In 1975, we started a company called T & H Television Services to repair and
rebuild television throughout the Baltimore/Washington DC metro areas. As business
grew, so did the complexity to manage our information. We purchased a (so called)
personal computer, a Heathkit H8 (available only in Kit form). We spent the next
year learning about computers, the technology and how to develop basic business
software application. Our first application was developed to manage and track inventory,
invoicing, and scheduling appointments.
The name of our company is a tribute to the software engineers at Heathkit. Our
first application had a file extension of .abs; which stood for absolute binary
source. Thus the basis for the name of our company, ABS Data Systems, in honor of
our first application.
ABS Data Systems was established in 1977 as one of the first personal computer service
companies in the state of Maryland. It is wildly unimaginable now, however in the
last 1970's there was a limited number companies using computers and competition
was non-existent. User-groups were started as a way for people to collectively try
to figure out what to do with this technology.
For the next several years we helped, mostly self-employed professional's such as
who needed to automate the printing of insurance forms.
Being among the first in an industry has benefits and also many disadvantages. The
biggest problem for us and the industry, at that time, was the lack of knowledge.
Over the years, we learned from our efforts and bring those years of experience
to every project we design. Along the way we have helped to develop some very interesting
technology.
Today we develop products in three areas. Embedded, Communication, Database driven
windows applications.
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