Editing Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting (section)

=== Background ===
[[File:ERMA Team.jpg|thumb|The ERMA team from SRI International]]

In 1950, [[Bank of America]] (BoA) was the largest bank in [[California]],<ref name="our"/> and led the world in the use of [[Cheque|cheques]]. This presented a serious problem due to the workload processing time. An experienced bookkeeper could post 245 accounts in an hour, about 2,000 in an eight-hour workday and approximately 10,000 per week. Bank of America's checking accounts were growing at a rate of 23,000 per month and banks were being forced to close their doors by 2&nbsp;p.m. to finish daily postings.

[[S. Clark Beise]] was a senior vice president at BoA who was introduced to [[Thomas H. Morrin]], SRI's Director of Engineering. They formed an alliance under which SRI would essentially act as BoA's research and development arm. In July 1950 they contracted SRI for an initial feasibility study for [[automation|automating]] their bookkeeping and check handling.<ref name="n2-2">[[#Nielson|Nielson, p. 2-2]]</ref><ref>{{cite journal| citeseerx = 10.1.1.175.6002|title=The Development of the ERMA Banking System: Lessons from History |author=Amy Weaver Fisher |author2=James L. McKenney |pages=44–57|journal=[[IEEE Annals of the History of Computing]]|publisher=[[IEEE]]|volume=15|number=1|year=1993 |doi= 10.1109/85.194091|s2cid=31809513 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1HPxUJNFgbgC |title= Waves of Change: Business Evolution Through Information Technology |author=James L. McKenney |author2=Duncan C. Copeland |author3=Richard O. Mason |publisher=[[Harvard Business Press]] |date= 1995-01-01|page=44|isbn= 978-0-87584-564-7 }}</ref> ERMA was under the technical leadership of computer scientist [[Jerre Noe]].<ref name="nielson">{{cite book | last = Nielson | first = Donald | title = A Heritage of Innovation: SRI's First Half Century | publisher = SRI International | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-9745208-1-0 | location = [[Menlo Park, California]] |pages = 2–8 | ref = Nielson}}</ref>