Abstract

In September 1983, MCI Communication launched a new computer-based communication network, MCI Mail. With a brash advertising slogan proclaiming, “The Nation’s New Post System,” the firm established a service that allowed subscribers to dial into MCI Mail’s proprietary network with their modem-equipped computers, compose messages, and then send them electronically to other MCI Mail subscribers or in hardcopy via a courier service or through the mail. The new service garnered much attention in the American media at its launch, but the subscriber base grew slowly and inconsistently, which greatly frustrated senior MCI executives. Eventually, MCI officials turned to a group of commissioned sales agents to push the new electronic messaging product to consumer and business users. In the spring of 1985, MCI executives approached Gary Oppenheimer, a well-known player in the fledgling electronic mail field based in New York City, and asked him to market the product and provide technical support to existing and new customers. Oppenheimer went to work and eventually became the firm’s largest global sales agent. A key element in Oppenheimer’s efforts to market MCI Mail was an electronic newsletter that he distributed to his customers. Dubbed the Oppenheimer Software Periodic Electronic Newsletter (PEN), the publication provided tutorials to new MCI Mail users, offered recommendations regarding mailbox software and other applications, and served as a central messaging point for the community of users who subscribed to MCI Mail via Oppenheimer Software. The paper will examine the collaborative relationship between MCI, Gary Oppenheimer, and his customer base. Oppenheimer used the PEN to cultivate and expand his community of subscribers, which, in turn, benefitted MCI financially through increased MCI Mail subscriptions and user fees as well as through the overall expansion of the proprietary e-mail network. Their collaboration in growing MCI Mail during the 1980s and 1990s offers a fascinating perspective on the broader topic of cooperation between large firms and individual commissioned sales agents and illustrates how agents with their unique insights about users can help shape the development and growth of consumer products.