English Español Português Products Overview Sales Forecasting Perpetual Inventory CIMSPAD Production Scheduling Raw Material Planning Distribution Scheduling Transportation Scheduling Services Technical Support Knowledge Base Training Year 2000 Monthly Tips Downloads Free Demo Sales Literature Updates & Patches User Manuals Shareware Business Partners Becoming a Partner Company Information Company Overview Clients Location Employment News Announcements			Company Information Founded in 1983, Great Lakes Software first entered the software applications marketplace offering graphics and business software for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4a home computer. The company developed and marketed various software titles including Joy Paint '99, Certificate '99 and Extended Business Graphs which were sold through national distributors and mail order companies. Great Lakes Software was well known in the Texas Instruments home computer market for providing creative and innovative programming. In its early years, the company's revenue was derived from royalties on the sale of the home computer software and from consulting services offered to Michigan businesses. Until 1987, the company was DBA licensed to conduct business under the assumed name "Great Lakes Software." The company was later incorporated in 1987 in the state of Michigan under the new name of "Great Lakes Software of Michigan, Incorporated." As the consulting portion of the business began to grow, and the home computer marketplace declined, Great Lakes shifted its platform to the IBM PC and the DOS operating system. This shift was important because many of the company's consulting services were standardizing on the IBM PC or compatible. The consulting clients needed services such as spread sheet design, database development, and inventory systems. These services were provided by Great Lakes utilizing a number of early PC software tools including VisiCalc, Lotus 123, Dbase, and Borland Turbo Pascal. A consulting relationship developed between Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Michigan and Great Lakes, which allowed the company to gain experience in the areas of beverage manufacturing and distribution. Great Lakes then began to develop its C.I.M.S. Computerized Inventory Management System for the DOS operating system. Early modules were created for inventory, product distribution, and transport scheduling. The success of these early modules led to the expansion of the software product, and the development of modules for sales forecasting, production, raw materials ordering, and hand-held inventory data collection. Sales of the C.I.M.S. product, its maintenance, and user support allowed Great Lakes to expand. C.I.M.S. was sold to several other Pepsi Cola bottlers including company owned (COBO) and franchise owned (FOBO) operations in Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Many other companies now use the product including some of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers such as The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York, located in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Great Lakes used its increased knowledge of the beverage business to improve and enhance its software. The firm grew from a one man entrepreneurial venture in the late 80's to a staff of seven full time employees in 1997. The company is now actively recruiting additional staff, concentrating on filling positions in the areas of customer service, sales, and marketing to help continue its steady growth. The original C.I.M.S. product was converted to Microsoft Windows in 1993 and immediately met with excellent reviews from its users. The improved graphical user interface made the product much easier to use and allowed a wider range of people to take advantage of the system's power. The Microsoft Windows format has made training much faster and easier, allowing companies to get started with CIMS very quickly without requiring a lot of training time. Today, the company offers its C.I.M.S. Computerized Inventory Management System software exclusively in Microsoft Windows format. A version of the program is available for Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows '95, and Windows NT. The client server model is utilized extensively to provide graphical analysis and reporting of a centralized non-proprietary database. True multi-user compatibility is also included in the product, giving it full compatibility with the modern networking software such as Novell Netware. Support for wide area networking makes C.I.M.S. ideal for companies with many branch locations. Growing interest in the C.I.M.S. product by companies outside of the USA has allowed Great Lakes Software to gain international customers including several throughout Mexico and Brazil. Responding to the need for a Spanish version of the software, the company internationalized C.I.M.S. by providing a Spanish language version. The internationalization of the product allowed Great Lakes Software to provide a localized version which includes support for various numeric, currency, date, and time formats. On screen text, help files, and printed user documentation of C.I.M.S. were also translated to Spanish, and the Portuguese version soon followed. The company is committed to the proper training, maintenance, and support of its domestic and international customers. Therefore the necessary bilingual staff was hired to provide these services in the Portuguese, Spanish and English languages. Because of design and structure of its product, Great Lakes Software can quickly translate C.I.M.S. to many different foreign languages as the company continues to gain new international customers in various regions. Current research and development at Great Lakes Software focuses on further enhancements to its core software modules of Inventory Management, Sales Forecasting, Production, Raw Materials Ordering, Transport Scheduling, and Distribution. The company is privately held.
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