MKS
Encyclopedia
MKS Inc was a multinational independent software vendor which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Parametric Technology Corporation
on May 31, 2011 and is now operated as a business unit within PTC. It is focused on the enterprise Application Lifecycle Management
(ALM) market, which includes lifecycle management for applications, systems and software engineering with its process centric MKS Integrity
platform.
MKS Integrity manages all systems and software development process
es and connects all engineering artifacts, including requirements, models, code and test
, ensuring comprehensive lifecycle traceability
. MKS Integrity's open architecture integrates disparate tools into a streamlined engineering process, allowing orchestration of engineering change and collaboration across the technology supply chain with a single solution, single repository approach. By introducing this approach, the company believes that with MKS Integrity, engineering teams improve productivity and quality, streamline compliance and gain complete product visibility, which ultimately drives more innovative products into the market.
MKS Integrity also provides complete ecosystem integration so that you can preserve your current investments in tools, suppliers and partners. Finally, MKS Integrity offers enterprise-wide value whereby organizations will achieve real-time release readiness metrics and reporting; will have support of a variety of development methodologies/technologies; and, achieve scalability to all sizes of the enterprise.
MKS works with customers who are looking to manage development of software intensive products, as well as, those who have compliance initiatives, or are adopting regulatory controls such as ISO 26262
, DO-178B/C
and ISO
and IEC
standards as well as FDA
and CE Mark Regulatory Requirements
.
MKS also offers Implementer, a change control system for the IBM i operating system available under the MKS Integrity ALM banner; MKS Toolkit
which provides interoperability and source code portability between UNIX
, Linux
and Windows; MKS X/Server
, and a commercial version of Lex
& Yacc
.
MKS is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario
, Canada
and has 372 employees as of March 10, 2011. With additional offices in the United States
, the United Kingdom
, Germany
, Singapore
and Japan
MKS supports customers across these four core industries: Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, High Tech Electronics and Medical Devices which includes many global 1,000 organizations, worldwide.
MKS conducts research and development in Waterloo, Ontario
, benefiting from the company's close proximity to the University of Waterloo
and its world renowned math and computer sciences program and its co-op placement program as well as other post secondary educational institutions like Wilfrid Laurier University
, Conestoga College
and University of Guelph
.
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 ALM.
In 1997 MKS began development of a new, more scalable 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.
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 .
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:
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.
The accolades continued for MKS Integrity with more from the analyst and PR firms:
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.
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).
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, MKS and PTC
announced that PTC had completed the acquisition of MKS and MKS would be operated as a business division of PTC from now on.
Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
on May 31, 2011 and is now operated as a business unit within PTC. It is focused on the enterprise Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management is a continuous process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance...
(ALM) market, which includes lifecycle management for applications, systems and software engineering with its process centric MKS Integrity
MKS Integrity
MKS Integrity now a PTC product is a system and software lifecycle management and application lifecycle management platform developed by MKS Inc. and was first released in 2001. The software is client/server, with both desktop and web client interfaces...
platform.
MKS Integrity manages all systems and software development process
Software development process
A software development process, also known as a software development life cycle , is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. Similar terms include software life cycle and software process. It is often considered a subset of systems development life cycle...
es and connects all engineering artifacts, including requirements, models, code and test
Software testing
Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...
, ensuring comprehensive lifecycle traceability
Requirements management
Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project...
. MKS Integrity's open architecture integrates disparate tools into a streamlined engineering process, allowing orchestration of engineering change and collaboration across the technology supply chain with a single solution, single repository approach. By introducing this approach, the company believes that with MKS Integrity, engineering teams improve productivity and quality, streamline compliance and gain complete product visibility, which ultimately drives more innovative products into the market.
MKS Integrity also provides complete ecosystem integration so that you can preserve your current investments in tools, suppliers and partners. Finally, MKS Integrity offers enterprise-wide value whereby organizations will achieve real-time release readiness metrics and reporting; will have support of a variety of development methodologies/technologies; and, achieve scalability to all sizes of the enterprise.
MKS works with customers who are looking to manage development of software intensive products, as well as, those who have compliance initiatives, or are adopting regulatory controls such as ISO 26262
ISO 26262
ISO 26262 is a Functional Safety standard , titled "Road vehicles -- Functional safety".This standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for Automotive Electric/Electronic Systems.ISO 26262:...
, DO-178B/C
DO-178B
DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is a document dealing with the safety of software used in airborne systems....
and ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
and IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
standards as well as FDA
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
and CE Mark Regulatory Requirements
CE mark
CE marking is a mandatory conformity mark for products placed on the market in the European Economic Area . With the CE marking on a product the manufacturer ensures that the product conforms with the essential requirements of the applicable EC directives...
.
MKS also offers Implementer, a change control system for the IBM i operating system available under the MKS Integrity ALM banner; MKS Toolkit
MKS Toolkit
MKS Toolkit is a software package produced and maintained by MKS Inc. that provides a Unix-like environment for scripting, connectivity and porting Unix and Linux software to both 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows systems. It was originally created for MS-DOS....
which provides interoperability and source code portability between UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Windows; MKS X/Server
MKS X/Server
MKS X/Server is for a commercial X server product for accessing Unix/Linux systems from a PC, developed by MKS Inc.. The product offers both a full 32-bit X server and a native 64-bit X server that operates on various versions of Microsoft Windows.- History:Since 1995 MKS has distributed the...
, and a commercial version of Lex
Lex programming tool
Lex is a computer program that generates lexical analyzers . Lex is commonly used with the yacc parser generator. Lex, originally written by Mike Lesk and Eric Schmidt, is the standard lexical analyzer generator on many Unix systems, and a tool exhibiting its behavior is specified as part of the...
& Yacc
Yacc
The computer program yacc is a parser generator developed by Stephen C. Johnson at AT&T for the Unix operating system. The name is an acronym for "Yet Another Compiler Compiler." It generates a parser based on an analytic grammar written in a notation similar to BNF.Yacc used to be available as...
.
MKS is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and has 372 employees as of March 10, 2011. With additional offices in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
MKS supports customers across these four core industries: Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, High Tech Electronics and Medical Devices which includes many global 1,000 organizations, worldwide.
MKS conducts research and development in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, benefiting from the company's close proximity to the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
and its world renowned math and computer sciences program and its co-op placement program as well as other post secondary educational institutions like Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University is a university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It also has campuses in Brantford, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario and a future proposed campus in Milton, Ontario. It is named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada....
, Conestoga College
Conestoga College
The Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a public college based in Kitchener, Ontario in Canada.-History:The College was founded in 1967 as the Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology, one of many such institutions established in that time by the Ontario...
and University of Guelph
University of Guelph
The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...
.
The early years 1984–2000: inception, interoperability and going public
Previously named Mortice Kern Systems, MKS was founded in 1984 by four University of WaterlooUniversity of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
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
MKS Toolkit
MKS Toolkit is a software package produced and maintained by MKS Inc. that provides a Unix-like environment for scripting, connectivity and porting Unix and Linux software to both 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows systems. It was originally created for MS-DOS....
, 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 ALM.
In 1997 MKS began development of a new, more scalable 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
Web content management system
A web content management system is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease...
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
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 trackingDefect tracking
In engineering, defect tracking is the process of finding defects in a product , and making new versions of the product that fix the defects...
system to the multi-tier software change and configuration management
Software configuration management
In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software. Configuration management practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines....
(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
Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management is a continuous process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance...
(ALM), with the incorporation of requirements management
Requirements management
Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project...
and release management
Release management
The release management process is a relatively new but rapidly growing discipline within software engineering of managing software releases....
in 2005, and test management
Test management
Test management is the activity of managing some tests. A test management tool is software used to manage tests that have been previously specified. It is often associated with automation software...
and portfolio management in 2006. As of 2006, the ALM revenues for the company constitute over 80% of the annual revenues .
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 TimesSD TimesSoftware Development Times, better known as SD Times, is a magazine published by BZ Media, in both a print version and an on-line electronic edition. It has been published since 2000. Since 2003, it has published an annual award list, the "SD Times 100", which honors the top 100 leaders and...
as an Innovation Leader for Fourth Straight Year - In 2008 Forrester proclaims MKS as the leader in requirements management in the independent research report
- MKS positioned in the 'Leaders' quadrant in Gartner's first ever Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management (SCCM) for Distributed Platforms
- MKS positioned as an influential vendor in the ALM Vendor Report by independent analyst firm, Voke Inc.
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-Present: Consolidation of development markets
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
- Forrester named MKS as a leader in Agile developmentAgile software developmentAgile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams...
management tools in Forrester Research Inc., May 2010.
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.
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).
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, MKS and PTC
Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
announced that PTC had completed the acquisition of MKS and MKS would be operated as a business division of PTC from now on.
Timeline
- 1984: Founded
- 1985: First release of MKS ToolkitMKS ToolkitMKS Toolkit is a software package produced and maintained by MKS Inc. that provides a Unix-like environment for scripting, connectivity and porting Unix and Linux software to both 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows systems. It was originally created for MS-DOS....
- 1987: First release of MKS RCS
- 1992: MKS RCS renamed MKS Source Integrity
- 1997: MKS goes public on Toronto Stock ExchangeToronto Stock ExchangeToronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world by market capitalisation. Based in Canada's largest city, Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities...
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
- 2005: First release of requirements managementRequirements managementRequirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project...
feature set built within the MKS Integrity - 2005: Opening of Asia Pacific division in Singapore
- 2006: First release of portfolio management capability into MKS Integrity
- 2006: (
- 2006: First release of MKS X/Server (technology acquired from SCO)
- 2009: Official release of MKS Integrity 2009 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)
- 2011: MKS acquired by PTCParametric Technology CorporationParametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
Application Lifecycle Management
- MKS Integrity - (Process and Workflow; Portfolio Management; Requirements Management; Software Change and Configuration Management; Release Management; Test Management; Defect Management; Modeling and Simulation; Agile development)
- MKS Integrity for IBM i/Implementer
MKS Interoperability
- MKS Toolkit for Developers
- MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
- MKS Lex & Yacc
- MKS X/Server
- AlertCenter
See also
- Microsoft Windows Services for UNIXMicrosoft Windows Services for UNIXWindows Services for UNIX or Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications is a software package produced by Microsoft which provides a Unix subsystem and other parts of a full Unix environment on Windows NT and some of its immediate successor operating-systems...
, a product similar to the MKS ToolkitMKS ToolkitMKS Toolkit is a software package produced and maintained by MKS Inc. that provides a Unix-like environment for scripting, connectivity and porting Unix and Linux software to both 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows systems. It was originally created for MS-DOS....
offering