The initial Windows environment was limited in many ways and Microsoft were keen to release a more updated version which could make use of more memory as soon as it was available. Version 2 supported overlapping Windows and triggered a long, contentious legal battle with Apple who claimed rights to aspects of the design. Zerox even joined in after a few years claiming Apple had copied designs from its own systems anyway!
The SCAN1000 software worked fine on the new version and this became the standard for several years to come.
Sales
Our team expanded to include sales and marketing expertise. Our sales 'team', initially Dick, then a short term addition of an engineering friend led us to think that we needed a 'professional' sales person. One was employed and a new car purchased accordingly. Also, office personel with marketing skills were taken on increasing the workload required to just maintain the company - Dick had to spend increasing amounts of time with accounts, looking for finance, generating new leads, updating product information along with the general running of the company. Upstairs in technical we had a continuous demand for additions to the software with functionality and interfacing to new hardware being required.
A couple of sales in power generation helped to establish a recognisable user base:
- Scottish Power Cockenzie Power Station
- Manx Electricity Authority Pulrose Power Station
An early adapter of SCAN1000 had interfaced their hardware via a protocol designed jointly with Hexatec and this was put to good use as the hardware suited the harsh industrial environment of a power station. Hexatec was also able to develop networking skills as we implemented a Novell network based on Token Ring Technology which was at that time a more robust alternative to ethernet.
The following years saw initially slow but steady increase in the customer base for SCAN1000 with our office systems expanding to cater with increased demand and our software team expanding to offer as wide a range of software as possible both for SCAN1000 and for other, bespoke designs. Eventually over 35 drivers were designed for various hardware including plug-in PC cards, PLCs, and remote networked devices. The ‘clunky’ graphics compiler for SCAN1000 mimic displays was replaced by a graphics editor more in keeping with Windows.
Early 1989 and a comprehensive 'Agents Pack' was produced and used to develop our distributor and reseller network. Marketing now saw an increase in adverts, press releases and magazine articles, all to attract custom. We now had a range of small system designers / manufacturers using our products. Some had data acquisition hardware such as Anville Instruments Series 400 and Series 420 whilst others combined our software with 3rd party hardware to create complete systems. Increasingly, we created different 'levels' of product, based largely on the number of 'tags' or inputs that could be supported. This enabled us to price versions of SCAN1000 suitable for the connected hardware.
Windows too developed and started to become more of a standard with the release of version 3 and then 3.1 in 1992. The 3.1 release was a major factor in increased software uptake with it proving to be a more reliable product. In 1993 Hexatec were invited by Microsoft to be involved with the beta testing of Windows For Workgroups – the first version of Windows to offer seamless network connectivity. We decided to 'parallel' Windows release and in 1990 then 1992 released:
In an area increasingly dominated by ‘big name’ brands we were finding it more difficult to sell what was now a 10 year old product. SCAN1000 had developed as a 16 bit application but was limited in a number of ways. First, the design was based on a chart recorder / 10 line page display. Although user designed mimic display could be created, the system had structural limitations. Second, developing interfaces took a lot of development time and effort, not always producing many sales. Windows NT and then Windows 95 were able to run 32 bit programs with much more memory available. This led us to follow several new lines of development using a 32 bit object orientated language, C++, with the first being a new graphics system designed by Kaleel - GX. This required supporting interprocess communications between it's 32 bit environment and the rest of SCAN1000 which was 16 bit. The design made it much easier to design graphical display pages by using drag-drop techniques which becoming common in applications. Also, the design allowed other programmers to create 'objects'.
Saturn
1995 and a new product was started by Jon, one of our engineers, of what was to become Saturn (runs rings around rivals!). Initially without graphics and using sockets for interprocess communications it was designed to be easily configurable with a wide range of ‘objects’ in the way other software products had developed.
A basic design document showed the way the product was to be designed. A good part of the original design was eventually completed as can be seen in the final product although at this time, the problem of I/O interfaces was not yet resolved.