Marcam Solutions: Shifting its Focus to MES
P.J. Jakovljevic - November 1, 1999

Vendor Genesis

Marcam Solutions, headquartered in Newton, MA, is a global provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise asset management (EAM) software exclusively for process manufacturing enterprises and large corporate divisions. Marcam Solutions was created after the 1997 breakup of Marcam Corporation, a company founded in 1980 that was struggling to manage the business of two product lines that targeted the two completely different markets of discrete and process manufacturing. The dissolution of Marcam Corporation created two new ERP software companies, Marcam Solutions and MAPICS Inc. Marcam revenues in fiscal 1998 were $124.5 million. Paul Margolis and John Campbell founded Marcam (a name derived from their surnames) in 1980 to provide MAPICS installation and customization services. In 1983 Marcam began developing its own planning and control software for process manufacturing companies such as food, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The result was PRISM, first licensed in 1987. Marcam went public in 1990 and acquired ShawWare (maintenance management applications) in 1991 and the MAPICS product line from IBM in 1993. Marcam launched Protean ERP software in 1994. In 1995, it formed subsidiary Foresight Software to develop customer interaction applications, and it halted development of a client/server version of PRISM to focus on its similar Protean line. Today, Marcam Solutions offers three product suites for process manufacturers: an AS/400 based ERP package called PRISM, an open platform ERP product called Protean, and an EAM product called Avantis, initially released in 1981 by ShawWare. The PRISM and Protean software suites automate tasks such as resource planning, production model development, and quality control management. Avantis software manages inventories, maintenance schedules, and all related paperwork...