Tim Malone, MCSE Camarillo, CA (818) 257-0513 tim@3tcm.net

“Over 30 years of managed expertise in computer technology” INDEX

Technical Support Manager Jun 81 to Sep 82

Delphi Systems Inc, a Software Development company in North Hollywood, CA

Was recruited to be the Technical Support Manager for the PC division of this mini computer software development company. Managed the acquisition and support of PC-based systems for Delphi’s customer base, using mainly Altos and Vector Graphic CP/M & MP/M based systems. Did custom programming in dBASE II and FMS-80. One specific project was a program to track the trade show inventory of a diamond wholesaler based in Sherman Oaks. Also managed two technical staff members who helped support the large customer base.

Delphi Systems was an established mini-computer software development company when I joined them to provide technical support in the microcomputer arena. They had several established products and were the market leaders with most of them. Their top products were “Criterion” and “Oracle”, both of which ran on DEC PDP-11 time-sharing systems and Honeywell DTSS. Do not confuse Delphi’s financial product with Oracle Corporation’s database system. Delphi also had complete mini-computer solutions for the insurance industry and the oil and gas exploration business.

I was recruited and hired by Frank Robinson who was the Vice President of the PC Division. He left the company about a year after I came on board. I then reported to Mike Cann, who was both a CPA and a commercial airline pilot. Mike left the company shortly after I did and went back to flying for United Airlines. The microcomputer division was an experiment that didn’t fly for Delphi. It was disbanded and the operations were merged back in to the main operating unit of the company. Delphi moved to Westlake Village a few years after I left them and then disappeared, by being acquired by Ebix.

From an Ebix web page on the history of the company: “Delphi Information Systems did just fine for 23 years as a vendor of insurance agency management software -- 40% of all insurance premiums in the U.S. flow through its systems, according to Robin Raina, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based company. But Delphi is no more. Though the company will continue to sell software, it recently changed its name to Ebix.com Inc. and refocused as an insurance portal.”

I worked on CP/M and MP/M, which were the only real business operating systems available on a microcomputer at that time. Apple wasn’t considered a business system and the IBM with PC-DOS had just been announced in August of 1981. dBASE II came out in Nov of 1981 and we were one of the first shops to start writing in dBASE. It quickly became my development platform of choice for the next ten years or more. I went on lots of sales calls with the sales staff to provide the technical backup to what they claimed we could do for the prospective customers. Most systems we sold were in the $25,000 to $30,000 price range.

In addition to programming in dBASE and FMS-80, I wrote in BASIC and FORTRAN 78 and learned the OASIS operating system. Delphi sent me to San Francisco for a week’s worth of training on Oasis and I became certified in the OS, but the company didn’t last long (correction: I recently found out that Phase One Systems, the makers of Oasis are still around: http://www.phaseonesystems.com). CP/M, MP/M, Oasis and several other operating systems were run out of business by the standardization of the PC-DOS and MS-DOS world. I also became proficient in supporting MicroPlan, an early Microsoft spreadsheet, T/Maker II, ExecuPlan, Spellbinder and Memorite word processing systems. I also supported Accounting Plus from Systems Plus, which was a popular accounting package at that time.

This online resume can be reached at http://3tcm.net or https://3tcm.com