I recall Series/1 as being from GSD, the General Systems Division; mainframes from the Data Processing Division (and FSD, the Federal Systems Division), and typewriters from Office Products Division. Yes, DPD folks were the king of the hill; called Office Products (OPD) salesmen "opie-dopies."
Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wayne Bickerdike Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 8:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IBM splitting into two companies Hi Charles, GBG was general business group. DP was Data Processing. GBG sold Series 1, photocopiers and typewriters, System 34 (back in 1978 when I was there). DP sold mainframes and believed that they ruled. So when a salesman went to an account, mainframe was always sold above anything else. At the time, we in GBG were hoping that the anti-trust ruling would be to split IBM. It didn't happen. Around that time, Wozniak and Jobs were building the first Apples, Silicon Valley was taking off and IBM were in a deep sleep. At my exit interview, my manager asked why I was leaving. I told him I was going to work for a start-up developing applications for Intel 8080 and Z80 microcomputers. He said, "you can work out a months notice because I don't ever see IBM getting into those little systems". If he thought I was going to a competitor, I would have been walked out on the spot. The rest is history, just look at the market cap of Apple versus IBM. It's the vision thing! LOL. On Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 9:07 AM Charles Mills <[email protected]> wrote: > TMA > > Too many acronyms. > > What is GBG? What is DP? > > I know RBG. > > Charles > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Wayne Bickerdike > Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 2:38 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: IBM splitting into two companies > > Global services was a poor place for "IBM" employees. They weren't the > same as the IBMers in terms of benefits. This has been the trend at IBM > for years. I was an IBMer in the 70s and we hoped that the antitrust cases > would lead to a split so that GBG would separate from DP. It didn't happen > and Windows are their lunch. DXC will be rubbing their hands. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Wayne V. Bickerdike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
