This is a fascinating look back into the history of retail technology at the turn of the century. In January 2000, I was the National Practice Manager of Microsoft’s first retail consulting practice. I joined Microsoft in June of 1999 as one of their first retail industry experts. I gave this presentation, my first at the company, to a room full of retail executives and Microsoft partners. They were skeptical of using our solutions for mission-critical applications. It was my job to convince them otherwise.