I took my first steps into the world of information technology in 1984, attending a course on the FORTRAN language at the university that would have served me to carry out the programs necessary for data processing in support of a work to be presented for the examination of "Numerical calculations".

Then followed the assembler language of the Digital PDP 11/40 system, required for the examination of "Theory and applications of calculating machines" and, on my initiative, the COBOL language learned by self-taught in order to participate in a selection launched by the State Railways .

Finally, the "Organization of computing systems" course provided me with the basics of operating systems, relational databases and knowledge of the theories on which digital data processing techniques are based.

On that occasion I had the opportunity to use a personal computer, the Oracle DBMS and the Unix operating system.

My career as a computer specialist began in 1987 when I was hired by a personal computer dealer in Florence.

The company also carried out consultancy and implementation of LAN systems and had also developed an integrated package for business management (accounting, warehouse, customer / supplier orders and active and passive billing).

Initially I was classified as a junior programmer, within a group that had the task of developing a completely renewed and reengineered version of the package, written in QuickBasic using the Btrieve product as data manager.

However, it soon became clear that the technology chosen was not adequate to implement the numerous functional requirements identified for the new version of the package.

After an attempt to use a RAD system whose outcome was not in line with expectations, the Management entered into an agreement for the distribution of a management package with the desired characteristics, created by a Milanese software house.

The agreement provided for the possibility of acquiring the sources and of being able to modify them to create customized versions upon customer request.

The package was made of Cobol and it was therefore natural that, having studied it, I was destined for its adaptive and corrective maintenance.

At the same time I was commissioned to develop from scratch a software for the management of the company's commercial department (in practice a system for managing offers and customer orders aimed at calculating the commissions of agents).

And, as the Company began to use the Cobol package for its internal management, it was just as natural that I was increasingly involved in the adaptation and customization activities required by the various business sectors.

In the end, the management package proved to be undersized compared to the needs of the company which, in 1989, decided to make a qualitative leap, acquiring a newly released IBM system - AS / 400 - and a management software for this platform, developed from a small Florentine software house.

At the same time, he decided to create an internal sector dedicated to following his own IT systems by hiring a new resource as manager.

Given my work history and my involvement up to that moment in the development and maintenance of the software used internally, it was once again natural that I was commissioned to collaborate with the newly hired head of the internal IT system, as his deputy.

The Company therefore involved me in an intense training program at IBM, in order to acquire the basic knowledge necessary for the current management of the system and the software development on this platform.

And finally, in 1990 I participated in one of the first (perhaps even the first) installations in Italy of an AS / 400 system in a local network of PCs with Ethernet technology, immediately starting to take care of the adaptive and corrective maintenance of the new internal management software .

Subsequently the Company, with the intent to expand its business, acquired the software house that had provided it with the management software, which became an internal division dedicated to development on the AS / 400 platform, which I immediately joined.

As a result, my expertise expanded and I was also directed towards systems activities with external customers who used this system.

In this period, therefore, I had the opportunity to get in touch with numerous and varied companies in the most diverse sectors.

Unfortunately, the economic crisis of 1992/1993 had significant consequences for the company, which was emerging from a period of strong expansion and had just made significant long-term investments.

The decline was rapid and led to the request for an arrangement with creditors and then to the dismemberment, with the main activities taken over by a cooperative among the (few) remaining employees and the AS/400 division reconstituted as an independent company.