The primary focus of our business is information systems software. This involves computers and communication which have given rise to some of the most controversial issues of our age. On this page we offer our own editorial contribution.

WISL Begins

    In the late 1970's computing was becoming pervasive in the business community. All large companies and most medium sized companies had been implementing information systems that incorporated the powerful capabilities of computers. Governments, educational institutions and other non-commercial entities were also participating in the computing revolution. The focus from the early years had been on hardware. The usual approach was to purchase a computer and then figure out how to use it. Most software applications were developed "in house" or with the help of a hardware vendor who tended to be a dealer for a specific hardware manufacturer.   Several large hardware manufacturers dominated the landscape lead by the ubiquitous IBM.

    The 1980's would usher in the personal computer with it's promise to democratize computing. Legend has it that a small software company offered IBM a partnership to develop an operating system for IBM's entry in the PC marketplace which IBM arrogantly rejected in favour of developing its own solution. Microsoft then set its own course and by the end of the decade only two of the hardware centric computing companies were still recognizable and the entire focus of the computing community had switched to software.

    The University of Waterloo had been recognized as a world leader in academic computing since the early 60's. A young institution that was just formulating its identity, U of W embraced computing while establishing its Engineering and Mathematics faculties with the revolutionary concept of co-op education. Students would do an academic term of 4 months followed by a work term of 4 months with the whole process coordinated by the university. An administrative department was established to find employers to co-operate in the process by hiring students for work terms. It was intended to be a win/win for employers and students with the employers getting exposure to a body of fairly cheap temporary labour and potential full-time recruits and the students gaining income to pay for their education as well as valuable practical experience. The co-op education experiment was a stunning success and brought with it the additional benefit of raising the awareness of U of W in the business community. The "business friendly" reputation of the University of Waterloo was also helping it to become one of the major research institutions in Canada. All manner of commercial/academic relationships began to emerge involving the University, members of the University community and the business world.

    Around the same time that IBM was showing Microsoft the door, a young manager in the Data Processing Department at the University of Waterloo walked into his boss's office to discuss the future and in particular the pursuit of business opportunities. By the time he left a couple of hours later they had reached an understanding that they would actively develop an arrangement that would allow them to pursue commercial interests as encouraged by university policy. A partnership entity was formed called "WMW" which consisted of the first letter of each of the partners last names(Walker Montgomery Walker). It was understood that each of the partners would concentrate on one of three activities, administration(including finance and legal issues), product development(software) and sales. The efforts of the partnership focussed on two areas, a Canadian conference/meeting registry and a record keeping facility for not-for-profit organizations. The first idea suffered a relatively quick death but the second became the main source of revenue generation for the partnership with a customer base that included an art gallery, a cultural centre and some fund raising associations.

    WMW decided to experiment with a program development system called Ultimate which was a variant of a system originally developed by a man called Dick Pick for the United States Government in the late 60's. It incorporated the features of variable length fields(data attributes) and multi-value fields by employing specified ASCII characters as delimiters. These features greatly facilitate the management of data and optimize storage resources. The multi-value approach could support business computing effectively on a relatively small platform which made it affordable for medium sized and even small organizations. The "Membership" information system was at once the guinea pig for evaluating the multi-value approach and the first software offering of the new partnership. As Wayne Montgomery developed the Membership programs he wrote generalized macros designed to address the needs for data collection and reporting which could be used to develop other applications. Eventually the package of generalized macros became known as SCADS(Screen Control Application Development System) which has remained a fundamental development tool for WISL into the new century.

    The WMW partner responsible for sales(Scott Walker) was on a golf trip to Florida when during a casual conversation, a member of his foursome revealed an interest  in computerization of his company's operations. This contact with Earl Taylor of Triangle Traffic Services initiated the pursuit of freight management systems which has become a major factor in the evolution of WISL.

    In 1984 the University of Waterloo was looking for a retail management solution for the campus bookstore. The preferred solution that resulted from the search was called RATEX from an Orem Utah company called AIS Inc which was affiliated with Brigham Young University. By coincidence, RATEX ran in the Ultimate computing environment which U of W was also evaluating for other "in house" developed information systems. In typical U of W fashion an arrangement was sought with AIS Inc whereby the University of Waterloo would receive a break on the license fee for RATEX in exchange for Canadianizing the system and contracting to provide system support for other prospective Canadian customers. AIS Inc was warm to the idea but did not wish to deal directly with the University of Waterloo but rather through a commercial entity. AIS Inc was directed to the newly incorporated WISL who contracted for non-exclusive rights to sell RATEX in Canada and to provide system support for resulting customers. WISL in turn executed the agreement with the University of Waterloo that it had originally sought with AIS Inc. WISL was now in the retail management information systems business.

    The incorporation of WISL marked the departure of one of the original partners(Scott Walker) and the arrival of Allen Price who agreed to serve as the first president of the company. Throughout the remainder of the 1980's the retail management customer base grew and company's development efforts focused on freight management applications. WISL regularly hired University of Waterloo co-op students for the freight management R&D and in 1985 a fresh faced redheaded teenager named Brian Parker was hired under the Co-op program and he is still here.

    In March of 1990 WISL participated in the trade show at the annual conference of the Canadian Industrial Transport League in Saskatoon . WISL was honoured at this gathering with designation of "Best Single Booth" at the show. It seems that the delegates were very impressed with the interactive demonstrations of WISL's freight management products.  The recognition was bitter/sweet as feedback at the show indicated that there was a long way to go to make WISL's freight management offerings attractive to shippers and carriers.