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 In 1968
the Dow
Jones Industrial Average was 943, the price for a gallon
of gasoline was $0.34, and Valley Processing, Inc.
entered into a computer time-sharing agreement with a
Baltimore firm that just purchased a new IBM System/360.
On one of the very first commercial computers, we
started running payrolls two nights a week. In a single
evening the System/360 could easily process three
payrolls totaling almost 45 checks.
 In 1972
the Dow Jones Industrial Average was
1020, the price for a gallon of gasoline was $0.55, and
Valley was one of the first in town to install the next
generation of technology, the IBM System/3.
This system used 96 column keypunch cards, a 20%
increase over the old 80 column punch cards. Over the
years we were able to expand the system to 4 disk drives
and achieved an unimaginable 280 megabytes of storage.
From our office suite on Dulaney
Valley Road in
Towson, we now had the capability to process more than
25 payrolls in a
single business day. We’re proud to say more than a few
clients processed on our System/3 are still clients
today.
In 1982
the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was 1046, the price for a gallon of
gasoline was $0.91, and Valley purchased a used IBM
System/34 from a bank in the Mid-West. This system was
less than half the physical size of our old system! New
green screen CRT's were placed throughout the office.
Cabinets full of keypunch cards were replaced by 8"
diskette magazines, and our high-speed laser printer
allowed us to print payroll reports at an incredible 6
pages per minute. From our office on Hickory Avenue in
Hampden, Valley entered the world of mid-range computing.
In 1986
the Dow
Jones Industrial Average was 1895, the price for a
gallon of gasoline was $0.89, and our need for speed
grew. Valley purchased a used IBM System/36 from a
silverware manufacturer in Baltimore. We spent more than
a few months
updating our source code written in RPGII; this allowed
us to utilize all
the new features this system had to offer. We soon added
a dot matrix printer that could print checks and W2
forms at an astonishing 560 characters per second.
The
System/36’s cartridge tape drive, though it seemed
impossible, could actually backup all 400 megabytes of
data in about two hours.
In 1993
the Dow Jones closed above 3,500 for the first Time
(3,500.03), the price for a gallon of gasoline was
$1.05, and Valley purchased a brand new IBM AS/400. Not
only was the new system fast and stable, it ran the same
OS as our old system allowing conversion to be completed
in a single weekend.
The AS/400’s physical size was about that of a
large tower PC.
We placed it in a cabinet in the corner of our office on
East Joppa Road in Towson.
In 2000
the Dow Jones closed above 10,000 for the first time
(10,006.78), the price for a gallon of gasoline was
$1.45, and IBM announced they would be stopping support
on our AS/400. We made the decision to start converting
to a Windows Server Platform.
2003
After 3 long years and 6 plus figures of capital
expenditures our conversion finished on July 1, 2003.
Valley -- To
Date
We continue to invest in technology
to keep our clients’ data secure, offer services even
national payroll companies don’t, and empower the Valley
staff to serve clients promptly and efficiently.
The staff at Valley Processing value
your trust and loyalty.
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