IBM operated for about a quarter of a century without a 3p standard. They said it was clockwise but there was always the argument whether that was clockwise at the plug (the plant's view) or the receptacle (the electrician's view). The standard task for the hardware installer was to plug it in, see which way the motors ran and swap it in the equipment if it was wrong. Some equipment was shipped with a reversing jumper right in the primary power box. Finally, some time in the Reagan administration, they decided enough is enough and gave the guys a rotation tester.
(A $5 adapter doodad that worked with a regular VOM)
Things still got swapped in the machine occasionally but the rule was we were supposed to get the electrician back to fix it. That standard was clockwise at the face of the receptacle.
When "big iron" gave way to the current cludge of "PCs in a rack" everything is basically single phase, even if the source is 3p. By the time I left in 96 there weren't any new products with 3p motors, big or small.
