ABOUT HRMS

Early Years

HRMS Inc. (Harry Rohde Management Systems) was founded by Harry Rohde. Harry initially developed the HRMS software for estimating, payroll, and order entry. In 1975, HRMS successfully completed a metric conversion project for their software, and soon found themselves swamped with new sales inquiries.

In 1980, HRMS opened a California office to serve as a base for customer support. HRMS quickly grew into a 30-employee operation. Other modules grew from Harry's philosophy of sharing data between different parts of a manufacturing facility. He felt that mastering the information flow was key to building and sustaining a profitable manufacturing plant.

The software initially ran on computers that were the size of washing machines but only had 10 megabytes of memory. By the mid-1980s, HRMS software ran on UNIX on smaller but more powerful mini-computers. This hardware advance meant faster processing, more simultaneous users, additional printers, and other features.

Growth and Change

During the 1990s, HRMS began to work directly with machinery and third-party vendors who provided ancillary software to complement the HRMS core software. Terminals on the plant floor were added in 1993 and a few years later the Real-Time production module used that data to present an up-to-the-minute picture of production. During this same period, HRMS introduced a system specifically for the folding carton industry and also expanded into the distribution area. In the late 1990s, HRMS introduced a complete overhaul of the HRMS Software System adding Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and making it Y2K ready.

In 2006, VantagePoint Systems, Inc. (TSX-Venture: VPG), a provider of business software and related information technology services for the packaging manufacturing industry acquired HRMS as a stand-alone business unit within VantagePoint. "VantagePoint has the same ethics, culture, and attitude toward customers as HRMS. It's all very positive," Harry said. "This acquisition will benefit HRMS staff, customers and the industry."

Due to the unsurpassed power, reliability and versatility of the software, the HRMS software is used in all the continents of the world. Starting in North America, new customers were gained in South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and then Asia.