Sabre Systems

“Alex Rampell articulates a sweeping thesis about the three eras of software: first, digitizing filing cabinets (Sabre, PeopleSoft, QuickBooks); second, bundling financial transactions to expand addressable markets (Toast, Stripe); and third — and most transformative — software that actually does the work.”

“Joint IBM/American Airlines project (1960s) that Rampell identifies as the true time-zero origin of enterprise software — digitizing airline reservations from paper filing cabinets.”