History of DATASPEED®

DATASPEED® is a software development company specialising in the programming of IBM or compatible computers.

DATASPEED® commenced in 1975 as a Computer Bureau with the purchase of the first Prime Computer in Australia. We became the first company in Australia to offer an on-line real time bureau service. In addition to processing all of their data, we were also responsible for developing all of the software for our customers including Golden Press (subsidiary of Consolidated Press) and Times House (subsidiary of News Limited). As well as the usual direct mailing Membership-billing type of programs, we also developed and processed their Accounting systems - General Ledger, Cashbook, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable.

As computers became more accessible, an increasing number of our bureau customers turned in-house. We therefore decided to close the bureau service enabling us to concentrate solely on the development of the PC market. From the early 1980's, DATASPEED® began developing software for the micro computers. The first generation was the Diablo 2000 series computers, followed by the CPM base computers, and finally the IBM Personal Computers. With PC's becoming more popular, our early PC customers started requesting Multi-User for their applications. At this point, networking was in its early stages. As there was no multi-user programming tool available, we developed our own multi-user file handler (DataBase Management System) for our software. We are proud of the fact that we were one of the first software company's in the world to offer true multi-user facilities on PC's.

From the early 1980's to the late 1990's, DATASPEED® software was a DOS based system. We found from past experience that one of the benefits of using our own file handler was that should file corruption occur, we generally were able to patch it. Using a system developed with a third party DBMS there is no way of patching files should corruption occur, one generally would have to restore from backup, hence losing all work done since the last backup. There were hundreds of occasions where our customers either neglected to do their backup or were unable to retrieve their backup. Due to the fact that we were able to patch their data, valuable time and work was saved.

In 1996, DATASPEED® started to receive constant pressure from a majority of our DOS clients to re write our software to a Windows Platform. In 1997, a survey was sent out to all of our DOS clients regarding the possibility of us re writing the software in Visual Basic, and whether we would have the support of our clients (in particular the NSW Bus Industry) to finance this venture. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, with approximately 75% of clients at the time suggesting they would definitely be interested in purchasing our software, if it was written in Windows.

In mid 1998, a decision was made to 'bite the bullet' and commence this enormous task. This meant we had to start employing full time programmers to assist us with the task of writing the software, installing, supporting and later even modifying/tailoring it for each clients unique requirements. This has meant a large structural (and financial) change to our family business, having had to have employ a total of 7 full time programmers over the past 5 years.

Over 30 modules had been developed in DOS over a period of approximately 15 years. The majority of modules have been tailored from the 'off the shelf' package originally developed, to suit individual clients needs and demands. Hence for any given module, there could be up anywhere up to 20 different variations of the program being operated.

Present Day Windows Software

As at the beginning of 2006, DATASPEED® successfully has developed about 15 modules in Windows. These modules include the generic bus-specific modules (SSTS, Payroll, Vehicle Maintenance, Stock & inventory, Charter Bookings, Shifts and Rosters, Audit Compliance), as well as the general accounting systems (General Ledger, Cashbook, Creditors, Debtors, Asset Register etc) & the Produce Markets system. With all of these modules, we had a reasonably sized customer base in DOS. We therefore could justify absorbing the large development costs up front to write the modules, on the belief we would get some returns from these DOS clients as they migrated across to Windows.

Our software has been used in such events as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games (where the DATASPEED® software and staff played an integral part on the success of the high quality bus/coach transport that was delivered to the world), 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane and most recently the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.