| History of Factory Insite, Inc. |
The current Factory Insite, Inc. has a long history dating back over forty years. The experience and knowledge gained is applied to the benefit of our current customers. Below is a brief history of the company. |
| Macatawa Computer Resources |
| The current company traces it's roots back to industrial consulting by Dr. James D. van Putten, Jr. Dr. van Putten started consulting in the 1960s in California and continued when he accepted a position as professor at Hope College in Holland Michigan. In 1975 Dr. van Putten formed a partnership with Douglas Elzinga to offer computer software design, business services, and custom control system design based on newly emerging microchips. Among the early customers were Thermotron, for whom Macatawa developed a pioneering line of controllers for their environmental test chambers. |
| Macatawa Computer Services, Inc. |
| In 1977 the enterprise was incorporated in Michigan under the name of Macatawa Computer Services, Inc. The company had two major divisions: industrial consulting/design and small business accounting services. The accounting business grew to multiple offices in West Michigan and was one of the pioneers in offering computerized accounting services to small businesses. The industrial division utilized Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation products to design robots, material handling systems, injection molding controllers, high speed motor control, supervisory control, and many custom systems. John Hoekstra joined the industrial division in 1978 as the first full-time employee dedicated to industrial design. When the IBM personal computer became available, Macatawa was an early adopter of using PCs for business operations. A separate subsidiary called Macatawa Professional Systems was established to target small business software and started with medical office insurance billings. |
| Spin-off of Non-core Businesses |
| In the late 1980s the accounting services were spun off into a separate company called Macatawa Accounting Service. The medical office management division became Medscann and was relocated to Texas. Doug Elzinga retired in 1988. Macatawa Computer Services continued with industrial design and focused it's expertise on developing software building blocks that became the factoryinsite® family of software. |
| Factory Insite, Inc. |
| In 2001 Jim van Putten retired and John Hoekstra assumed the presidency of the company. A new generation of factoryinsite® software was developed using the latest technologies and positioning for the future. An evaluation of business strategy was conducted and it was decided to focus on the core strengths of the company, manufacturing process improvement. As part of this refocusing, it was decided to change the company name to more clearly indicate this focus. A search for a new company name was conducted, but after the successful trademark registration of factoryinsite® as a mark for the software product family, the company name was changed to Factory Insite, Inc. |
