From: user_groups@next.com (NeXT User Groups)
Subject: NeXT Press Release - U of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences and Administrative Productivity
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 20:44:11 GMT

NeXT News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Allison Thomas Associates
          Angela Grady, (415) 780-3786


University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences
Purchases NeXT Workstations for Administrative Productivity


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 14, 1992  - NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced
that the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago intends
to purchase more than 250 NeXT workstations over the next three to four years.
The NeXT systems will be used for administrative functions such as bookkeeping,
financial analysis, personnel and other university administration.

"We chose NeXT for its NeXTSTEP application development environment, Lotus
Improv spreadsheet and the NeXT system's general usability," said Monty Mullig,
director for information services in the Division of Biological Sciences.  "We
use Sun computers to great satisfaction as servers, and we will integrate the
NeXT workstations and Sun servers." 

Twenty NeXT systems have already been delivered to the Division of Biological
Sciences.  The division, which makes up approximately 30 percent of the
University of Chicago in terms of numbers of students, faculty and
administrators, consists of 17 academic departments that encompass all aspects
of life sciences, including the prestigious University of Chicago Pritzker
School of Medicine.

The division's in-house programmers will develop some custom applications on
the NeXT systems, primarily designing front ends to Sybase databases.  In
addition, the division plans to use the revolutionary Lotus spreadsheet on the
NeXT platform, as well as NeXT's multimedia electronic mail system, NeXTmail.

"In our search for desktop systems for our administration, we were looking
specifically for a platform that could combine the development and delivery of
custom applications with the functions of traditional office automation, and
NeXT computers were the only ones that could do both to our satisfaction,"  
Mullig said.   "Further, we were impressed by the quality of people at NeXT, at
all levels."

Five programmers in the Division of Biological Sciences have begun writing
custom applications using NeXTSTEP, NeXT's object-oriented application
development environment.  They will begin with applications such as facilities
tracking, equipment tracking and personnel, creating NeXTSTEP front ends to
existing Sybase databases.

"NeXTSTEP is conceptually easy to deal with, and will keep our programmers
enthused," Mullig said.  "We expect significant time savings in development -
two to three times faster at least.  But it's not just the performance and time
savings that are attractive about NeXTSTEP.  It is intellectually a more
stimulating environment for programmers, which will help improve the quality of
their work, as well.  If programmers are more engaged in the process, and they
can worry less about code syntax and the tiny details required in procedural
programming, then they can concentrate on solving the problem at hand."

NeXT Computer, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets professional workstations
based on the pioneering NeXTSTEP object-oriented system software.  NeXT
computers are used by medium and large organizations to develop
mission-critical custom applications and to run these applications alongside
breakthrough productivity applications.  NeXT is headquartered at 900
Chesapeake Drive, Redwood City, California, 94063. 


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NeXT, the NeXT logo, NeXTSTEP and NeXTmail are trademarks of NeXT Computer,
Inc.  All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

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