Artifact Details

Title

Maguire, John Norris oral history

Catalog Number

102658223

Type

Document

Description

In this interview, John Maguire describes the environment for independent software vendors in the 1970s as the industry was adjusting to IBM's decision to unbundled the price of its software. He covers his background prior to founding Software AG North America and what led him to believe that there were opportunities in the software products business. He talks why he decided to price ADABAS significantly above other software products on the market at $120,000 and why he charged customers for demos and 90-day trials. He describes his approach to marketing software products internationally, pioneering the concept of establishing an escrow for source code, and the sales approaches he used.

Date

1986-04-08

Contributor

Johnson, Luanne, Interviewer
Johnson, Luanne, Editor
Maguire, John, Interviewee

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Houston, Texas

Extent

17 p.

Category

Transcription

Subject

Software business history; Maguire, John; Software AG North America; Software AG; ADABAS; NATURAL; Schnell, Peter; Lockheed Missiles and Space Company; Aerospace Business Environment Simulator (ABES); Summit, Roger; Quick Query; CACI; Karr, Herb; Markowitz, Harry; SIMSCRIPT; Welke, Larry; ICP

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X4559.2008