Precisely (company)

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Precisely
TypePrivate
IndustryData Management
FounderDuane Whitlow and Stan Rintel
Headquarters
Pearl River, New York, USA
Key people
Josh Rogers (CEO)
Number of employees
2,000 (December 2019)[1]
Websiteprecisely.com

Precisely, rebranded from Syncsort Incorporated in May 2020, is a global software company specializing in Big Data, high speed sorting products, data integration data quality, data enrichment, and location intelligence offerings, for IBM i, Hadoop, Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, and mainframe systems. According to the company, Precisely products are used by thousands of companies worldwide, with over 12,000 deployments in 70 countries.[2]

History[]

Syncsort[]

1968-1989[]

In 1968, Duane Whitlow and Stan Rintel started a company (Whitlow Computer Systems) to develop software for mainframe computers.[3] The result was a business with a niche product portfolio originally based on high-speed data sorting,[4] but which later moved into Big Data, Hadoop, Cloud, and ETL (extract, transform, load).

According to co-founder Duane Whitlow, the company's original task was to develop an airlines reservations system for Control Data.[3] In the course of that work, the founders encountered timing charts for IBM's existing sort utility, and thought they could build a sort that was much faster. Sales improved after then-startup Computerworld published a front page story about syncsort's product. That story resulted in openings in Europe, and the company was one of the first to sell an independent software product in Europe.[3] For some customers, syncsort was their first non-IBM software purchase. Advertising for Syncsort (both the company and the software product) was done in-house from 1971, their founding year (as Syncsort), until 1986.[5]

1990-2019[]

In the 1990s, already known eponymously as Syncsort, the company expanded into Client/Server environments with a Unix-based sort utility and a backup product. In 2004, Syncsort introduced DMExpress, which added core ETL (extract, transform and load) integration capabilities, metadata management and improved job management.

In April 2008, Insight Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Georgian Partners, Goldman Sachs and other investors bought a majority interest in Syncsort Incorporated.[6] In 2013 Syncsort recruited former CA and IBMer Lonne Jaffe as CEO.[7][8] Also in 2013, Syncsort acquired Circle Computer Group,[9] whose product DL/2 facilitates migration of mainframe data, especially from IBM IMS instances to IBM's DB2 under z/OS.[10][11] In October 2013, Syncsort sold its data protection business to an investor group led by Bedford Venture Partners and Windcrest Partners. The spun off data protection business is now called Catalogic Software.[12]

In 2015 Syncsort acquired William Data Systems, a network monitoring and security software company, and Clearlake Capital Group acquired Syncsort;[13] Syncsort President Josh Rogers was appointed CEO.[14] In 2017 Centerbridge Partners acquired Syncsort along with Vision Solutions; the two companies combined into one. [15]

In 2019 Syncsort acquired the software and data business of Pitney Bowes in a $700m transaction backed by affiliates of Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and Clearlake Capital Group, L.P.[16][17] This expanded Syncsort's global presence.[1]

Precisely: 2020s[]

In May 2020, Syncsort rebranded itself as Precisely.[18][19][20] In March 2021, Clearlake Capital Group, in affiliation with TA Associates re-acquired Precisely in a deal worth $3.5 billion, which it had sold four years before to Centerbridge Partners. Centerbridge Partners will retain a minority stake.[21][22][23]

Products[]

Product Type Description Platforms Introduced
Syncsort MFX Utility High speed data sort, join, copy. CPU offload to zIIP engines z/OS 1971[24]
Connect Data integration Integrate data seamlessly from legacy systems into next-gen cloud and data platforms including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Azure Synapse Analytics, Cloudera, Databricks, Snowflake, Hadoop, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark Windows, Unix, Linux 2004
Ironstream Utility IBM i and z/OS forwarder to Splunk, ServiceNow, Micro Focus, Microsoft SCOM, Elastic and Kafka z/OS, IBM i 2014
Syncsort Network Management Monitoring Network and security monitoring z/OS, Linux, Windows 2015, through acquisition
Trillium Data quality Data cleansing & standardization, customer 360, scalable for big data Windows, Linux, z/OS 2016
Assure Security IBM i security Compliance monitoring, access control, data privacy & encryption, and security risk assessment IBM i, Windows 2019
Spectrum Data Management Complete data management suite, data quality, integration, profiling and monitoring Windows, Linux 2019, through acquisition
EngageOne Customer Communication Management Various elements like personalized, interactive video, a chatbot, document composition and post composition Windows, Linux, z/OS 2019, through acquisition


References[]

  1. ^ a b "Syncsort Completes Acquisition of the Pitney Bowes Software and Data Business". December 2, 2019.
  2. ^ Bloomberg Businessweek, "Company Overview for Syncsort Incorporated," retrieved 2014-01-14.
  3. ^ a b c Johnson, Luanne, "Oral History of Duane Whitlow", Computer History Museum, Interviewed by Luanne Johnson, recorded 1998-05-08, retrieved 2014-01-14.
  4. ^ N. R. Kleinfield (June 28, 1978). "Technology: Software Patent Issue is Murky". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Philip H. Dougherty (November 20, 1986). "ADVERTISING; Biederman to Handle Syncsort and Cadillac". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Datanami, "Syncsort Expands Executive Management Team for Data Integration Business", 2013-07-01, retrieved 2014-01-20.
  7. ^ http://www.datanami.com/datanami/2013-07-01/syncsort_expands_executive_management_team_for_data_integration_business.html Datanami, "Syncsort Expands Executive Management Team for Data Integration Business," 2013-07-01, retrieved 2013-10-30.
  8. ^ Adam Bryant (July 24, 2014). "Lonne Jaffe, Chief Executive of Syncsort, on the Importance of Setting Priorities". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Williams, Alex. "Syncsort Acquires Circle Computer Group As Companies Struggle To Get Data Off Ancient Mainframes." Techcrunch, 2013-09-30, retrieved 2014-01-14.
  10. ^ Yost, Denny. "z/Product Profile:DL/2 From Circle Computer Group," Enterprise Systems Media, 2011-02-17, retrieved 2014-01-14.
  11. ^ Nicole, Kristen. "Breaking Analysis: Syncsort’s New Acquisition Primes Partners for Real-Time Big Data," Silicon Angle, 2013-09-30, retrieved 2014-01-14.
  12. ^ Denne, Scott. "Big Data Success Stories: Syncsort," Wall Street Journal blog, 2012-03-20, retrieved 2014-01-20.
  13. ^ [1]
  14. ^ Gallant, John (January 11, 2016). "Q&A: Why Syncsort introduced the mainframe to Hadoop". InfoWorld. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  15. ^ "Centerbridge to Acquire Clearlake-Backed Enterprise Software Providers Syncsort and Vision Solutions". July 6, 2017.
  16. ^ Bartley, Paige (August 27, 2019), Syncsort fortifies data management portfolio with Pitney Bowes' Software Solutions Pickup, 451 Research
  17. ^ "Syncsort Acquires Pitney Bowes' Software Solutions Business to Create a Leading Data Management Platform". August 26, 2019.
  18. ^ Woodie, Alex (May 20, 2020). "Precisely CEO Discusses the Rebrand from Syncsort". datanami.com. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  19. ^ "Syncsort rebrands itself as Precisely". precisely.com. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  20. ^ Woodie, Alex (June 2020). "What's Behind Syncsort's Rebranding as Precisely". itjungle.com. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  21. ^ "Clearlake and TA Associates to acquire Precisely". March 3, 2021.
  22. ^ Woodie, Alex (March 8, 2021). "Clearlake Re-Acquires Precisely In $3.5 Billion Deal". itjungle. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  23. ^ "Clearlake and TA Associates to Acquire Data Integrity Software Leader Precisely". precisely. precisely. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  24. ^ Yost, Denny. "z/Product Profile:DL/2 From Circle Computer Group," Enterprise Systems Media, 2011-02-17, retrieved 2014-01-20.

External links[]

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