Monday, July 21, 2008
David Caminer, "first corporate electronic systems analyst", dies at 92
I always read obituaries, whence I take history in small bites. And I learn such interesting things in those obituaries, such as the fact that the world's first business computer was not owned by IBM, Procter & Gamble, or General Motors, but by a chain of English tea shops, J. Lyons & Company
Lyons, like the retailer where I did my analytic apprenticeship, is now defunct. However, in the post-WWII years, their LEO (the Lyons Electronic Office) computer, using programs flow-charted by David Caminer, whose death at 92 occasioned the obituary, pioneered such business applications as payroll calculation, which even a first-generation mainframe could do 300 times faster than an experienced clerk. The Ford Motor Company, among others, later bought LEOs.
The volume of SKUs and plethora of calculations of a retailer naturally called forth the talents of electronic brains, as they do today in both the online and offline worlds. Much of what I learned in retail analysis I now apply across a broad range of clients, and for me, it was SAS and Visicalc, then 1-2-3, then Excel, that electronically provided the grist for my nascent analytic mill. And to think it all goes back to David Caminer, and tea shops.
Lyons, like the retailer where I did my analytic apprenticeship, is now defunct. However, in the post-WWII years, their LEO (the Lyons Electronic Office) computer, using programs flow-charted by David Caminer, whose death at 92 occasioned the obituary, pioneered such business applications as payroll calculation, which even a first-generation mainframe could do 300 times faster than an experienced clerk. The Ford Motor Company, among others, later bought LEOs.
The volume of SKUs and plethora of calculations of a retailer naturally called forth the talents of electronic brains, as they do today in both the online and offline worlds. Much of what I learned in retail analysis I now apply across a broad range of clients, and for me, it was SAS and Visicalc, then 1-2-3, then Excel, that electronically provided the grist for my nascent analytic mill. And to think it all goes back to David Caminer, and tea shops.
