So many aspects of both business and life are dominated by a choice between the value and convenience of a package deal and the freedom to opt for the best parts.
This is just as true when choosing between a set menu or opting to go a la carte at a restaurant, as it is when choosing the right IT support package for your business, and the right decision often depends on how much this choice and freedom matters to how you run your business.
There is no right or wrong answer here, and many businesses will choose a package deal for one aspect of their IT and telecommunications systems, and be more selective when a narrow focus matters most.
For example, most businesses opt for an office suite such as Microsoft 365 (Formerly Microsoft Office), as it provides the best deal for a collection of software your business is likely to use significantly.
At the same time, many companies opt for separate accounting or database systems on top of this, depending on the needs of the company, as well as additional tools such as image manipulation and video editing.
However, not every all-in-one solution is as popular as Microsoft Office has been, and one of the most infamous examples of the whole not matching the sum of its parts is one of the first widely used hybrid computers.
The Silly Wizard
In the early years of IT systems, there were no standardised expectations for what a computer needed to do, and as a result, there were a lot of thoroughly bizarre business machines on the market, particularly those targeted at small businesses.
By far the strangest was the One Per Desk, a telecommunications terminal and personal computer built by International Computers Limited based on a collaborative design between themselves, British Telecom and Sinclair Research.
When this collaboration was originally announced in 1981, Sinclair Research was one of the biggest mass-market computer manufacturers in the United Kingdom, but despite considerable success with the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, its late owner Sir Clive Sinclair wanted to move into the business computer market.
The result of this was the Sinclair QL, a business-minded computer intended for small businesses but seemingly without any market research on what businesses actually wanted, which formed the basis of the computer element of the One Per Desk.
This included the rather infamous inclusion of the Microdrive, a small storage tape format that was as unique and innovative as it was hopelessly reliable.
Alongside this was a telephony module built into the left-hand side of the computer with two PTSN lines, a modem and even a speech synthesiser for automatic call responses.
It was originally intended to also feature Sinclair’s rather bizarre flat-screen CRT technology used in the TV80, although this was quickly abandoned in favour of a more conventional and affordable monitor.
The One Per Desk was notoriously delayed because every single part of the system on SInclair’s end faced technological and financial troubles, eventually released in 1985 with a repackaged version sold by Telecom Australia as the Computerphone and by BT as the Merlin Tonto.
Whilst named after BT’s Merlin department at the time, coincidentally sharing the name of the sidekick from the TV show The Lone Ranger and an acronym for “The Outstanding New Telecoms Opportunity”, Tonto is also the Spanish word for “silly” or “fool”, which is a rather ominous name for a productivity system.
It was intended to be a centralised all-in-one system for business and government needs, with an optional application suite known as Xchange providing a simple integrated office suite that loads quickly, even if saving files to Microdrives takes several minutes.
It also has built-in support for sending faxes, emulation tools for replicating the functionality of various business terminals and mainframe report visualisation tools that were particularly widely used in the public sector.
Somewhat famously, the most popular use of the OPD technology was to run the National Bingo Game, a networked game which used the OPD to synchronise bingo calls throughout thousands of different bingo halls across the country.
Whilst it did sell a significant number of units thanks to pre-existing contracts and the involvement of BT, it was not a major success, being incompatible with any other computer system used anywhere it was sold.
Sinclair Research folded within a year of its release, with the only profitable part sold to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad, whilst BT themselves discontinued the OPD in 1987, although they still supported and maintained the system until 1993.
Ultimately, the One Per Desk is an example of what can go wrong, but at the same time, there are a lot of examples of an all-in-one approach working, so the best starting point to take is to get in touch with IT experts who can find the right solution for your specific business needs.
