The following is a brief synopsis of the background history of Abacus 21 -

• Year 1971 -
  • The initial beginnings of our suite of Club-Resort hospitality software products originated back in 1971 -- and in those days the software ran on Radio Shack TRS 80's and IBM 5100's (and was of course primitive by today's standards).  Most of the functionality was BackOffice related.
• Year 1981 -
  • Abacus 21 re-wrote (and expanded) the software from scratch for mini-computers (which were now becoming 'somewhat' affordable).  A significant extension was broadening out to Point-of-Sale.
  • The name of the Company was a result of a 'contest' run by the Founder (and President) of Abacus 21, Butch Lesniak. 
    • As he was preparing to 'launch' the new Company while still at his previous place of employment, he conducted a contest (circulated amongst that Company's worldwide Departments) to help in the name choice.  Dinner was promised to the person who came up with the 'winning choice'.
    • The winner was 'Abacus' -- submitted by the Engineering Drafting Department of the Environmental Services Division located in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The Drafting Department was comprised of six females...  who all claimed contributions to the submission -- so consequently six dinners were awarded.
    • The '21' was added on to avoid the 'name conflicts' with other 'Abacus' entities.  It had absolutely no significance that can be recalled...  although some have noted that it denotes software for the 21st Century....   something actually unthought of back in 1981. 
• Year 1990 -
  • Abacus 21 'translated' (it was basically not a re-write) our repertoire of applications from mini-computer orientation to run in PC Networks -- initially Novell -- in the 1990-1991 timeframe.  Comet (our Legacy System) was the principal programming, database, and co-operating system mechanism that we used for this.
  • For a while we supported simultaneously both mini-computer environments and the new PC environments.  We discontinued new development in the mini-computer environment segment in around 1997 -- when it became obvious that the PC environments far out-shined the mini-computers (for our types of clientele at least).  We migrated our mini-computer Clients over to PC environments in the ensuing years, and completed that transition in 2000 (in time for Y2K); we no longer develop or support products in the mini-computer market.
  • Over the years in the 90's, we further expanded our application ensemble and enhanced all modules to take advantage of the inherent powers of PC's.
  • The early 90's our product was DOS-based (as far as operating systems went); during the second half of the 90's we began running in a Windows environment (first with Windows 95, later with Windows 98, later with Windows NT).
  • In the later 90's, we facilitated the operation of our software on Windows NT Servers.
  • In 1996 we began a search for a new Application Development Tool and Application Database -- to be used for our 'next generation' of product.
    • The objective of 'next generation' product was to avail Abacus 21 of the latest GUI, Windows-based, Network & Internet savvy, Database-intelligent tools -- that would provide us a development platform that would carry us through the next decade at least.  In making this decision, we were totally aware that it would (and should) involve a total re-write of our systems -- as this re-write approach was the only way to take advantage of the features/functionality that these methodologies provide.
    • We spent about one year researching the various alternatives, and settled on Delphi (as the development tool) and Interbase (as the primary database engine).  The Interbase database is fully ODBC compliant.
    • Abacus 21 released its first prototype (a Concierge-WorkOrder System) using Delphi-Interbase in 1997; it was installed at only one client site as a 'trial-balloon'.   (Five years later, that installation is still using the original prototype.)
    • This exploratory prototype development was the kickoff of our development of our new-product System 441 -- the foundations of which we have been working on since 1997-1998.
  • By the end of the Year 1999, we had converted all of our Clients (except the one Delphi prototype, which had no 'date issues') to the same Legacy System software release level -- totally compliant with Y2K.
• Year 2000
  • We enabled our Legacy System to run on Win2000 Servers.  Abacus 21 assisted many of its Clients in shifting from Novell to NT or Win2000 servers.
  • We continued to make expansions/enhancements to the Legacy System -- including Internet enablement functions.
  • Concurrently, we continued our development of our new Delphi-Interbase product line.
  • In October 2000, Abacus 21 released its first production (non-prototype) Delphi-Interbase applications -- intermixed with its Legacy System products.
  • Application Development (and ancilliary services) resources began shifting from the Legacy System to the new-product system.
  • During 2001, new Clients typically received some new-product modules as part of their Abacus 21 software suite.
• Year 2002
  • Abacus 21 assisted many of its Clients in shifting from Novell to Win2000 Servers.
  • In June 2002, Abacus 21 finally decided upon a 'name' for its new-product series -- and called the new migration platform 'System 441'.  (Marketing-wise, 441 is the '21' in Abacus 21 squared -- implying 'exponentially enhanced' software.)
  • In July 2002, Abacus 21 began promoting its 'Migration Plan' (from Legacy to System 441, which inherently allows for a 'hybrid' approach during the transition) to its clientele -- noting in particular its 'more-demanding' Server requirements (no Novell -- only NT, Win2000, etc.) and workstation (600+ Mhz, 256MB Ram PC or Citrix thin-client, with Windows 98/NT/2000) pre-requisites.
  • In July 2002, we released our last (major) version of our Legacy System.  Minor upgrades (principally for  bug fixes and odds/ends) will continue through the end of 2003 -- at which time it will be 'frozen'.  (We expect all of our clients to have migrated by around  December 31, 2004.)
  • All new Clients implemented in 2002 (and beyond) received the System 441 product series.
• Year 2014 - and the Future
  • Our Company's product emphasis continues to lean more-and-more toward our System 441 series.
  • Our campaign for migrating our existing Legacy System Clients to System 441 has been well received.
  • Our new-product development is at 'full throttle' -- as we continue to broaden and deepen our enhanced applicational treatment.... inclusive of Thin-Client, Cloud-Computing, and Tablet iOS™ and Android™ oriented applications. 
  • We continue to explore and adapt new adjunct technologies that can complement our new-product series -- such as Club-Resort & HOA Website developer affiliations, software component libraries, Web-enablement and inherent .NET capabilities, new POS peripherals, wireless, browser-based tools, PDA's, electronic document management, Signature Capture, Access Control, Data Mining, Ad-Hoc Report-Designer Tools, and iPhone-iPad-Android Interactions etc.  These new features or modules will be offered to our Clients within the normal upgrade processes (of the Client's set of existing applications) or as add-on module purchases.
  • With all of this we are well-positioned with state-of-the-art development platform and tools that will enable us to further capitalize on new technical developments -- and to continue to augment the maturity, sophistication, and simplicity of our System 441 product series for our Clientele in the coming years.