CONTACTS 
0201 - A. I. Systems, Inc.                801 363 6119 fax 6125
020101 - Mr. Steve Peterson; President

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Demonstrations
Support for Product Development, Windows Version
Market Potential

0705 -    ..
0706 - Summary/Objective
0707 -
070701 - Followed up work at ref SDS 7 line 31.  Explained principals of POIMS
070702 - and the SDS product.  Demonstrated SDS in the afternoon and discussed
070703 - prospects of AI Systems supporting development of a Windows version of
070704 - SDS.  Steve will consider this further and submit comments on this
070705 - opportunity.
070706 -
070707 - Submitted ref DIT 1 line 30 confirming these understandings. Included
070708 - POIMS documents.
070709 -
070710 -
0708 -
0709 -
0710 - Discussion
0711 -
071101 - Steve's firm, A.I. Systems, Inc., seems to have develop Autocad
071102 - applications for Windows.  I explained my interest in finding an
071103 - organization to create a Windows version of SDS.
071104 -
071105 - Mentioned the PMI conference in Vancouver, ref SDS 3 line 39.
071106 -
071107 -    Steve asked how POIMS was received?
071108 -
071109 -    I indicated the requests for follow up per, ref SDS 3 line 68.
071110 -
071111 -
071112 - Steve asked me to come by at 1600 to show SDS to him and a colleague.
071113 -
071114 -
071115 -
0712 -
0713 -
0714 - 1500 Demonstration
0715 -
071501 - Showed the basic SDS features.  Steve seems mildly interested in
071502 - creating an SDS Windows program.  He likes the idea of using Windows
071503 - programming features to implement the SDS design of organizing all
071504 - information to produce "knowledge," and providing instant structured
071505 - access to that knowledge, regardless of which program is used to
071506 - create the initial information.
071507 -
071508 -
071509 - Programming Outsourcing
071510 -
071511 - Steve feels some programing can be accomplished off-shore.  He has
071512 - worked successfully with Chinease firms on prior projects, and feels
071513 - they may be able to produce the needed code at reduced cost.  His
071514 - Chinease hosts gave him a tour of the Great Wall.  He feels programing
071515 - support is also available in India.  This would reduce the cost of
071516 - creating Windows code with supervision from the US.
071517 -
071518 -
071519 -
071520 - Voice Data Entry
071521 -
071522 - Voice data entry would greatly facilitate the acceptance of this type
071523 - of tool, especially for the executive support market.  I explained
071524 - research with IBM at ref SDS 2 line 171.
071525 -
071526 -
071527 -
071528 -
0716 -

SUBJECTS
Managers Fear They Don't Know What to Write
Not Enough Time to Write More
SDS Used alot, Like a Truck Driver Drives a
Consistent Use of Good Practice Needs
Short Cuts on Sound Management Practice
Slippery Slope Ignoring/Deleting Record,
SDS Supports Effective Executive Work

1510 -
151001 -      ..
151002 -     Investing Intellectual Capital
151003 -
151004 -     Steve asked how much time I spend entering the record.  I indicat-
151005 -     ed it depends upon the importance of the issues.  This is a common
151006 -     concern, as seen by similar questions at PMI Conference, per the
151007 -     record on 941017. ref SDS 4 0000  I have learned from experience
151008 -     that more time spent writing in SDS, makes me more productive, the
151009 -     way a pilot uses an airplane to more passengers and freight, SDS
151010 -     technology produces more knowledge and ideas, and this means less
151011 -     time correcting mistakes and greater rewards from discovering
151012 -     critical nuance that is overlooked in the rush to embrace the
151013 -     "Information Highway."
151014 -
151015 -          ..
151016 -         Feel Good Management - Slippery Slope to Murphy's Law
151017 -
151018 -         Wayne Wetzel expressed frustration in our discussion yester-
151019 -         day, about the legal system and poor performance of experi-
151020 -         enced project management firms like Tudor Engineers and Voith
151021 -         Hydro to carry out their contracts on the Broadwater Dam
151022 -         project, ref SDS 5 line 81.
151023 -
151024 -         I believe management failures mostly arise from taking short
151025 -         cuts aimed at "expediting" the work, rather than a deliberate
151026 -         effort to cheat or even a lack of management skills.  It is a
151027 -         slippery slope to convince oneself and an entire organization
151028 -         that not applying good management practice, "fudging" on
151029 -         contract provisions, and not capturing the record are the same
151030 -         as "expediting."  Good intentions in combination with lack of
151031 -         perspective about the value of history, lead to seemingly
151032 -         minor breakdowns on the Information Highway. Cumulative
151033 -         breakdowns that are not corrected, lead to tactical ignorance
151034 -         and later insidious coverups.  Gradually good people are led
151035 -         inexorably to disasterous ends, see also ref SDS 8 line 186.
151036 -
151037 -              [See example on Corps of Engineers project, ref SDS 9
151038 -              line 128.]
151039 -
151040 -         The only solution is to role the record over into controll-
151041 -         able action items with SDS, so that the work we do and the
151042 -         decisions taken, are adequately informed.  Therefore, Invest-
151043 -         ing intellectual capital is not an "extra step" that takes
151044 -         "extra time", but rather is the essence of a manager's job to
151045 -         convert information into knowledge.
151046 -
151047 -         SDS works because it automates the implementation of sound
151048 -         management practice.  It makes it faster to capture the record
151049 -         and gain essential understanding of facts and implications, so
151050 -         objectives of time and cost can be attained.  This is the
151051 -         reward of writing in the record, as I am doing now.
151052 -
151053 -             SDS is Faster than
151054 -             Traditional Methods
151055 -
151056 -             I shared the discussion with the attendant at the museum
151057 -             of history where we visited this afternoon.  SDS takes
151058 -             much less time to capture the record, than was needed by
151059 -             the painter who captured the history of the Mormon trek
151060 -             West to establish a great community next to Salt Lake, ref
151061 -             SDS 7 line 75.
151062 -
151063 -
151064 - Steve feels that many prospective customers will find the rewards of
151065 - history and integrated scheduling and reporting, difficult to grasp in
151066 - advance of gaining experience with SDS, and therefore, voice data
151067 - entry will make SDS more attractive by making it easier to acquire the
151068 - skills of POIMS technology.
151069 -
151070 - I agree.  SDS with voice data entry and a Windows GUI will be a strong
151071 - product.
151072 -
151073 -
151074 - Spreadsheet for Knowledge
151075 -
151076 - I showed how SDS integrates the concepts of Wordprecessing and
151077 - Spreadsheets, to create a new and better tool to convert information
151078 - into knowledge, as explained in the papers on POIMS technology, ref
151079 - OF 1 line 198.
151080 -
151081 -
151082 -
151083 -
1511 -

SUBJECTS
Market Potential
Strategies

1705 -
170501 - Market Potential
170502 -
170503 - SDS can ride the wave of recognition of wordprocessing and spreadsheet
170504 - products which dominate PC application sales, to steer this vast pool
170505 - of customers to a better future.  People who use wordprecessing will
170506 - more and more feel the pressure from E-Mail, meetings and calls to
170507 - find a better way to capture and retrieive information.  SDS is the
170508 - only logical solution for this natural progression along the tech-
170509 - nology curve.  Additionally, SDS can bring a large new group of users
170510 - into the market:  managers and executives.  This market is still using
170511 - pen and paper to take notes.  But, like the engineer at Intel, they
170512 - long for a way to use automation to perform their work (see review at
170513 - ref SDS 1 line 203.
170514 -
170515 -     David Vineer says holding up a notepad:  This is my laptop, today.
170516 -     I'm looking for something that replaces this.  This is it.  This
170517 -     is what I want.  When I can do everything that I can do with this
170518 -     pad of paper and this pen, I might be happy. That means being able
170519 -     to tear things out and hand them to my secretary.  It means being
170520 -     able to draw pictures, it means being able to put in text, it
170521 -     means being able to keep my calendar, and everything else.  This
170522 -     is my calendar.  So, this is how I live, and this is what I'm
170523 -     looking to replace.  If you can imagine this is a laptop, this in
170524 -     electronics, that's how I can account for 15 million transistors.
170525 -     Now what do I do past that?  I guess I can start talking to it.
170526 -     (Byte April 11, 1991 "A Talk with Intel.")
170527 -
170528 - SDS can make this dream come true.
170529 -
170530 -
170531 - Marketing Strategy
170532 -
170533 - Steve offered ideas about marketing SDS through established organiza-
170534 - tions like Franklin Day Timer or Wordperfect after creating the
170535 - Windows product.  He feels that it is more difficult to launch a new
170536 - product today than 10 years ago, because larger firms can produce a
170537 - similar product and then take over the market.  We considered the
170538 - prospects of moderating this risk, by strategic release of SDS
170539 - features over an extended period, rather than include all of the
170540 - features in the initial release.  The fact that new users require a
170541 - period of time to absorb levels of application, before they bump into
170542 - the need for certain features, enhances the viability of this concept.
170543 -
170544 - Gave Steve a copy of the SDS brochure.
170545 -
170546 - Follow Up
170547 -
170548 - I will send him a copy of the POIMS article.  He plans to discuss this
170549 - opportunity with colleagues, and will then submit a letter setting out
170550 - his initial ideas about proceeding with the project.
170551 -
170552 -
1706 -