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