vendor . for other uses see mks . this article reads like a press release or is otherwise written in a promotional tone . please help by either rewriting this article from a neutral point of view or by moving this article to wikinews . when appropriate blatant advertising may be marked for speedy deletion with db spam . may 2014 mks a ptc company type public industry computer software founded 1984 products integrity a ptc product website ptc.com products integrity mks inc mortice kern systems was a multinational independent software vendor which was acquired by parametric technology corporation on may 31 2011 and now operates as a business unit within ptc . 1 the integrity business unit at ptc is focused on the enterprise application lifecycle management alm market . integrity a ptc product manages systems and software development processes and connects engineering artifacts including requirements models code and test ensuring comprehensive lifecycle traceability . ptc s integrity business unit supports customers 2 across these four core industries automotive aerospace & defense high tech electronics and medical devices . contents 1 history 1.1 the early years 1984 2000 inception interoperability and going public 1.2 2001 2008 the rise of application lifecycle management 1.3 2009 2010 consolidation of development markets 1.4 2011 the acquisition of mks inc. 2 timeline 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit the early years 1984 2000 inception interoperability and going public edit previously named mortice kern systems mks was founded in 1984 by four university of waterloo students randall howard alex white trevor thompson and steve izma . the company founded initially as a consulting group delivered to market its first product mks toolkit in 1985 . in 1987 mks stepped into the version control market with a product called mks rcs which was renamed to mks source integrity in 1992 deciding at that time to put strategic emphasis and focus expansion on the software configuration management marketplace a segment of what is now known as application lifecycle management alm . in 1997 mks began development of an enterprise version management system that formed the underlying architecture of the mks integrity alm product offered today . this initiative was further realized in 1999 when mks invested the bulk of its r & d efforts towards re designing mks source integrity as a multi tier java ee platform to address the needs of large enterprise installations . in 1998 mks purchased the implementer product and division of silvon software based out of chicago illinois to add as 400 support to its alm product line . continuing with acquisitions in 1999 the interoperability business unit merged with datafocus inc. a long time oem partner and was charged with the evolution of the mks toolkit and nutcracker products . in the 1999 2000 timeframe the company also embarked on a web content management strategy with the launch of a product called web integrity . this precipitated a spin off strategy resulting in the formation of a company called vertical sky . this short lived venture was not successful and the company abandoned its content management product and regrouped and rebuilt under the mks brand name in 2001 . 2001 2008 the rise of application lifecycle management edit in 2001 following the company s restructuring and refinancing mks shifted its primary focus to the enterprise market expanding from its desktop based version control and defect tracking system to the multi tier software change and configuration management scm system it had been developing technically since 1997 . the new product now known as mks integrity had a java ee foundation and was brought to market in june 2001 . since that time the company has expanded feature sets beyond scm into what is now called in the marketplace application lifecycle management alm with the incorporation of requirements management and release management in 2005 and test management and portfolio management in 2006 . as of 2006 the alm revenues for the company constitute over 80 % of the annual revenues mks inc. 2006 06 07 . mks announces record revenue and earnings for fiscal 2006 press release . mks inc. retrieved 2006 11 08 . . in late 2005 mks opened an office in japan where the company began to offer local service and support for their customer base in countries such as australia china japan korea and singapore . by october 2006 the interoperability division of mks announced the release of mks x server technology sco xvision eclipse and the sco wintif that was rebranded after being acquired from sco . in 2001 philip c. deck join the company and was appointed ceo . shortly after michael w. harris joined and was appointed president and coo in july 2002 and douglas sawatzky formerly vp finance as chief financial officer in february 2006 . throughout 2006 2008 mks was recognized by industry analysts and pr firms as a strong contender in the alm market and continued to receive industry accolades for its strong technical offerings company recognized by sd times as an innovation leader for fourth straight year 3 in 2008 forrester proclaims mks as the leader in requirements management in the independent research report 4 mks positioned in the leaders quadrant in gartner s first magic quadrant for software change and configuration management sccm for distributed platforms 5 mks positioned as an influential vendor in the alm vendor report by independent analyst firm voke inc. 6 in late 2007 and early 2008 the company acted upon growing success in the embedded systems market and focused its strategy both in terms of sales and development on large global organizations in the automotive aerospace defense medical device and mobile device sectors . 2009 2010 consolidation of development markets edit with the current industry focus the company is seeing the advanced product development organizations those with a combination software and hardware focus forcing the consolidation of the traditional product development and software development life cycles . the accolades continued for mks integrity with more from the analyst and pr firms gartner positioned mks as a leader in the 2009 magic quadrant for software change and configuration management sccm for distributed platform 7 forrester named mks as a leader in agile development management tools in forrester research inc. may 2010 . 8 in late 2009 michael w. harris was appointed as the company s president and ceo while philip c. deck was appointed executive chairman and continues his role as chairman of the board of directors . 9 august 23 2010 charlie janes returns to mks and is appointed vice president of sales for north america . in september 2010 andrew m. wertkin was appointed chief technology officer cto . 10 november 3 2010 michelle dickey joined mks as vice president federal sales to spearhead a team for the north american government market . 2011 the acquisition of mks inc. edit on may 31 2011 it was announced that ptc had completed the acquisition of mks and that mks would operate as the integrity business unit of ptc going forward . 11 timeline edit 1984 founded 1985 first release of mks toolkit 1987 first release of mks rcs 1992 mks rcs renamed mks source integrity 1997 mks goes public on toronto stock exchange under trading symbol mkx 1998 acquisition of the implementer product line from silvon software broadening its platform iseries reach and marketshare 1999 acquisition of datafocus a longtime oem customer of the mks toolkit product line . 2000 vertical sky begins and ends 2000 founder and ceo randall howard leaves the company 2001 philip c. deck joins mks as ceo and chairman 2001 mks source integrity enterprise multi tier java ee architecture launched later renamed to mks integrity 2002 mks officially changes its name from mortice kern systems to mks 2002 introduced federated server model for remote geographic team support an alternative to replication capability built into mks integrity mks inc. 2002 09 18 . mks announces major upgrades to its enterprise scm solution press release . mks inc. retrieved 2005 11 08 . 2005 first release of requirements management feature set built within the mks integrity mks inc. 2005 02 01 . mks announces mks integrity suite 2005 press release . mks inc. retrieved 2005 11 08 . 2005 opening of asia pacific division in singapore mks inc. 2006 12 05 . mks establishes asia pacific operations press release . mks inc. retrieved 2005 11 08 . 2006 first release of portfolio management capability into mks integrity mks inc. 2006 05 24 . mks redefines application lifecycle management market press release . mks inc. retrieved 2006 11 08 . 2006 mks inc. 2006 06 07 . mks announces record revenue and earnings for fiscal 2006 press release . mks inc. retrieved 2006 11 08 . 2006 first release of mks x server technology acquired from sco 2009 official release of mks integrity 2009 mks inc. 2009 09 16 . mks extends market wide leadership with mks integrity 2009 press release . mks inc. retrieved 2009 09 16 . and launch of intelligent alm tm solution positioning . 2009 michael w. harris appointed president and ceo and philip c. deck appointed as executive chairman 2010 andrew m. wertkin appointed chief technology officer cto mks inc. 2010 09 21 . mks appoints new cto to further extend technology leadership press release . mks inc. retrieved 2010 09 21 . 2011 mks acquired by parametric technology corporation ptc ptc 2011 05 31 . ptc acquires mks press release . see also edit mks toolkit mks integrity references edit ptc 2011 05 31 . open letter to mks customers ptc acquires mks pdf press release . ptc . retrieved 2011 09 16 . mks customers . retrieved 2011 03 23 . software development times 2006 06 01 . mks hits a home run with sd times company recognized as an innovation leader for fourth straight year press release . sd times . retrieved 2010 06 03 . forrester research inc. 2008 05 31 . the forrester wave tm requirements management q2 2008 press release . forrester research inc. retrieved 2010 06 02 . gartner inc. 2008 01 28 . magic quadrant for software change and configuration management sccm for distributed platforms press release . gartner inc. retrieved 2010 06 03 . voke inc. 2008 08 07 . mks positioned as an influential vendor in the alm vendor report by independent analyst firm voke inc. press release . voke inc. retrieved 2010 06 03 . gartner inc. 2009 04 23 . 2009 magic quadrant for software change and configuration management sccm for distributed platform press release . gartner inc. retrieved 2010 06 03 . forrester research inc. 2010 05 13 . the forrester wave tm agile development management tools q2 2010 press release . forrester research inc. retrieved 2010 06 03 . mks announces changes to leadership structure . retrieved 2009 11 24 . mks appoints new cto to further extend technology leadership . retrieved 2010 09 21 . ptc 2011 05 31 . ptc acquires mks press release . external links edit integrity website integrity solutions alm disciplines process & methodology mks toolkit retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mks inc. & oldid 737623698 categories software companies of canadacompanies established in 1984companies based in waterloo ontariohidden categories articles with a promotional tone from may 2014all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 4 september 2016 at 01 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy