Experiences at Commercial Data Servers - an OS/390 company

The customer presentation at which (a very bored) Freeburg stuck the pointer into the projector fan - set off the fire alarm - what an idiot. It helped to be there.

IBM became our CPU supplier from their laboratories, and our field sales enemy. When dealing with a large company, do NOT assume that all divisions of the company will treat you equally.

The market had evolved rapidly from the company's initial engineering and financial assumptions. When the product arrived, our value proposition had changed significantly. I became responsible for identifying and selling to a new type of user, and finding solution partners for F500 sales.

Identified a market for company's OS/390 server, and sold initial orders into it. Also:
- Created and ran Reseller and Alliance Program for OS/390 software and servers. Recruited EDS, Fujitsu, and CA.
- Developed and ran OEM programs with CA and Oracle.
- Built Year2000 Solution Alliance Program with KPMG and Ernst & Young....