Sydney, April 2, 2004: GMB is celebrating its 20th year in
business and still remains one of the world's leading software
innovators in information management.
"It is hard to believe that GMB has been in operation some 20 years
just as it is hard to believe that I began my career in IT in 1965. What
is it they say, Time flies when you are having fun?" said Mr Frank
McKenna, GMB's President.
From 1984 up until the end of the 1980s GMB did research and
development and systems development for organizations such as Sperry
Univac, Burroughs, NEC and IBM (an AS/400 version of the character
version of RecFind). The revenues from this work provided ninety-percent
of GMB's turnover and provided the capital needed to design and develop
their own products. Then beginning around 1989, GMB began 'reinventing' GMB
as a 'shrink-wrap' software company and moved away from external
development to concentrate on their own products such as RecFind. Within 5
years one-hundred percent of GMB's revenues were from their own products.
"One of the lessons we have learned during these 20 years is that all
companies need to periodically 're-invent' themselves to better adapt to
the world of today and tomorrow", said Mr McKenna. "GMB is undergoing a major re-invention
at this time. We are changing our business model as well as our
products. We are also adding some new people with the skill sets we need
to achieve our new objectives".
You will see a plethora of new products from GMB this year, as well as major
improvements to existing products. On the business side GMB are still
privately owned (the McKenna family) and debt-free and they see no need to
corporatize (i.e., IPO) in the near future as their business is profitable
and R&D is funded. GMB are however changing the way they do
business.
GMB's objective is to produce high quality, robust, scalable niche
solutions for the records, document and knowledge management domain.
Products that simply do the job and work day in, day out, year after
year. GMB's products will be 'special' and unique and will be specifically
designed to make life easier and to increase productivity by
removing the need for end-user involvement. GMB will simplify and
automate all the processes involved in records management, document
management, imaging and content management. The core features of all of
GMB's new products will include:
- Totally automatic processes
- Rules
(business-process) driven functionality
- Absolute configurability
- Ease of installation and roll-out
- Low maintenance costs
- Lowest
possible TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)
The first examples of this new
paradigm will be seen in the launch of their GEM and RecCapture products
in 2004.
In short, GMB want the functionality of their products to be driven by
real-world customer needs, not by the wish-lists of RFPs and the
ever-changing and conflicting demands of multitudinous state and
national 'standards'. In short, GMB want to get back to the business of
solving business problems, not implementing a plethora of useless,
inappropriate features that no one will ever utilize.
GMB will also maintain their 'budget' pricing algorithms to continue to
provide customers with the most cost-effective solutions.
GMB will continue to invest in their people, especially those that have been
through the good times and the bad and been the heart and soul of GMB.
"This is
in fact the most important lesson I have learned in the last 20 years.
Without the right people you can't do anything. With the right people,
you can do anything", said Mr McKenna.
GMB, would like to thank all of its customers and partners for their support over the last 20
years. GMB looks forward to
being of service over the next 20 years.
