To DOS, Windows, AI, and Beyond

The evolution of technology and what comes next with AI (artificial intelligence) and the cloud.

In the 1990s there was a movement away from DOS to software tools to help companies better manage their buildings, roads, homes, and industrial plants, all built on Microsoft Windows platforms. And that was important. Now we are having the same types of discussions about AI (artificial intelligence) and the cloud.

The efficiency of systems integration, over-the- counter hardware and software solutions, thin-client networks, internet connectivity, and the paperless office were among the driving forces that have moved companies beyond older systems of the past.

For example, it was not uncommon to see some mid-size construction companies turn to internet access for their workstations, making them fully integrated systems. They upgraded computer terminals from a DOS 3.1 operating system to Windows 95/NT. At the time, this meant all the systems, even outdated fax programs, cost analysis, scheduling, and project management would be fully integrated.

Making the transition from an existing system to a new system does not happen overnight. And change in any industry is hard, but in construction it is even slower. Some might say too slow. It takes solid real-world examples to convince top brass to make the switch from existing systems to new systems. For instance, making the move from DOS to Windows was never easy back in the 1990s. Companies maintained several legacy systems. In one example, it wasn’t uncommon for a company to maintain an accounting solution running on a Unix-based WAN (wide-area network) connected to several PC workstations. The remote client network allowed the Windows-based PCs to talk to the Unix system.

One accounting customer admittedly took several years before it moved PC applications from DOS platforms to Windows for Workgroups. It slowly made the transition to the Windows 95 operating system. Following suit, it transitioned its accounting functions and software cost analysis solution to a Windows NT server. At the time it also had several small database applications to consider.  

The migration from DOS to Windows-based OS (operating system) runs on the Windows interface. All the internal software products run in the Microsoft Windows NT Server environment, making it easier for users to learn. The GUI (graphical user interface) was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic, employing a common interface across all applications. Microsoft partners structured their products in Microsoft SQL Server as well making them fully ODBC (open database connectivity)-compliant.

Many customers were still running their solutions on Unix servers (connected to desktop PCs running on Windows), looking to move from the Unix environment to the Windows NT operating system.

Once the customers took the leap from the Windows NT environment using a Microsoft database, they started to see more interoperability between software apps, and office automation applications and corporate database applications in the same environment.

People managing projects needed information that was as accurate and current as possible, and the key to making any company move forward is progress. In the past, company executives said what they lacked was current information. They might get a report out of accounting that was old. The idea here was to expand the availability of this information to other people. It was just held up in the accounting department.

The best technologies are the ones your people are comfortable with. We are talking about the tools they are not intimidated by, and that they can manage jobs with. Choose systems they can go in and use knowing they are not going to break something. These are the software systems they can get a report from and pull up a number on a screen. It’s not about printing a 20-page report to capture just a couple of numbers.

If you ask many team members the real reason they hate many systems is that these infrastructures require a lot of training and require in-house IT teams to manage and maintain them. The IT/OT issue creates challenges. It’s simply a matter that they don’t want to go through a lot of hoops to get basic information or to do anything. And the data simply isn’t readily available when they need it because it was locked away in some complicated database or server. Let’s not even get into the lack of transparency here. It’s all about customer experience and immediacy.

Looking back to the year 2000, compliance issues also have had an impact on the migration from DOS to Windows operating systems. Again, talking about the construction industry, thousands of systems built, sold, and maintained since the 1970s had the two-digit year and from an accounting standpoint presented an accounting issue for Y2K.

To head off the impending program, many firms upgraded to Windows 97 or Windows 98 operating systems. Construction firms made significant investments by installing custom programming to become Y2K-compliant or purchasing an off-the-shelf software ready app.

As it turned out these custom, in-house-developed or custom-built systems were replaced with standard products because the cost of developing and updating proved to be laborious and cost prohibitive.

To date, connecting computer systems to the internet is proving to be successful in extending communication and access, and moving beyond Windows NT today, makes that possible for many companies. As more firms discover opportunities by leveraging thin-client applications, there continues to be an even greater need to grow Microsoft computer processes to run on the Microsoft versions well beyond Windows NT and even into Windows 11 today.In the 1990s there was a movement away from DOS to software tools to help companies better manage their buildings, roads, homes, and industrial plants, all built on Microsoft Windows platforms. And that was important. Now we are having the same types of discussions about AI (artificial intelligence) and the cloud.

The efficiency of systems integration, over-the- counter hardware and software solutions, thin-client networks, internet connectivity, and the paperless office were among the driving forces that have moved companies beyond older systems of the past.

For example, it was not uncommon to see some mid-size construction companies turn to internet access for their workstations, making them fully integrated systems. They upgraded computer terminals from a DOS 3.1 operating system to Windows 95/NT. At the time, this meant all the systems, even outdated fax programs, cost analysis, scheduling, and project management would be fully integrated.

Making the transition from an existing system to a new system does not happen overnight. And change in any industry is hard, but in construction it is even slower. Some might say too slow. It takes solid real-world examples to convince top brass to make the switch from existing systems to new systems. For instance, making the move from DOS to Windows was never easy back in the 1990s. Companies maintained several legacy systems. In one example, it wasn’t uncommon for a company to maintain an accounting solution running on a Unix-based WAN (wide-area network) connected to several PC workstations. The remote client network allowed the Windows-based PCs to talk to the Unix system.

One accounting customer admittedly took several years before it moved PC applications from DOS platforms to Windows for Workgroups. It slowly made the transition to the Windows 95 operating system. Following suit, it transitioned its accounting functions and software cost analysis solution to a Windows NT server. At the time it also had several small database applications to consider.  

The migration from DOS to Windows-based OS (operating system) runs on the Windows interface. All the internal software products run in the Microsoft Windows NT Server environment, making it easier for users to learn. The GUI (graphical user interface) was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic, employing a common interface across all applications. Microsoft partners structured their products in Microsoft SQL Server as well making them fully ODBC (open database connectivity)-compliant.

Many customers were still running their solutions on Unix servers (connected to desktop PCs running on Windows), looking to move from the Unix environment to the Windows NT operating system.

Once the customers took the leap from the Windows NT environment using a Microsoft database, they started to see more interoperability between software apps, and office automation applications and corporate database applications in the same environment.

People managing projects needed information that was as accurate and current as possible, and the key to making any company move forward is progress. In the past, company executives said what they lacked was current information. They might get a report out of accounting that was old. The idea here was to expand the availability of this information to other people. It was just held up in the accounting department.

The best technologies are the ones your people are comfortable with. We are talking about the tools they are not intimidated by, and that they can manage jobs with. Choose systems they can go in and use knowing they are not going to break something. These are the software systems they can get a report from and pull up a number on a screen. It’s not about printing a 20-page report to capture just a couple of numbers.

If you ask many team members the real reason they hate many systems is that these infrastructures require a lot of training and require in-house IT teams to manage and maintain them. The IT/OT issue creates challenges. It’s simply a matter that they don’t want to go through a lot of hoops to get basic information or to do anything. And the data simply isn’t readily available when they need it because it was locked away in some complicated database or server. Let’s not even get into the lack of transparency here. It’s all about customer experience and immediacy.

Looking back to the year 2000, compliance issues also have had an impact on the migration from DOS to Windows operating systems. Again, talking about the construction industry, thousands of systems built, sold, and maintained since the 1970s had the two-digit year and from an accounting standpoint presented an accounting issue for Y2K.

To head off the impending program, many firms upgraded to Windows 97 or Windows 98 operating systems. Construction firms made significant investments by installing custom programming to become Y2K-compliant or purchasing an off-the-shelf software ready app.

As it turned out these custom, in-house-developed or custom-built systems were replaced with standard products because the cost of developing and updating proved to be laborious and cost prohibitive.

To date, connecting computer systems to the internet is proving to be successful in extending communication and access, and moving beyond Windows NT today, makes that possible for many companies. As more firms discover opportunities by leveraging thin-client applications, there continues to be an even greater need to grow Microsoft computer processes to run on the Microsoft versions well beyond Windows NT and even into Windows 11 today.