MKS is a software and service solution company that was founded in 1984 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The company enables organizations to reduce the overwhelming complexity of developing software intensive products, thereby removing barriers to rapid innovation. 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.

Mortice Kern Systems was the initial name for the company and was founded by four University of Waterloo students, Randall Howard, Alex White, Trevor Thompson and Steve Izma. The company, founded initially as a consulting group, delivered its first product, MKS Toolkit, in 1985. This release allowed for UNIX applications to be run in a Windows environment.

A few years later, MKS decided to expand its offerings and started to focus on the software configuration management market with the development of a program managing software version control, MKS Source Integrity. Following the success of their entry into the software configuration management market they focused most of their R&D into building the product to an enterprise scale. As the company’s success continued, the product became a multi-tiered software configuration management system, and was rebranded as MKS Integrity, becoming MKS’s flagship product.

MKS Integrity now manages all systems and software development processes and connects all engineering artifacts, including requirements, models, code and test, ensuring comprehensive lifecycle traceability. What sets MKS apart from other Application Lifecycle Management (“ALM”) companies is its ability to offer an entire ALM solution as opposed to single facet solutions that do not cover the entire ALM process.

“Software is the key competitive differentiator for today’s products. MKS understands that successful management of software driven engineering change is foundational to strategic business advantage for product companies,” says Andrew Wertkin, MKS’s Chief Technology Officer. “By conquering the complexity associated with the proliferation of software on a wide range of devices, MKS delivers massive value to leading product companies. I look forward to building on this success as we drive ever greater value for MKS and for our customers through our world-class technology.”

MKS also continues to lead the Interoperability market with MKS Toolkit products, which enable companies to preserve their investments in UNIX software and expertise while deploying Windows workstations and servers. MKS Toolkit allows users to port scripts, source code and working environments quickly and easily from UNIX to Windows.

MKS continues to conduct the bulk of its 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.

From its small beginnings as a consulting company, MKS has grown organically to become an organization with over $60 million USD in annual revenues, servicing some of the largest organizations in the Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Medical Device and High-tech Electronics fields. MKS now has more than 380 employees throughout the world, with offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and Japan.

“By conquering the complexity associated with the proliferation of software on a wide range of devices, MKS delivers massive value to leading product companies. “

Why Waterloo Region?
“MKS is proud to have been founded in Waterloo Region and is excited about continuing to build our legacy here. We’re perfectly located to leverage the talent coming out of the University of Waterloo. We’re in the middle of great innovation in all of our target markets – automotive, aerospace & defense, high tech electronics and medical devices. All of our customers recognize Waterloo as a leading area of technology innovation and respect our Canadian roots.” - Michael W. Harris - President + Chief Executive Officer

• www.mks.com
• www.thewaterlooway.com