QAD was formed in 1979 by Pamela Lopker, who remained president and chairman. QAD initially developed proprietary software applications for manufacturing companies in southern California. In 1984, QAD announced MFG/PRO. MFG/PRO was built using the Progress SoftwareCorporation's Fourth Generation Language (4GL) and relational database. MFG/PRO was one of the first software applications built for manufacturers following the APICS principles. MFG/PRO was also one of the first applications to support closed loop Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II), as well as operating in open systems. QAD software supports Lean Manufacturing principles and inter-operates with other systems via open standards. In 2003, a product called Supply Visualization was first hosted in multi-tenant configuration for QAD customers and those customers' suppliers making QAD an early player in providing SaaS software for manufacturing. Supplier Portal (previously called Supply Visualization and Supply Chain Portal) continues to allow customers and their authorized suppliers to share information about inventory, scheduling, purchase orders, shipments, Kanbans, and much more.
QAD stock began trading as of its initial public offering (IPO) on August 6, 1997.[2]
2006 - QAD announced a user interface called .NET UI.
2006 - QAD acquired Precision Software, a company delivering transportation, global trade and supply chain management software to businesses.
2006 - QAD acquired Bisgen Ltd., a UK-based company whose product is tailored to the unique sales force and marketing automation needs of manufacturers.
2006 - QAD acquired FBO Systems, Inc., a Georgia-based company and leading provider of enterprise asset management (EAM) products and professional services.
2007 - QAD renamed its core product suite from MFG/PRO to QAD Enterprise Applications.
2008 - QAD launched a significant enhancement to its core suite with the release of the Enterprise Edition of QAD Enterprise Applications.
2008 - QAD acquired FullTilt Solutions’ product suite, including Perfect Product Suite, called master data management (MDM) for Internet-enabled commerce.
2012 - QAD acquired CEBOS, a provider of quality management and management system standard software and services.
In 2012 QAD acquired DynaSys, a European provider of collaborative demand and supply chain planning software.
QAD sells its products and services to companies in six main manufacturing industries: automotive, consumer products, high technology, food and beverage, industrial equipment and life sciences. The company’s product suite is called QAD Enterprise Applications (known as MFG/PRO prior to 2007). QAD Enterprise Application is designed to streamline the management of manufacturing operations, supply chains, financials, customers, technology, and business performance.[3] QAD Cloud ERP is marketed as software as a service (Saas) using cloud computing. For the full year ended January 31, 2015, total revenue was $295.1 million.[4]