TAPCIS (The Access Program for the Compuserve Information Service) was an automated MS-DOS-based software application that sped up access to, and management of, CompuServe email accounts and forum memberships for PC users from 1981 until 2004 when advances in CompuServe technology rendered it obsolete. Written in Borland's Turbo Pascal, TAPCIS was shareware and retailed at US$79.
At a time when subscribers paid for timed access (as well as long distance calls in some countries) and had to spend time online reading and replying to messages, the TAPCIS autopilot took its users online with a single keystroke, bypassing the Windows interface "WinCim" while it sent all pre-written email and forum postings written offline, received new messages, downloaded requested files, and logged off CompuServe.
Since the program also was able to issue administrative commands, it was the preferred tool for dozens of CompuServe System Operators (SYSOPS).
TAPCIS was written by Howard Benner, a marketing executive from Wilmington, Delaware. Benner joined CompuServe in 1981 and soon after he authored and published TAPCIS. Benner died of melanoma in June 1990, aged 44; however, a community of TAPCIS users continue to maintain their own website.