...
if ($ARGV[1] eq '-SMC') {$cust eq "SMC";}
...

##</code><code>##

if ($ARGV[1] eq '-SMC') {$cust = "SMC";}

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my($target, $cust, $cotime) = @ARGV;

$cust =~ s/^-//; # strip leading dash