first high level language class in Minneapolis during a very cold week in December.
In 1970, IBM decided to curtail software proliferation and adopt some kind of data base/data communications strategy. Only CICS, IMS and GIS were considered strategic and marketing and education for any other DB/DC products was quiesced and terminated. And with this decision, the development groups for the three selected products were relocated to Palo Alto, California.
The CICS development team was relocated and began to increase in size. A plan was approved to develop a Disk Operating System (DOS) version of CICS (what we today would call VSE). During 1971, I found myself making monthly trips to Palo Alto to teach new people joining the CICS development team, as well as customers who were installing CICS for the first time. I began to press for my own relocation to Palo Alto, but the volume of CICS business in the Midwestern Region as so large that I was needed there to build an even larger regional staff.
Finally, in 1972, I was promoted and allowed to move to Palo Alto. I relocated in June and as of August, the Palo Alto Systems Center was formed and I was a charter member. I remained with the Palo Alto Systems Center until it closed and was relocated to the Dallas, Texas area in 1979. I was with the Dallas Systems Center until my retirement in 1996. During all this time, I continued my full time technical marketing support for CICS.
For those who know something about IBM job levels, I was promoted to Consulting Systems Engineer in 1972 and then in 1985, I was promoted to Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM). I have the distinction of being the first person in the IBM marketing division to be promoted to that level.
CICS Development relocated from Palo Alto to Santa Teresa, California when the new IBM laboratory was completed there. The mission of the lab was stated to be programming languages and data base systems. Because of that decision, development responsibility for CICS was transferred to the IBM Hursley Lab, just south of Winchester, a city in Hampshire County, some 60 miles west and a bit south of London. In exchange, PL/I Development was relocated from Hursley to Santa Teresa. This move may have been the best thing for CICS.
For personal career reasons, Ben Riggins decided to remain in the Santa Teresa Lab, working as a technical assistant to the Lab Manager. I, on the other hand, continued with CICS and knew that it would be important to maintain contact with CICS Development. So, beginning in the 1974-76 time period, I instituted electronic communications between Palo Alto and Hursley using VM, as well as weekly conference calls. I also instituted semi-annual visits to the Lab with two week technical agendas planned so as to update CICS marketing and education personnel (from the U.S., but other countries as well).
From 1975 to the present, I estimate that I have visited the Hursley Lab at least twice per year and sometimes three and four times. It has been a most enjoyable and rewarding relationship with the Hursley Lab and its people. In the early 1990s, I received a Quality Award from the Lab for my development of the CICS Macro Level Scan Program (DFHMSCAN) and my development of the Data Systems Workload (DSW).
From 1972 to the present, I have been very active in major customer computer user groups, such as SHARE and GUIDE in the United States, and their counterparts in Europe and Asia/Pacific. My career and working with CICS enabled me to visit many countries such as England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore and others. I have always enjoyed travel and combining business and pleasure was certainly an advantage of the job I had.
In 1978 I initiated a plan for updating IBM CICS Specialists, and beginning with our initial conference in Chicago, we conducted such updates annually until the early 1990's. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, I was instrumental in producing CICS television broadcasts for the IBM Field Television Network (FTN). These broadcasts were scheduled almost monthly and in addition to the live presentations with Q&A sessions afterward, the video tapes produced were a valuable byproduct of the effort.
In 1984, I was approached by members of the Hursley Lab and IBM Education to offer my suggestions for how a customer update might be organized and conducted. I had considerable involvement with the first half dozen CICS Technical Conferences, offering advice regarding the agenda and speakers. Once the conference became established, IBM Education and the Hursley Lab have taken complete control of the annual event. What began as a premier education event has now evolved into a marketing trade show complementing the educational agenda.
In 1984, I also sensed a need for more frequent, incremental updates of CICS-interested personnel. I prepared a proposal which was quickly accepted by the IBM regions/area throughout the country. Thus began my series of one day customer seminars, commonly referred to as the 'roadshow'. The number of seminars per year and the location of the seminars varied from year to year, but I would guess in the period 1984 to the present, I must have conducted literally hundreds of seminars and have spoken to tens of thousands of IBMers and customers. In 1996 alone, I personally conducted almost 60 one day seminars.
In 1986, I sensed another need for communications, this time looking for a means to communicating 'new news'. I began to send out VM/PROFS notes to IBM personnel, with the assumption that many or all would in turn distribute those notes to their customer set. Now, some years later, I'm still writing CICS Newsletters, putting out sometimes two per week. The newsletter topics range from new announcements, trade press articles, schedule of user group meetings and other CICS conferences, and so on. A favorite newsletter item is the occasional 'pop quiz', in which I pose questions that CICS-interested people should know, but in the event they don't, I distribute 'my answers' about a week later.
Which brings me up to the present, I guess. I retired from IBM as of December 1996, after working for the company for 40 years. IBM gave me a good career and I think I gave IBM something too. During my first year of so-called retirement, I presented at the CICS Technical Conference and at the SHARE CICS Project meeting, both held in San Francisco in 1997. That same year, I attended the IMS Technical Conference, as well as listening to the free 800 number IBM Teleconferences on CICS-related subjects.
In 1997 I did something I had been wanting to do for a long time, and that was to take one extensive trip around the 48 contiguous United States. From May to August, I drove 19,000 miles, visited those 48 states, took many pictures and hours of video. My trip is documented elsewhere on this web site.
But during my supposed retirement, I continued to receive phone calls and email, asking if I would consider once again offering CICS seminars, and/or would I resume writing of CICS newsletters. To make a long story short, in 1998 I found myself doing just that. I wrote about 60 newsletters and conducted about 25 seminars around the country. Each year, I'm scheduled for more seminars, and probably will write a similar number of newsletters.
My 'retirement' puzzles some people, but it shouldn't. I have always liked my job, doing what I do, and I also like to travel. I tell people, that in my current retirement, I don't have to be anywhere on Monday that I don't want to be. So, I pick and choose how much I want to work and save time for retirement things too. And when I travel on business, I always look for an opportunity to go early or stay late, and visit with friends. I'm having fun.
I hope you found this IBM Profile of some interest. If you have questions or comments about anything I have written here, please let me know.
