 In the first season, Mannix worked for a company named Intertech.  Each week the company computer (also referred to as Intertech) would  give Mannix an assignment. Mannix didnt know who had actually  contracted with Intertech nor where his reports were going. The  trouble with this concept is that if Mannix doesnt know the whole  story neither do we. So the computer was dropped, and Mannix became  a normal private eye getting assignments from real people.