70s Phrase "Turnkey" Makes Return

"Turnkey" was as common a phrase in the 1970-80s as "Web 2.0" is today. On reflection, perhas the two phrases are linked?

(Turnkey referred to the complete solution provided by CAD vendors and others software companies at the time: they provided the custom hardware, software, installation, support, and customization. They even "turned the key" to turn on the system. At huge cost, of course -- $100,000 - $150,000 per user. Which is why AutoCAD's $1,000 a la carte approach became so popular in the mid-1980s -- made possible by the then-new microcomputer.)

Imagine my shock upon reading the term "turnkey" in today's press release from UGS. Visions of vendor lock-in, overpriced hardware/software, barely-capable customization, and huge bonus cheques for the salesmen -- those images appear in my mind when I read "turnkey."

Here's an excerpt from UGS's announcement (to make it easier to read, I've edited out the marketing fluff):

UGS ... today announced availability of a new, turn-key, real-time engineering collaboration solution .... The Teamcenter Community Appliance, developed with HP, ... consists of UGS software and services along with HP hardware to easily plug in to any new or existing Teamcenter Engineering environment.

The system consists of:

* UGS Teamcenter community collaboration software.
* Windows Server System operating system.
* HP ProLiant server computer.
* HP software, storage, and networking switches.
* UGS services (planning, implementation, and support).

Yip, that's turnkey. No mention of the cost.

Comments

[Alex Neihaus]

Hi, Ralph. Bell-bottoms returned, but changed. Apparently, "turnkey" did. Our thoughts about the term are posted on our blog, here.

[Tony in SV]

Given the complexities of modern OS's - and low cost of hardware - the "turnkey" concept can work.

The complexity of getting all the right software components at the right version can be a real problem ("DLL Hell").

In fact, turnkey systems are already common - if you buy a router or NAS, what you're getting typically is a little box of hardware (normally ARM or x86 CPU), running an OS (often Linux, *BSD, or a RTOS such as Wind River or ThreadX), and dedicated to a single function (until the hackers get their hands on it).

You can build your own equivalent system using a spare PC, Linux, and a bunch of time with better functionality for less cash, but the "turnkey" approach has real benefits.

I think that VMWare images have real potential - for example, delivering program in a VMWare image with OS and everything else already set up can be a lot easier than installing a program from scratch.

However, I think the turnkey approach works better for servers than CAD workstations - because of performance. Turnkey hardware typically isn't as fast (e.g. a cheap PC is faster than a Linksys NSLU NAS), and virtualization (VMWare) would really impact video performance.

--Tony

[Bill Fane]

"Turnkey" sounds great in principle; buy it, turn it on, go.
The realities can be a little different. Many years ago, when the Vancouver branch of my employer at that time was first starting on AutoCAD v2.17g in 1986, the head ofice in Los Angeles elected to go for a "turnkey" system from Computervision.
The software came installed on a "Computervision" box, with "Computervision" digitizer tablet, graphics card, monitor, and printer. You could not buy the software separately.
A bit of digging revealed that the "Computervision" stickers merely covered the "real" brand underneath. It was all just standard stuff, with one minor difference; they had changed all the default switch and jumper settings on the graphics card, i/o ports, and digitizer.
So what did the company get for almost twice the money? A generic PC that wouldn't run anything else except Computervision software, not even a word processor or spreadsheet.
There was absolutely no benefit to the user, and in fact there were several impediments. The only winner was Computervision. Well, sort of; they are long since bankrupt.

[Chris Williams]

Reading about this "turnkey" solution got me thinking how close Dassault must have come to using turnkey to describe Enovia 3D Live. ALthough 3D Live doesn't contain any hardware, yet, it is trying to pull the same wool over the same eyes.

[Chris Williams]

Reading your post on “turnkey” got me thinking how close Dassault must have come to using the term when describing Enovia 3D live. Although 3D Live doesn’t yet contain hardware it is trying to pull the same wool over the same customers eyes.

You said: "The only winner was Computervision. Well, sort of; they are long since bankrupt."

Ummm - I think you should realize that a lot of people made a lot of money through CV being purchased by PTC. Some of those people have key positions at PTC today. I would NOT call this bankrupt!