Cincom Systems Explained

Cincom Systems, Inc.
Type:Private
Industry:Computer software
IT Services
Fate:Sold to PartnerOne in 2024
Foundation:1968
Location City:Cincinnati, Ohio
Location Country:United States
Founders:Thomas M. Nies, Tom Richley, Claude Bogardus
Key People:Thomas M. Nies, Sr., Founder/CEO
Products:CPQ Software
Customer Communications Management Software (CCM)
Contact Center Software
Document Automation
Data Management
Application Development

Cincom Systems, Inc., is a privately held multinational computer technology corporation founded in 1968 by Tom Nies, Tom Richley, and Claude Bogardus.[1] The company’s first product, Total, was the first commercial database management system that was not bundled with manufacturer hardware and proprietary software. In June 2024, Cincom Systems Inc. was acquired by PartnerOne, a Canada-based enterprise software company. At the time of the sale, Cincom had 400 employees both in the US and internationally.

History

Cincom Systems was founded in 1968, when the product focus in the computer industry was far more on hardware than software,[2] and mass merchandising in the industry was nonexistent.[3] Cincom was quoted by IBM as being "the original database company" in 2017.[4]

By the late 1960s, Tom Nies, a salesman and project manager at IBM, had noticed that software was becoming a more important component of computer systems and decided to work for a business that sold software. The only software businesses in existence at that time were a small number of service bureaus, none of which was located in Cincinnati, where Nies resided.[3] Convinced that software was a potential profit center, rather than a drain on profits, as was then viewed by IBM management, Thomas M. Nies, left IBM late 1968 and brought along Tom Richley and Claude Bogardus. This executive trio functioned as sales and marketing (Nies), product development (Richley), and research and development (Bogardus). In 1968 Nies joined Claude Bogardus and Tom Richley to found Cincom Systems.[3] The name Cincom comes from the portmanteau of "Cincinnati" and "computer". This is due to the company being founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.[5] The company initially only wrote programs for individual companies.[3] By March 1969, the company became a full-service organization by adding principals Judy Foegle Carlson[6] (administration), George Fanady (custom systems), Doug Hughes (systems engineering), and Jan Litton (product installation).

Within its first year, the company realized that it was solving the same data management problems for its various clients. Nies proposed the solution of developing a core database management system that could be sold to multiple customers. Total was the result of this development effort.[3] As the company’s first product, Total, was the first commercial database management system that was not bundled with manufacturer hardware and proprietary software.[7] At a time when each application program "owned" the data it used, a company often had multiple copies of similar information:

"... people would get five different reports and the inventory balances would say five different things. What were our sales during April? Well, you'd get five different numbers, depending on how you total things up."[8]

The problem was known, and CODASYL's[9] Database Task Group Report wrote about it, as did General Electric and IBM. Cincom's TOTAL "segregated out the programming logic from the application of the database."

Despite IBM being "where the money was," there was still the problem of compatibility between large systems running OS/360 or small systems running DOS/360, so they "implemented 70 to 80 percent of the application programming logic in such a way that it insulated the user from" whichever they used; some used both.[8]

Starting in 1971, Cincom opened offices in Canada, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Australia, Japan, Brazil and Hong Kong.

By 1980, TOTAL product sales reached $250 million.On August 20, 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan called Cincom and Tom Nies "the epitome of entrepreneurial spirit of American business."[10] Cincom Systems was described in 2001 as "a venerable software firm, included in the Smithsonian national museum along with Microsoft as a software pioneer."[11] In 2007, Cincom generated over $100 million in revenue for the 21st straight year, a feat unmatched by any private software publisher in the world. Microsoft (a public company) is the only other software publisher in the world to reach this milestone.[12]

From 1968 until February 2017, Nies served as Cincom Systems president. He also served as chairman.[13] Greg Mills became President.[14] By 2021, Nies was considered the longest actively serving CEO in the computer industry.[15]

In June 2024, Cincom Systems Inc. was acquired by PartnerOne, a Canada-based enterprise software company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed at the time, and Cincom's founder Tom Nies stepped down from his post at the company to retire. He had been CEO of Cincom since its founding in 1968, making him the longest actively serving CEO in the computer industry. At the time of the sale, Cincom had 400 employees both in the US and internationally.

Product history

1968 to 1969

Initially the company simply wrote programs for local companies. They would use the data management aspects of many programs with reasonable similarities to develop the product called Total, which was seen as an improvement and generalization of IBM's DBOMP.[16]

Other than IBM, which was still in the "selling iron" business, Cincom became the first U.S. software firm to promote the concept of a database management system (DBMS).[17] Cincom delivered the first commercial database management system that was not bundled with a computer manufacturer's hardware and proprietary software.[7]

1970s and 1980s

Cincom introduced several new products during the 1970s, including:

New products introduced in the 1980s included:

1990s

New products during the 1990s, included:

2000 to the present

New products include:

External links

Notes and References

  1. 10.1109/MAHC.2009.93 . Cincom Systems' Total . December 31, 2009 . With this article, he describes how Cincom, the company he cofounded in 1968 with only $600 in capital, grew into one of the largest software ... . Nies . T. M. . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . 31 . 4 . 55–61 . 17112745 .
  2. Thomas Nies' experiences at IBM installing applications convinced him that the industry's future was in software. . 10.1109/MAHC.2009.93 . 17112745 . Cincom Systems' Total . 2009 . Nies . T. M. . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . 31 . 4 . 55–61 .
  3. Transcript of 1995 interview Web site: ... with IBM I was selling technology. ... whereas with Procter & Gamble it was mass merchandising and mass marketing. Interestingly enough, these two industries have now come together. The computer industry has since become a mass merchandising industry, and .... Transcript of a Video History Interview with Mr. Thomas M. Nies, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Cincom Systems, Inc. – and the longest-serving CEO in the Computer Industry – Interviewed by David K. Allison, Division of Computers, Information & Society, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Inst..
  4. Web site: May 10, 2017 . SUPRA Server SQL . IBM.com . Ideal relational database for all client server SQL applications. Runs and looks the same on all platforms from Windows NT to the most current Z/OS(tm) and z/VSE(tm)/ESA as well as running on legacy OS/390, VSE, OpenVMS and UNIX systems . ODBC 3.0 compliant. Even has TCP/IP support on VSE. Brings the performance needed on mainframes to the NT market. Highly scalable, SUPRA SQL can handle data volumes most client/server databases can only dream of. Cincom was the original database company (emphasis added) and brings more than 30 years of experience to the support and development of our databases..
  5. Book: Jones, Capers . The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering . Addison-Wesley Professional . 2014 . 978-0-321-90342-6 . 1st . Crawfordsville, Indiana . ch 6 . en.
  6. Web site: 25 years in the pursuit of excellence: Cincom.
  7. Web site: History of Cincom Systems Inc. . FundingUniverse.com. IBM's computers were sold with only the most basic operating system; it was left to customers to program specific functions. Unable to convince others at IBM of the efficacy of designing and selling more useful software, Nies, Richley, and Bogardus struck out on their own. ... devised its first software application, the TOTAL database management system..
  8. Web site: Evolution of Database Management.
  9. the Conference/Committee on Data Systems Languages
  10. Web site: - YouTube. YouTube.
  11. Web site: Cincom hit by cash crunch . Rachel Melcer, Courier Staff Reporter . June 11, 2001 . BizJournals.com.
  12. Web site: Cincom Announces 21st Straight Year of Over $100 Million in Revenue.
  13. Web site: Bloomberg.com . Mr. Nies served as the President of Cincom Systems Inc. until February 2017 and serves as its Chairman. Thomas M. Nies: Executive Profile & Biography.
  14. Web site: Cincom Names Greg Mills, to Corporate President Position . February 21, 2017.
  15. Book: Haff, Gordon . Open Source Software . Apress . 2021 . 978-1-4842-6799-8 . 2nd . Lancaster, MA, USA . 143–172 . 10.1007/978-1-4842-6800-1 . 219889655 . en.
  16. McGee . W.C. . 11487796 . Data Base Technology . IBM Journal of Research and Development . Sep 1981 . 25 . 5 . 505–519 . 10.1147/rd.255.0505 .
  17. Web site: February 9, 2006 . Prerelational DBMS vendors – a quick overview . With BOMP and D-BOMP, IBM was probably the first company to commercialize precursors to DBMS. (BOMP stood for Bill Of Materials Planning, foreshadowing the hierarchical architecture of IMS.) ... In the 1970s, Cincom was probably the most successful independent software product company. Its flagship product was Total, a shallow-network DBMS that was a little more general than the strictly hierarchical IMS..
  18. . October 24, 1977 . 25. ... enables users of Cincom's Environ/1 teleprocessing monitor to collect .... Package Gives User Control of Dumps.
  19. Web site: They felt that they needed better technical backup for their new on-line module (available for CICS and Cincom's own TP monitor, Environ/1). The Mainframe Adventure – Cincom . Paul Lynch. September 16, 1997.
  20. Web site: Cincom MANTIS Share . SourceForge.net. MANTIS is a hybrid high level programming language and tools optimized to crank out "line of business" applications. It allows focus on business data and process instead of technology. However, access to low level technologies are available if desired.. March 24, 2017.
  21. News: TOTAL Information System (TIS) . . November 7, 1983 . 37 . When TIS became commercially available in the spring of 1982 ... .
  22. News: . 26 . April 27, 1987. Cincom updates Ultra's capabilities . The new release of Cincom Systems, Inc.'s Ultra ... a relational data base management system for Digital Equipment Corp. . Nina Maginnis.
  23. Web site: Cincom offers Mantis for DEC's VAX . April 29, 1985.
  24. Web site: Cincom and its partners provide innovative software solutions. Cincom SUPRA Server PDM is Cincom's hierarchical, interactive database management system. SUPRA maintains data and coordinates database access ....
  25. Web site: CNet.com. Cincom AD/Advantage 5.5.01 Overview.
  26. News: . May 20, 1991. Cincom's AD-Advantage has been under development for six years and has recently been marketed in the UK . 10 . Cincom AD/Advantage enters UK.
  27. Web site: Cincom Mainframe Software. Cincom Mainframe Software AD/Advantage Category: Application Development. A component of MANTIS. AD/Advantage automates development activities in ....
  28. Web site: An Introduction to Smalltalk. Wenling Chen. 2018-08-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20180829024314/http://logos.cs.uic.edu/476/resources/SmallTalk/cs476_Smalltalk/Smalltalk.htm. 2018-08-29. dead.
  29. Web site: Customer Communications Management Eloquence Cincom Systems. www.cincom.com. en-us. 2018-04-24.

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