Marketing Progress

  Since we started talking about forming the company, we've been looking for somebody to join the company with a strong marketing background and extensive knowledge of the computer field. At last our search has ended. Mike Ford, a former Vice President for Sales at Information Systems Design, has agreed to join the company on June 1, 1982. Mike will be buying into the company on the same basis as everybody else, using the option offering we're doing for the out of state participants.

Mike's marketing experience in the computer field goes back to 1956. He has worked for such industry giants as IBM, RCA, and Univac, and was instrumental in rescuing ISD in its time of peril. Since 1977, he's been running a company he formed to provide employers with employee benefits statements for their personnel. The package which does this was designed by Mike and is written in CBASIC under CP/M. Mike is also becoming a dealer for the Victor 9000 machine (made by Sirius, and sold under that name outside the US). The Victor is an extremely attractive 8088 based machine which offers twice the memory, 5 times the disc capacity, double the graphics resolution, and built in serial ports for the same price as the 2 disc IBM PC. Mike's connections with Victor not only allow us to obtain these machines for internal use at attractive prices, they give us the contacts to sell our software to Victor and Sirius. The Victor machine is an ideal host for MicroCAD, as the basic package has the graphics resolution, enough memory and disc, and the serial ports needed to do serious work with MicroCAD.

At the moment Mike is preparing marketing plans for our various products and trying to compile prospect lists and publicity channels. If you know reviewers for magazines, who to contact to get a computer store to try out a package, somebody who can get press releases run, or any such information which might be of use, please pass the information on to Mike either directly or via myself.