Norm Francis

Norm Francis General Information

Description

Pivotal Software was founded by Norm Francis in 1994. Francis was a co-founder of Basis Software Group (BSG) the company that developed ACCPAC, an accounting software package which was purchased by Computer Associates in 1985. Francis invented the concept of 360-degree customer relationship management (CRM), a concept that continues to be used today to describe the unification of activities across the organization by employees who play a role in the customer relationship. The company released its first customer relationship management product, Pivotal Relationship Version 1, in April 1996; this product is the predecessor to the current Pivotal CRM product line.The company changed its name to Pivotal Corporation in June 1999 to reflect its broadening focus beyond just software into professional services, content, hosted application services and other online services. Pivotal Corporation went public in August 1999 and its shares were listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol PVTL.In February 2000, Pivotal Corporation was selected by Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, to showcase its Pivotal CRM software at the worldwide premiere of Microsoft Windows 2000. Pivotal CRM, then called Pivotal eRelationship, was the first eBusiness relationship management (eBRM) solution to be certified for Windows 2000.Pivotal Corporation was acquired by CDC Corporation, in February 2004. The acquisition added 1,700 customers, as well as marketing, sales, service, and partner management capabilities to CDC Softwares business unit focused on front-office solutions for mid-sized enterprises.