UNIT4

Roderick Cann, Slinger Jansen and Sjaak Brinkkemper

Chapter 19 in Software Business Start-up Memories, 2013, pp 178-187 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract UNIT4 was founded by a group of 11 colleagues who made up the software development department of an American company named Management Assistance Incorporated (MAI) Basic Four. This company sold Basic4 computers, which were delivered with software. However, during the economic downturn in 1980, the project to create a Dutch version of the American software that the company delivered with its computers was canceled and the employees of the development department were asked to leave the company. The management then decided to start their own company, initially keeping the hierarchy of the old situation, meaning that the first management was made up of the people who managed the software development department at MAI. This was the start of Unit Four International (which would later be known as UNIT4 Agresso and which has been called UNIT4 since 2010), which focused on automating smaller companies by providing software for financial information and trading companies. This software was developed for minicomputers, which were the common computers used by small and medium-sized companies to automate their financial processing. While these were officially two separate products, Fini and Visy, they were often bought as a single product, and then called Fini/Visy. Over the years, UNIT4 has extended its product portfolio by offering advanced, market-specific standard product software that addresses a wide variety of markets, business goals, and types of organizations. A public company since 1998, UNIT4 has currently a number of offices in different countries, supporting its business activities in 24 countries worldwide.

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Product Portfolio; Regular Employment; Technological Turbulence; Standardize Maintenance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-28047-3_19

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137280473_19

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