Metaphor Computer Systems (1982–1994) was an American computer company that created an advanced workstation, database gateway, unique graphical office interface, and software applications that "seamlessly integrate" data from both internal and external sources.

[6] Rather than capitalize the venture, IBM purchased the Metaphor software division in 1991 and operated it as a wholly owned, independent subsidiary, and the hardware and field repair division was spun off into its own company, Sequence Support Services.

[7] Released in September 1984, the Metaphor workstation had infrared wireless input devices: keyboard, mouse, numeric pad, and five-function keypad.

Objects on the desktop and open applications had a uniform command set that could be controlled by the keypad which had Copy, Move, Delete, Options, and Size.

The Alto was the first computer with a bitmap display, mouse and a desktop metaphor as a graphical user interface (GUI).

In total, Metaphor[10] branded this as a Data Interpretation System (DIS), which is a class of Decision Support System (DSS) [11] The DIS software was designed to show in one workflow, the access of data from SQL databases, its analysis and then its presentation.

This was accomplish by using graphically iconic applications for database gateway, spreadsheet, plot, email, and printing tools all connected by arrows.

[13] A user could visually drag fields from multiple databases into the Data Retrieval tool (which would generate its own SQL code based on the fields, links and criteria displayed) and send the output directly into a spreadsheet for sorting, calculations, and graphs.

The report could then be sent into a pre-formatted Word Processing document, sent to the printer, and even e-mailed to a pre-designated distribution list.