SPC's first product, its "PFS" brand database for Apple II computers, was reworked, improved, and then released as pfs:File, a
flat-file database for DOS. It was the first of a family of products released by SPC under the "pfs:" brand which, when installed onto the same computer, combined to form a sort of
office suite which included companion products
pfs:Write (a
word processor), pfs:Plan (a
spreadsheet), pfs:Report (
reporting software), and pfs:Graph (
business graphics software). Other, mostly utilitarian products bearing the "pfs:" brand subsequently emerged, including pfs:Access (for
data communications), pfs:Easy Start (a
menuing utility), and pfs:Proof (a
proofreading utility). Eventually, SPC offered a
low- to
mid-level desktop publishing product called pfs:Publisher; and it packaged the core word processing, database and spreadsheet products into a
suite named pfs:Office. While relatively limited in their capabilities compared with better-known and more powerful products like the DOS database
dBase III, the DOS spreadsheet
Lotus 1-2-3, and the DOS word processor
WordPerfect, the trio of SPC products proved popular, because of their simplicity and ease-of-use, with beginning and intermediate DOS PC users.
Lighter-weight versions of the core "pfs:" word processing, database, spreadsheet and data communications programs were released as a single,
integrated suite called pfs:First Choice for DOS, intended to directly compete with, but be more economical than,
Microsoft Works for DOS. The pfs:First Choice product subsequently led to what SPC had hoped would be a larger series of far lighter-weight products bearing the "pfs:First" label, the most famous of which, after pfs:First Choice, was an
entry-level desktop publishing product called pfs:First Publisher, and its
fonts and
graphics add-ons. A business graphics package called pfs:First Graphics came next, so that the "pfs:First" series could have lightweight business graphics like the original, and slightly
heavier-weight, "pfs:" series offered. There was no compatibility between the "pfs:First" series and the "pfs:" series. In response to business users' requests for a far more powerful, yet still economical word processor that really
could compete with the likes of the better-known and more-popular DOS word processors like WordPerfect (and even, by then,
Microsoft Word for DOS, SPC released an enhanced version of pfs:Write called pfs:Professional Write, a much higher-powered word processor which was eventually joined by companion products pfs:Professional File (a more powerful database, to better compete with dBase), and pfs:Professional Plan (a more powerful spreadsheet, to better compete with Lotus 1-2-3). These became SPC's
higher-end, truly business-oriented and, eventually,
networkable and
multi-user software product line. Starting with the second versions of the
Professional trio, the "pfs:" was dropped from the product names, making them, simply, Professional Write, Professional File, and Professional Plan. When all three were installed on the same machine, the separately-purchased products could interact with one another as a sort of office suite. The trio also had somewhat limited interoperability with SPC's completely separate business graphics software product called
Harvard Graphics, and its later series companion
Harvard Total Project Manager. There was, however, no compatibility of the trio, or the Harvard series products, with any of SPC's other earlier "pfs:" or "pfs:First" products. Starting with the second versions of the Professional Write, Professional File and Professional Plan trio, a separately-purchased Professional series networking add-on (available in 5-user, 10-user and larger packs) could be obtained so that they could all function in a multi-user
local area networking (LAN) environment utilizing rudimentary
file locking (but not
record locking) via
NetBIOS on such as
Novell's NetWare, or
Banyan VINES. In 1986, SPC released its groundbreaking
Harvard Presentation Graphics, one of the first
PC applications which allowed users to combine
charts,
clip art, and
text and display fonts into presentation
slides. ==Corporate decline and demise==