MKS Inc.

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.

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.[4]

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[5]
• In 2008 Forrester proclaims MKS as the leader in requirements management in the independent research report[6]
• MKS positioned in the 'Leaders' quadrant in Gartner's first Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management (SCCM) for Distributed Platforms[7]
• MKS positioned as an influential vendor in the ALM Vendor Report by independent analyst firm, Voke Inc.[8]

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.

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[9]
• Forrester named MKS as a leader in Agile development management tools in Forrester Research Inc., May 2010.[10]

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.[11]

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).[12]

November 3, 2010, Michelle Dickey joined MKS as Vice President Federal Sales to spearhead a team for the North American Government market.

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.[13]

By mid 2017 all development staff working on former MKS products are laid off, only tiny support staff is left to support now legacy Integrity software.