Pansophic Systems, Inc., or simply Pansophic (Ancient Greek for "universal knowledge"), was a major American software company active from 1969 to 1991 and based in the Chicago metropolitan area. A pioneering software firm, it was among the first wave of independent software vendors in the late 1960s. Initially a supplier of source code and information management software for IBM mainframe computers with their flagship products Panvalet and Easytrieve, the company soon expanded into the minicomputer and personal computer markets, supplying application packages for many differing fields. The company was acquired by and absorbed into Computer Associates in October 1991 for nearly $300 million.
History
Pansophic Systems was founded in 1969 in Oak Brook, Illinois, by Joseph A. Piscopo (1944–2021). The company was begun with four employees and $150,000 of startup capital obtained by Piscopo's uncle Emil Piscopo and was initially incorporated from the second story of a storefront in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook. The company was founded in the middle of Joe Piscopo's MBA studies; although he had formal training as a computer scientist in his prior job at Montgomery Ward, Joe was convinced to found Pansophic only after his uncle Emil had encouraged him to start his own business in the computing industry. Pansophic was among the first wave of independent software vendors in the late 1960s.
Pansophic's first product was Panvalet, a source code management software package for IBM mainframe users that stored program code on tape. The inspiration for Panvalet came from Piscopo's own anxieties delivering the easily shufflable punched cards from Montgomery Ward's headquarters to outside institutions such as NYSE Chicago. Panvalet initially sold poorly, the company only generating sales of US$28,000 in 1970. Joe Piscopo sought to have Panvalet bought outright to one of the large computer services companies then in business, but there were no takers; instead, he began marketing and selling the product directly to data processing development shops that were using IBM mainframes. By 1973 Panvalet was already being well-received in the market. The company eventually saw Panvalet installed at over 6,000 sites worth some $100 million in revenues by 1991.
In its early years, the company also engaged in redistributing IBM mainframe software made by others. One such product was CA-SORT, made by the Switzerland-based Computer Associates International Ltd, which Pansophic sold in North America for a couple of years in the mid-1970s under the name Pansort. (After another transfer of rights, CA-SORT became a foundational product for the American firm Computer Associates.) Another such product was Easytrieve, an early instance of a report generator, which was developed by Ribek Corporation but marketed and sold by Pansophic. Easytrieve became quite successful in the IBM mainframe world, so much so that Pansophic would end up acquiring the product outright. Panvalet and Easytrieve provided the two big commercial successes that powered the growth of Pansophic.