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Cambridge Software Corporation

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Submitted By dchoudhu
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Harvard Business School

9-191-072
Rev. June 17, 1993

Cambridge Software Corporation
“If we don’t decide soon, Paula, your people won’t have time to make changes in the software and to write the documentation for the student version, and my people won’t have time to publicize the software at colleges and with professors. It’s already Thanksgiving; any further delay, and we won’t be ready for the next academic year.” Tony Atkinson, the new product manager at Cambridge Software Corporation (CSC) was meeting with Paula Stewards, vice president, Software Development, and Chuck Kennedy, CSC’s president and chairman, in November 1989 to decide whether to offer multiple versions of Modeler, a new Lotus 1-2-3®-compatible modeling software product. Stewards responded to Atkinson’s appeal. “It’s easy for you to push for several versions of Modeler. After all, in your previous job, you were responsible for a line of many different clock radio models. Before that, it was toaster ovens. And before that, hand tools. But, for us, multiple product versions is a new concept. My people have enough trouble developing, documenting, and supporting one version of a software product. And you are pushing for three versions of a product of which we don’t have even one version ready!” Kennedy knew both Atkinson and Stewards were right in their own ways. He had hired Atkinson because he wanted CSC to move from offering single products to multi-version product lines. On the other hand, Stewards also had a point. Kennedy could not argue with Atkinson on one thing: the beginning of the school year was only ten months away. In any case, because of another new product CSC was developing, the market window for Modeler was at most two years. It was now or never.

Background
Cambridge Software Corporation was founded in 1974 by Chuck Kennedy and Doug Hansen, graduate students in the

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