In 1998, just as Tom Siebel announced that sales automation was the final frontier in back-office applications, and just a year or two before Salesforce.com was born, a handful of ex-Oracle and ex-Informix visionaries got together and conceived Marketing Solutions Software, one of the first entrants into the nascent world of marketing automation.
I was responsible for creating the first MS2 Accelerate “marketing best practice” modules, served as information architect, and also managed their marketing communications (startups: you wear a lot of hats). I also ran the beta program which included Cisco and the Tandem division of Compaq as our first users.
I built the first prototypes, here showing one based on a conservative “Microsoft Outlook” styled interface, and one that was a lot more fun: it was intended to look like the Nintendo Game Boy of 1999. The “fun” interface became the model for our first release.