ASK Group facts for kids
ASK Group, Inc. was a company that made special computer programs for businesses and factories. It's best known for its Manman software, which helped companies plan their work. It's also famous because of Sandra Kurtzig, who started the company. She was one of the first women to become a leader in the computer world. At its busiest time, ASK had 91 offices in 15 countries. Later, another company called Computer Associates bought ASK in 1994.
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How it Started and Grew (1972–1982)
ASK was started in 1972 by Sandra Kurtzig in California. She left her job at General Electric and used $2,000 of her own money to begin the company. She worked from her apartment at first.
The company first created different computer programs for businesses. ASK officially became a company in 1974.
In 1978, Sandra Kurtzig created ASK's most important product, called Manman. The name Manman was short for "manufacturing management." Manman was a big computer program, known as an ERP program. It ran on Hewlett-Packard HP-3000 minicomputers. These were smaller computers than the giant ones called mainframes.
Manman helped manufacturing companies plan what materials to buy and how to schedule their production. This kind of planning was usually only possible with very large, expensive computers before Manman. Manman was designed for small and medium-sized factories. Companies could even use the software by sharing computer time, which made it cheaper.
When Manman only worked on HP-3000 systems, ASK would buy these computers at a lower price. Then, they would sell them along with their programs as "turnkey systems." This meant the whole system was ready to use for $125,000 to $300,000.
The name ASK first stood for "Arie and Sandra Kurtzig." Arie was Sandra's husband. Later, Sandra said the "A" stood for Associates. This was because her husband worked for Hewlett Packard (HP), and ASK's software was sold for both HP computers and those made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
Manman was a huge success. It quickly became the top software for manufacturing systems. Because of this, ASK grew very fast. The company started selling shares to the public in 1981. This is called an IPO. Just two years later, Sandra Kurtzig's share in the company was worth over $40 million.
Challenges and Changes (1983–1989)
New Products and Difficulties (1983-1984)
In March 1983, ASK bought another software company called Software Dimensions, Inc. This company made a program called Accounting Plus. ASK paid $6 million for it. After buying it, Kurtzig renamed it ASK Micro. She tried to sell the new product very aggressively.
However, ASK hired too many people and didn't manage the sales well. This made existing sellers angry and cost the company a lot of money. The product didn't do well. In June 1984, Kurtzig announced that she was closing ASK Micro. This cost the company $1 million. ASK also tried to make Manman work on personal computers, but they failed. Kurtzig admitted that they made mistakes with Software Dimensions. ASK never really succeeded in the market for smaller computers. They struggled to keep their share as other companies offered similar programs on smaller systems.
Manman: Price Changes and Leadership Shifts (1984-1989)
By late 1984, ASK planned to offer Manman for about one-third of its original price. This was possible because Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) were selling their minicomputers for less. ASK hoped to keep its customers and attract new ones.
However, by 1985, ASK started to decline as its customers spent less money. To make things worse, Kurtzig and her family began selling many of their company shares. This led to a lawsuit from other shareholders. Kurtzig also started to step back from running ASK every day. In 1984, she named Ronald W. Branniff as president. In 1985, he also became the chief executive officer. Kurtzig said family reasons, including raising her two sons, made her less interested in the business.
Even though the company still made a profit, ASK's earnings and sales dropped in 1986. They fell to $5.89 million in profit from $76 million in sales. In 1987, ASK bought NCA Corporation for $43 million. This was a lot of money for a competitor that was often winning against them. Despite these small steps, ASK was losing ground to other companies. They focused almost all their efforts on improving old products instead of creating new ones. Salespeople found it hard to sell their old-fashioned software. ASK had lost its creative edge.
Meanwhile, Kurtzig had been traveling, writing her life story, and investing in other tech companies. But she found this unfulfilling. In mid-1989, the ASK board asked Kurtzig to come back and lead the company again, and she agreed. Kurtzig led ASK to buy Data 3 Systems for $18.7 million. This was another company that competed with ASK. Besides this expansion, Kurtzig began to change how her old company was run. She shifted the company's focus and priorities to new products. She even changed small but important things, like the food and beer at the company's Friday parties. She wanted to help managers and employees feel more connected. She also started "360-degree reviews," where employees reviewed their bosses. She hired new, creative managers and helped ASK's products work on IBM and Sun Microsystems computers. She also opened offices in Europe and Asia. These improvements helped the company earn $13.5 million in 1989.
Decline and Sale (1990–1994)
In 1990, ASK bought the Ingres Corporation. Ingres was a company that made a database management system called Ingres. As part of the deal, 30 percent of ASK was sold to Hewlett-Packard and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $60 million. This money then allowed ASK to pay $110 million for Ingres. ASK's shareholders complained about this complicated way of financing. One shareholder, James Lennane, who owned ten percent of the company, said he would try to remove the company's board of directors. Despite this, Kurtzig's deal went ahead.
ASK already used Ingres software in its own work. It helped connect the accounting and manufacturing parts of its clients' businesses to its own database. Hewlett-Packard made the computers that much of ASK's software ran on. ASK also resold Hewlett-Packard products with its software packages. Both Hewlett-Packard and EDS had strong experience with manufacturing businesses. This connection promised to open more markets for ASK.
Even though this seemed like good news, ASK had average results for the next few months. This was because business slowed down while the company tried to bring new products to market. With its new purchases, ASK had grown beyond its original focus. It became a much larger, global company with many different products. The combined ASK and Ingres group had yearly sales of $400 million.
In the early 1990s, ASK focused on creating new products. These products were designed to help different computer systems and programs talk to each other. In 1992, the company released Manman/X, an updated version of its main product. Manman/X was built using code from a Dutch company called Baan. ASK had bought the rights to this code and its distribution in the 1990s.
In 1992, ASK changed its structure to better match its operations. The company was renamed ASK Group, Inc. It had three main parts: ASK Computer Systems, Data 3, and Ingres. After the merger of ASK and Ingres was finished, Kurtzig stepped down as CEO in 1991. However, she remained the non-executive chairman until 1992. Even though ASK seemed ready to face the tough computer industry, its fortunes continued to decline. ASK's yearly sales reached almost $1 billion before Computer Associates bought the company in 1994.
ManMan Product Family
Manman was a group of Enterprise resource planning (ERP) programs. They were sold for Hewlett Packard HP-3000 and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) minicomputers. The company that made Manman, ASK Group, was founded by Sandra Kurtzig. At its peak, ASK sold this software from 91 offices in 15 countries. By 1994, yearly sales reached almost $1 billion. Then, Computer Associates (CA) bought the company. Both the software and CA later faced challenges.
The name Manman was "short for manufacturing management." Its parts included:
- Manman/AP: A program for accounts payable. This helped manage money the company owed to others. Since HP and DEC computers were time-sharing systems, people could enter and change data directly from a computer terminal.
- Manman/MFG: This helped plan and keep track of the manufacturing process.
- Manman/OMAR: This was for order management and AR. This software tracked orders "until payment is received."
- Manman/GL: This was for the general ledger, which keeps track of all financial transactions.
Some ideas for these programs came from founder Kurtzig's experience at "General Electric, known for being a well-run manufacturing company." ASK also sold programs for payroll, budgeting, and other analyses.
In the early days of Manman, when it only ran on HP-3000 systems, ASK would buy these systems at a discount. Then, they would resell them "with its programs for $125,000 to $300,000" as turnkey systems. This meant the whole system was ready to use.
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