The beginning of the end was the dismissal of Frank Dodge. Then, corporate management shifted from Framingham, MA, to Atlanta. MSA management kept pulling to Atlanta all of the Framingham functions, laying off mostly just M&Ders. It was a horrible time.

It seemed to me that the plan was to rid the world of everything M&D, not because the products or services were bad, but because it belonged to M&D. After the takeover, the atmosphere was one of hostility, sneakiness, and discontent. The company would probably still be around today in some form if the takeover had not happened, and Frank Dodge had remained in charge. I loved working at M&D. It was a great experience. What a shame…

The internal project “Screen Paint” was much like what SAP is. The idea of RIO’s(relational input output) and REM’s(Record Edit Modules) to handle editing and data integrity was ahead of its time. It was just a struggle to deliver it on time. I still remember installing it at HBO in NYC and Society National Bank before they pulled the plug. Somewhere I still have a VHS copy of the Mission Impossible tape made to celebrate the project.

Thanks to all the MSA’ers that have remind me of the incredible time we had at MSA. The Olympian celebrations, the annual banquet at the FOX and all the Interacts were some of the best times I have ever had. Thanks for the memories.

They had no clue about production and inventory control software and essentially ruined the business.

They were acutely paranoid people that freaked out when E-Systems informed me that they would not be calling anymore until the recording device was removed from the phone system. They were recording the first 10 seconds of every phone call, looking for headhunters calling “their” people.

On the other hand, we had an MSA critter calling programmers all day, every day, trying to recruit then from other companies. I was told that he was a “recruiter”, not a “headhunter”.

If they found out that you were job hunting, you were immmediately fired.

Although they knew almost nothing about production and inventory control systems and even less about selling them, they made it very clear that if they wanted any help or information that they would ask.

Obviously, you cannot get creative with general ledger software, but manufacturing software is highly custom, and Arista had an entire department devoted to doing custom modifications for our customers. MSA decided that modifying a standard software product was stupid and that our customers should learn to adapt to the “standard” product. That angered the customer base and surprised the MSA folks.

Arista and Comserv were strong rivals and sold hard against each other for years. So, MSA bought Comserv. If you found a manufacturing software prospect, what would you sell him? Another really dopey move on their part.

Basically, MSA took a company that was the #1 provider of manufacturing software to Fortune 500 companies and tanked it on their watch.

I’m grateful to MSA because the showed me that I just didn’t have the DNA to tolerate stupid corporate bullshit any more, so I became an entrepreneur.

I agree that John Imlay was a really funny guy, but he wasn’t the force behind MSA then, just the face of it.

The MSA approach was great - hire bright people, give them training and opportunity and, most importantly, give them more responsibility if they could handle it, irrespective of age, connections, sex etc.

What a shame the Bainite’s and other managed to turn 2 500 million dollar companies into one 300 million dollar comapny in the space of a year or 2. Still, our own fault for hiring the idiots in the first place.

Imlay was a true leader and front man. He also made sure he had a detail guy (Graves) close behind him and that is a lesson we all can learn.

I am still in touch with many ex-MSA’ers. The UK IT sector is littered with them. If only we had a secret handshake.

To this day Imlay is the only guy I purposefully lost to at golf!

That was the ‘key’ learning experience I gained from my tenure at MSA.

I now live on Maui and owe it all to the software industry experience of the 70’s and 80’s

What ever happened to Andy Walton? Beth Hunt - ru out there somewhere?

Aloha

Those years during the 1980’s were truly the “Golden Age” of mainframe software. Lavish spending, international meetings in exotic locations, and pleasant work environments. Little did we realize that some dark clouds were on the horizon: Personal computers and the imminent recession of the 1990’s!!!

All good things come to an early end. Budgets tightened, good companies swallowed by larger greedy companies, cubicles instead of offices with windows, glass windows replaced by Microsoft Windows, slow decline of mainframe software, etc. ADR was bought by Computer Associates, and most ADR people were immediately laid off. Office environments became less friendly, benefits reduced, and more internal competition among employees at most companies. Loyalty became extinct, and mainframe software programmers were put on the “endangered species list.” The Golden Age is over, and now we can only reminisce.

Alan Dash (ex-Computer Sciences Corp. and Fuyo)