This engineering and planning organization was responsible for responding to custom system solutions requested by large account sales and marketing representatives.

One of the largest and most successful special bids ever won by IBM was the Series/1 Agent Computer System for the State Farm Insurance company.

This was a marked departure from previous IBM strategy, which centered on in-house vertical development of complicated mainframe systems and their requisite access terminals.

Estridge also published the specifications of the IBM PC, allowing a booming third-party aftermarket hardware business to take advantage of the machine's expansion card slots.

[3] Estridge and wife Mary Ann were killed in the crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on August 2, 1985.