IBM Credit was a wholly owned
subsidiary of IBM responsible for financing mainframe
computers sold by IBM. While some customers bought
mainframes outright or obtained financing from other
sources, financing computers provided significant addi-
tional profit.
When an IBM sales representative made a sale, he
or she would immediately call IBM Credit to obtain a
financing quote. The call was received by a credit officer
who would record the information on a request form. The
form would then be sent to the credit department to check
the customer’s credit status. This information would be
recorded on the form, which was then sent to the busi-
ness practices department, which would write a contract
(sometimes reflecting changes requested by the cus-
tomer). The form and the contract would then go to the
pricing department, which used the credit information to
establish an interest rate and record it on the form. The
form and contract was then sent to the clerical group,
where an administrator would prepare a cover letter
quoting the interest rate and send the letter and contract
via Federal Express to the customer.