Software and Applications
How firms came to track customers, money and marketing with computers.
Start here · Essential guide
How businesses moved from card files and ledgers to mainframe records, databases and shared sales systems, and how the idea of CRM took shape over decades.
Why no single system counts as the first computer-based CRM: card files, mainframe customer records and 1980s contact managers all contributed to the idea.
From mainframe planning programs and timesharing to the electronic spreadsheet of the late 1970s, a look at how early financial modeling tools developed and who shares credit.
How mailing lists, customer databases and email tools gradually led to marketing automation, and why no single system can be named as the first.
A look at how office and accounting work changed from punched cards and tabulators to mainframes, desktop tools and networks, with real gains and real trade-offs.
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