WordPerfect Corp. announced Wednesday it plans to acquire SoftSolutions Technology Corp., a signal that work-group computing continues to be a growing focus for the Orem-based software company.
SoftSolutions, also located in Orem, makes the leading document management software for networked personal computers. Its software allows computer users to retrieve information from any location in a networked system. That, in a sense, turns a networked system into one big data base.SoftSolutions software also allows "concept searching." Say, for example, a user wants to locate all documents that contain the key words "war in the Middle East." The software also will retrieve documents with conceptually related terms, such as "Saddam Hussein launches missiles."
"We've really considered that (work-group computing) one of our two core competencies for the last little while," said Dave Moon, WordPerfect development vice president. "It's a real natural extension for us to provide more integrated work-group solutions as part of that strategy."
The two companies began discussing a strategic relationship several months ago, according to Ronda Shill, SoftSolutions marketing director. Representatives of the companies signed an agreement to proceed with the acquisition Tuesday night.
"The corporate resources and installed base of WordPerfect (users), combined with SoftSolutions' technical capabilities, will provide WordPerfect with an unprecedented opportunity to provide leading work-group computing solutions," said Ken Duncan, president of SoftSolutions.
SoftSolutions will operate as an independent business division of WordPerfect Corp., according to Ronda Shill, marketing director at SoftSolutions. The company makes DOS, Windows and six types of Unix programs. SoftSolutions has 100 employees worldwide; 80 of those employees are based in Orem.
Ken Duncan founded the privately held company in 1979. SoftSolutions introduced its first document management program in December 1989. It has grown 100 percent every year since then.
According to International Data Corp., SoftSolutions had 54 percent of the document management market in 1992. Its closest competitor, PC Docs, had a 21 percent market share.