Date:         Fri, 18 Apr 1997 10:11:08 -0400
Reply-To:     MICHAEL.RAITHEL@RAITHM49.CUSTOMS.SPRINT.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Michael A. Raithel" <MICHAEL.RAITHEL@RAITHM49.CUSTOMS.SPRINT.COM>
Subject:      Re: (MVS) SAS vs SPSS

 Andrew Kowalczyk posted the following:
 
 >I think the greatest single factor in giving SAS its position in the
 >market was the set of routines, written in SAS, offered by Barry
 >Merrill (spelling?) which analyzed the log files of an MVS system.
 >
 >Every system programmer in the world wanted to  do this and just had
 >to get SAS installed on their system. Thus almost every large MVS
 >facility has SAS lurking somewhere.
 >
 >The follow on is that some researcher or statistician wants to do
 >analysis and gets steered to SAS - "be a good fellow and use SAS since
 >we already have it. There is no money budgeted this year to buy SPSS."
 >
 >And then the MIS department finds that it is simpler to produce
 >accounting reports in SAS than COBOL and it gets even more ingrained.
 >
 >I would go so far as to say that the Barry Merrill stuff was the
 >"killer app" for SAS.
 >
 >("killer app"  - a computer application, initially available for only
 >one platform, that is so useful and compelling that you go get the new
 >platform just to use this application - examples: Visicalc on the
 >Apple II, Lotus 123 on the IBM-PC, Desk Top Publishing on the
 >Macintosh)
 
 Andrew, WOW; you hit the nail right on the head with that one!  Your
 comments essentially capture my experience with the evolution of the
 SAS System for Information Delivery at four large organizations that
 run MVS on mainframe computers.
 
 The only difference in our experiences is that some of those sites
 opted for MICS.  MICS was originally introduced by Morino Associates,
 which became LEGENT Corporation (merging with Dusquene Systems), which
 was bought out by Computer Associates.  MICS (now CA-MICS) also reads
 MVS SMF/RMF data (and many other data sources) and creates SAS "data
 bases" of performance metrics.
 
 So, I would say that MXG and CA-MICS were the original killer aps for
 SAS at many MVS sites.  Of course, now the applications folks are busy
 creating killer apps of their own...
 
 Thanks for reminding me that I am not the ONLY person who came to SAS
 out of the Systems Programming environment!
 
 
 I hope that this suggestion proves helpful now, and in the future!
 
 Of course, all of these opinions and insights are my own, and do not
 reflect those of my organization or my associates.
 
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Michael A. Raithel
 E-mail: maraithel@mcimail.com
 Author: Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 ...is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder, thunder and
 lightning couldn't be bolder...
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++