Document 6BbZD4b5rBzo6x7rBxoqqz6O9

information processing./co^MUEP first year for promotions and sales train ing programs. Bruning also went outside to obtain its hardware from Hewlett-Packard Co., which includes a desk-top computer, a computerized graphics tablet for com municating instructions, and a comput. er-driven plotter, which physically puts pen to paper to create the final drawing. . HP reports that it will also service Brun ing customers once the equipment is installed. If Bruning's strategy works, the divi sion could give its hard-pressed parent a much-needed' boost, am lost $1.5 million last year on sales of $909 million. Earlier this year after battling unsuccessfully for four years to turn am around. Soy L. Ash was abruptly replaced by an-outsid er, Richard B. Black (BW--Mar. 9), for merly of Swiss Aluminum Ltd. Bruning is not itself in a turnaround situation; Tannenberg is quick- to point out The unit's engineering graphics line has been a dependable cash cow for am, but it has become a mature business whose revenues grew at an average rate of only 9% over the past five years. Bruning management--is convinced that its strategy will boost that growth rate, even though it expects to. spark an onslaught of aggressive competition in the low-price end of the drafting market from such cad suppliers as CalCOmp and Schlumberger Ltd.'s Manufacturing Data Systems Inc.--and possibly from such traditional rivals in the engineering graphics business as'gap Corp. and Dietzgen Corp. "We've got the right equipment at the right price," says Tan nenberg. "That, combined with our mar keting strength, assures our success." 92 D BUSINESS WEEK: April 20, 1981 INFORMATION PROCESSING SCI 02401