Work Sample #6 - Timeline Script

Citi wanted to create interactive timelines specific to their relationships with important clients. One such client was IBM. For this project, I was charged to do original research, select relevant moments in the shared histories of the two companies, and write them up. The capsule pieces included year, headline, subhead, which was how the items were tagged on the timeline.

1926

Thomas J. Watson Sr. opens a bank account

A long and happy business partnership began in January 1926

A long and happy business partnership began in January 1926 when IBM's founder and president Thomas J. Watson Sr. opened his company's first account with the National City Bank of New York.

"Thanks ever so much for doing this," wrote National City Bank's 40-year-old director Gordon S. Renschler in a warm letter dated January 21, 1926. "It will be good to think of doing day-in-and-day-out business with you again."

IBM's relationship to its new bank would soon grow into a partnership of mutual benefit and innovative flourish. In 1937, well before the computer transformed both companies, an IBM publication would describe National City Bank's contribution in "branching out to aid the American business man develop his markets at home and abroad" by championing various IBM products such as "International Bookkeeping and Accounting Machines, Proof Machines for banks, International Time Recording equipment, International Writing Machines, and International Scales."

One decade after Watson made his first deposit, National City Bank's Renschler would recall the moment with gratitude. In a January 1936 letter to Watson, Renschler wrote: "Ten years ago today we opened on our books the account of the International Business Machines Corporation, and I do not want to let the day pass without dropping you a note in this connection. The relationship has always been a happy one and we look forward to many more years of association with you and your good company."

1935

National City Bank Comptroller singles out IBM for praise

Contribution of IBM punch-hole equipment noted in reducing inefficiency

Rowland R. Hughes, Comptroller for National City Bank, praised IBM equipment in use at his bank as a critical component to ensuring fast and accurate record-keeping, in a speech before the American Institute of Banking in Omaha, Nebraska June 11.

Speaking on the subject of budget accrual and expense control for banks at the Institute's annual convention, Hughes noted the "accuracy and simplicity" of IBM equipment as a factor to achieving efficient operations in punched-hole accounting. IBM's International Electric and Tabulating Machines had by this time become integral features at National City Bank's accounting offices.

"A good system of accounting is at the same time reasonably permanent and reasonably flexible," Hughes told the convention audience. "If it is rigid and unchangeable it sooner or later becomes out of date; if it is constantly being torn apart and set up on a new basis, the value of comparisons is lost."

By the 1930s, National City Bank was one of IBM's biggest customers. In March, 1938, 29 IBM proof machines were being used at 17 different National City Bank offices throughout New York City. IBM's diversity of punch-hole equipment was in widespread use at National City Bank departments around the world.

 

 

1942

Teaming up to mobilize women

Moving toward gender equality as men go to war

IBM and National City Bank teamed up in 1942 to train women in the use of IBM operating machines, signaling a shift in employment policies at both companies.

The joint training program was developed to help the companies deal with the loss of traditionally male workforces to the wartime draft. It represented a profound attitudinal shift in a relatively short time frame. In 1940, women represented just 23 percent of the workforce at National City Bank. By the end of 1942, they constituted 43 percent.

Women employed at IBM also found opportunities for advancement. In 1943, Ruth Leach was appointed IBM's first female vice president. "Leaving out the whole question of freedom and rights for women, is it not simply a matter of sound business policy to have in management a substantial number whose impressions, reactions and emotions are most like those of the majority of your customers?"

IBM would grow into one of the most forward-thinking companies in the United States when it came to appreciating the contribution of women. In 1995 IBM created a Global Women's Task Force that led to a 592 percent increase in female executives there. Programs like GM Accelerator were designed to help women advance in the company. In 2010, the National Association for Female Executives named IBM one of the top ten companies for female executives.

1954

IBM "Electronic Brain" transforms man-hours into minutes

Delivering an accounting revolution in record time

Nine and a half minutes was all it took to change perceptions of bank accounting.

That was the elapsed time from the moment when cost analysis information was fed by National City Bank officials into an IBM 701 "electronic brain" to when the early computer produced its first solution. A process that would have required over a thousand man-hours was reduced to less than 600 seconds.

The announcement of this successful demonstration was made by National City Bank and IBM in a joint statement released on February 3, 1954. The problem to be solved involved the distribution of overhead expenses among 156 National City Bank departments, a complex and time-consuming yearly ritual for the bank.

The final success of the experiment with the 701, designed and built by IBM for defense-industry purposes, amazed those who participated. "The 701 never even knew this was a bank problem and now it can do the task for anyone," an IBM official was quoted as saying about the demonstration.

For IBM, the 1954 experiment was a leap forward in thinking about business applications for computers, one that would not wait long to see further realization. "IBM was able to take the application and apply them to other businesses," IBM archivist Paul Lasewicz notes. "It proved to be very useful."

1967

Citibank brings IBM System/360 to Buenos Aires

Novel use of System/360 speeds processing at nine Argentine banks

Less than two years after IBM transformed the business office with the launch of its System/360 computer, First National City Bank installed one at its Buenos Aires office in 1967.

The step was taken to help First National City Bank keep pace with sprawling business demand in a fast-blossoming South American market. "It has already replaced conventional bookkeeping for checking accounts and for the Bank's own payroll for all of its nine branches in metropolitan Buenos Aires," First National City Bank noted in its 1967 annual report.

This was a significant milestone for IBM, too. While it enjoyed relatively fast acceptance within the United States, this represented one of the System/360's first steps into the international market. Notes IBM Archivist Paul Lasewicz: "The System/360 was the product that made IBM what it is today. The architecture of the 360 mainframe defined computing to the present day. This would have been a fairly early use of the 360, which was introduced in 1964 and started getting to customers nationally in 1965-66."

Designed to manage a range of banking activities, the System/360 offered unprecedented capability in both speed and memory. Internal memory components holding up to 500,000 characters each and modular disk storage units with individual capacities exceeding 224 million characters allowed the System/360's tape drives to process 340,000 alphameric characters a second, and "double these rates for all numeric."

1979

Big Blue goes for big green

Unprecedented capital campaign reshapes world of finance

When IBM made Salomon Brothers its co-lead manager in 1979, it represented a seismic shift on Wall Street, a breakthrough in the investment-bank hierarchy. But for IBM, it was just the start of a massive capital project throughout the world.

Salomon Brothers, which became a part of Citi in 1998, was charged with "running the book" for IBM's billion-dollar bond offering that year, the largest in history. The money was needed for a major expansion and modernization project that would give IBM the momentum it needed to take on the 1980s and a new era in business and personal computing.

Dozens of IBM factories and plants were being retooled or built from scratch, with four million square feet completed and 11 million square feet under construction in 1979 alone. Capital spending would jump from $285 million in 1978 to $2.85 billion in 1982.

IBM's success in raising the money was a first step toward aggressive financing that would position it effectively for the dawn of the computer age. Before the year was out, IBM had Salomon working on another envelope-pushing initiative, raising another $800 million in interest-rate swaps to build on their new, successful relationship. "As IBM allowed us to advance to the position we are in, they continue to this day, as most good companies do, to be open to all kinds of creative thoughts and ideas," said Jon Rotenstreich, a former Salomon general partner who in 1979 managed the IBM relationship. "And that's the game."

1988

IBM platform hosts Citicorp banking system

Comprehensive Banking System is introduced for the AS/400, offering broad computer functionality

IBM and Citicorp allied in 1988 to bring the banking experience more directly to computers when IBM's path-breaking Application System/400 was matched up with special software to create Citicorp's Comprehensive Banking System.

The only banking system written in database mode, which allowed it to take full advantage of the AS/400 architecture, CBS would kick off a new phase of the fruitful IBM-Citi partnership.

The AS/400 was launched in June 1988 with an array of application products built to serve such varied entities as schools, law firms, and the hotel industry as well as banking, the focus of the CBS. The AS/400 Office package integrated such features such as easy-to-use electronic mail, word processing, directory and library services, and calendar management, with a relational database that allowed for easier and more efficient file management.

Also that year IBM and Citicorp worked together on a consumer-focused banking program that incorporated an offshoot of the AS/400 called System/88. In June, 1988, Citicorp's CEO John Reed sat down with IBM head John Fellows Akers to refocus their relationship. The result was the opening of an IBM branch office exclusively devoted to addressing Citicorp's technology concerns.

Further achievements in computerized banking lay ahead for both companies.

1989

IBM's C. Michael Armstrong joins Citi board

Tech business visionary becomes first member of leadership at both companies

C. Michael Armstrong, a senior vice president at IBM and chair of its World Trade Corporation since 1961, was made a member of the Citicorp Board of Directors in 1989. He became the first IBM person to sit on the bank's board.

Widely credited in the 1980s for helping lead a turnaround of IBM's European operations, Armstrong's engineering background and proven sales ability were qualities Citi sought for its own board. Also in 1989, Armstrong was elected chairman of the board of the IBM World Trade Corporation.

Armstrong would remain on Citi's board until 2009, the same year Lawrence Ricciardi, a senior advisor to IBM, joined the Citi Board of Directors, thus continuing the IBM tradition there.

In 1992, Armstrong retired from IBM to become a chairman and CEO of the Hughes Aircraft Company. There, later that decade, he expedited development of DirecTV, one of the first digital broadcast systems.

"Mike Armstrong has applied his technical expertise, marketing skill, and business acumen to IBM's success for more than 30 years," IBM Chairman John Fellows Akers noted in the announcement of Armstrong's departure. "Our business has benefited from his strong leadership in his many assignments, but especially in his role as the senior executive responsible for our World Trade operations."

1997

First secure credit card purchase done via internet

IBM's new technology helps Citibank Asia Pacific run first live end-to-end credit card transaction

An electronic commerce solution designed by IBM using its CommercePOINT product line enabled a credit-card purchase to be made entirely through digital technology April 29, 1997, in Singapore. It was the first such Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) made in the world, using security-enhancing digital certification in a live production credit-card processing environment.

The purchase, of a bouquet of flowers and a gold cup, was made by Stephen Yeo, chief executive of Singapore's National Computer Board.

The demonstration kicked off a pilot program with a goal of reaching half-a-million Citibank customers in the Asia Pacific region by the end of 1998. Citibank, teamed with both IBM and Visa in this initiative, offered credit-card users the convenience of shopping via the internet with the security of SET technology.

"We are pleased to be working with a Web pioneer like Citibank to showcase the value of Internet technologies to electronic business," said Kent Price, general manager of IBM's Banking, Finance & Securities Industry, Asia Pacific. "This latest milestone marks a major step toward providing customers with secure ways to buy and sell over the Internet."

2002

Citigroup Advises IBM on PwC Consulting Buy

$3.5 billion purchase of PricewaterhouseCooper consulting group adds to IBM client service capacity

IBM completed the purchase of PricewaterhouseCooper's worldwide consulting group, PwC Consulting, for $3.5 billion in October 2002. Citibank worked with IBM on its purchase in an advisory capacity.

The deal, which was signed in July and finalized after approvals from local PwC firms, was described by IBM president and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano as a way to provide clients not only with innovative ideas but "a partner with deep business expertise and the ability to exploit leading, open standards-based technology to turn these ideas into bottom-line business benefits."

The new entity, IBM Business Consulting Services, brought together 30,000 IBM and 30,000 transferring PwC Consulting professionals, making it the world's largest consulting services organization with offices in more than 160 countries.

"This is an exceptionally good fit - both strategically and culturally," noted Doug Elix, senior vice president and group executive at IBM Global Services. "Our businesses complement each other and we speak the same language."

2012

IBM, Citi launch IBM Watson program

Companies work together to streamline and enhance computerized banking

Citi entered into an agreement with IBM on March 5 to work with IBM Watson, the breakthrough artificial-intelligence computer, to simplify and improve the banking experience.

With deep-content analysis, decision support, and evidence-based learning, IBM Watson is seen as an ideal tool for better understanding the banking experience. Citi will use it to assess ways of delivering a first-of-a-kind customer interaction solution.

"We are working to rethink and redesign the various ways in which our customers and clients interact with money," said Don Callahan, Citi's Chief Administration Officer and Chief Operations & Technology Officer. "We will collaborate with IBM to explore how we can use the Watson technology to provide our customers with new, secure services designed around their increasingly digital and mobile lives."

IBM Watson is designed to accurately extract facts and quickly understand relationships by organizing and processing large volumes of data. With four terabytes of disc storage and the capability of answering questions posed in a natural human language, IBM Watson is considered at the forefront of computer technology. It astounded the world by winning the television game show "Jeopardy!" against two past champions.

As Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President of IBM Software Solutions, noted: "The collaboration between IBM and Citi will explore how applying Watson in the consumer financial market could help empower financial professionals to make better business decisions and represents a significant step in delivering on the promise of personalized banking in the 21st century."