Early Encounter with Zifferer (by Steve Burt)

Back in 1985 and 86 I met with Scott at a number of trade shows while I was working for Allen-Bradley. A-B had just introduced their programming software called IPDS - I'm not sure what it stands for anymore but I remember the letters - it was a painful experience - a VERY bad product!

Anyway I gave Scott a demo of the product at one of the shows. We kind of hit it off and he actually offered me a job. Problem was he couldn't pay me just yet. Interesting offer all the same - this was when ICOM was located in downtown Milwaukee (sounds like it's going full circle) - I could basically live for free in the office down there - oh gee, and be on call 24 hours a day. It was an offer I had to refuse. After all, I had student loans and car payments hanging over my head.

I moved from A-B to Modicon and then to an A-B/ICOM distributor over the next couple of years. Scott kept on making me offers. Finally we "consumated the deal" and I started my first day at ICOM on February 14, 1989. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Turned out to be quite a fun ride!