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332 Technical Workstations

Table 12-3. Assumptions Made in Ardent's Business Plan Versus Actual Outcomes.

Risk

Assumption Outcome
Staffing

Would take 1—3 months.

Took 6 months.
Large-scale integration (LSI) Looked hard, risky. Not a significant problem but was a bit more costly than anticipated.
Software Would be complex. Did more than the plan: Operating system (0/S), compiler, and visualization software exceeded plan.
Hardware Was not mentioned. Required almost twice the originally anticipated engineering effort.
Customers 70% would be OEMs. OEM strategy failed to materialize; had to build a sales force oriented toward end users.
Applications Would be necessary. Took much time and was costly. Users wanted more.
Offshore manufacturing Was provided for in the plan. Occurred and was much better than expected with Kubota.
Product cost Would be $50,000. Was over $80,000. Too far off plan. Major perturbation.
Other   First (beta) shipment was 5/88, not 7/87.



Japan and Southeast Asia, and developing software for mechanical design and manufacturing.
As a graphics supercomputer, Ardent's first product, Titan, was significantly more difficult to develop than anticipated, resulting in almost twice the development

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