The latest step in IBM’s strenuous efforts to create some degree of homogeneity across its disparate product lines is a pair of SolutionPac Office Series suites, one for 370s under VM, the other on System 36, supporting the IBM Personal line as terminals, and also Profs terminals. IBM SolutionPac Office Series (VM Edition) includes electronic mail, text, notes, calendar, decision support, relational data base and query functions for both fixed function displays and intelligent workstations. Personal Computer menus are consistent with the host menus and the host operating system is VM/IS. The primary text software for the SolutionPac Office Series is the DisplayWrite family, with DisplayWrite/370 on the host, DisplayWrite/4 on the Personal. It uses DCA and DIA in conjunction with the Profs-DisOSS bridge. Set for August, it costs from $51,690 to $157,095 for the base system, to $101,655 to $365,965 with Decision Support and Data Base Query extensions. The SolutionPac Office Series (System/36 Edition) supports the System/36, 5360 and 5362, with a minimum of 1Mb memory and 260Mb disk, and Personal XTs or ATs as terminals. Text software is IBM DisplayWrite/36 and IBM Language Dictionary. Business communications and administrative support is provided by Personal Services/36. Personal Computer support is provided by IBM PC Support/36. PCS/36 Organiser provides a common menu for the end user. Text software on the Personal is DisplayWrite/4 with Enhanced 5250 Emulation. Optional Software Query support on the System/36 is optional and is provided by IBM Query/36. Decision Support is optional and is provided by the IBM Personal Decision Series Version 2. Prices are Base Office Function, One-Time Charge, $10,420 or $9,165 on Distributed Systems Licence Option (DSLO), $9,165. Base plus Query/36 is $11,370; $10,000 on distributed licence option.
