They surely did understand what he was talking about, but working with Erik and PC&C would be the same as giving up their own products, and none of the CEOs saw that as an attractive scenario for the future. He researched the market and developed a list of potential targets and started calling on their CEOs. At least they would understand what he was talking about.
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He came to the conclusion that maybe the current providers of business management software were better targets. The Peachtree opportunityīeing on his own again, he reconsidered the strategy. With the exclusive rights for North and South America, he was convinced that there was enough market to build a successful business. He wanted to stay and carry on, and as his visa and work permit was tied to PC&C Americas Inc., he decided to buy the shares from PC&C for a nominal price ($1,400) and continue on his own account, again funding his effort with money from friends and relatives. From his work in the field, he also experienced that Navigator was several years ahead of anything available in the US. Erik was not prepared to return to Denmark with the second failure in his bag. In spring 1991, PC&C lost confidence in the venture and decided to pull out. Still, none of them showed any genuine interest and they also had a hard time understanding what he was talking about. He approached IBM, Microsoft, Lotus, WordPerfect, Computerland and many other leading IT companies. was established in Atlanta, Georgia with Erik having 25 per cent of the shares and PC&C 75 per cent.Įrik then adopted a strategy of approaching all the major software vendors and selling them the idea of moving into the market for business management software through a channel of value-added resellers. Running out of funds, Erik returned to Denmark and continued the discussions with PC&C about the opportunities in America.
Although he managed to infiltrate the organisation, he was not able to win support for investing in a business with Navigator. This concept proved to be an even more significant success than the previous products and made Erik more convinced that the global market potential should be tapped now.Įrik left IBM in March 1990, moved to North America and started approaching IBM Canada. In the meantime, PC&C had terminated the development of the AS/400 version and had instead released a version 3 of Navigator for DOS and OS/2 with an application language (AL) allowing the resellers to customise and add functionality to the product. Navigator 3.0 (with an Application Language) However, after lengthy discussions, Erik managed to convince them that they should give it a try and that North America should be the testbed. They were still a tiny shop with a staff of just 12 people, didn’t feel prepared to challenge the biggest market in the world located 6-9 time zones away and were also convinced that there was already something equivalent or even better on the US market. Instead, he turned to PC&C with his ideas.
Still, he wasn’t able to convince them to support the idea. Erik explained the global potential and how it would support IBM’s hardware sales. Doing cross-border activities was a new idea for which there was no established procedure and for which they didn’t have a budget and related resources. Their focus was on selling into the local market, where they were very successful. The Danish country management was reluctant. If they took on Navigator in the US, other countries would automatically follow.
He was particularly keen on getting the activity started in the US. In 1989 Erik approached the country management of IBM Denmark with the idea of creating a small team responsible for convincing other IBM subsidiaries around the world to adopt Navigator as an IBM logo product and win market shares just as IBM had done in Denmark. With Navigator, IBM could win substantial market share in the vast market represented by small and medium-sized companies. He immediately saw the global potential that the product represented. Through these activities, an AS/400 salesman, by the name of Erik Seifert from IBM Denmark, became acquainted with Navigator. IBM pushed PC&C for a version of Navigator running on the AS/400, and the development of this version was undertaken. In the market for small and medium-sized businesses, IBM was very successful with their minicomputer, then named AS/400 (launched as a successor to S/36 in 1988).
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