The project soon ran into serious problems. Microsoft, publicity value already achieved, disappeared into the woods. In desperation, NatWest called in IBM and told them "We already have so much invested in Windows NT we can't afford to change. We need you to make this work". IBM accepted the challenge.

IBM labored mightily for about two years, and NatWest's Branch Banking has finally rolled out - but it's running on Novell NetWare. Even IBM couldn't fix NT on the server side.

What IBM learned in the process, is just how much support Windows NT requires. Now IBM's service and support divisions are aggressively promoting Windows NT, even against IBM's own product divisions which are trying to sell AS/400, RS/6000, OS/2 WSOD and Java NCs. The service and support folks feel they can generate at least three times as much revenue from a client running Microsoft products than they could from the same client running IBM products.