President Takashi Furukawa
CORPORATE HISTORY
CADVANCE has never been as
aggressively marketed as products like AutoCAD, yet it still
maintains a very extensive and loyal international user following that
extends back to 1982 when the product was first introduced. It was
actually released before AutoCAD in San Jose by a company called
P-CAD (it was called CADplan back
then) and was subsequently purchased, enhanced and renamed by CalComp as a superior CAD design system . CalComp sold their
software system division holdings off (preferring the hardware
arena) in 1987, and ISICAD purchased CADVANCE and developed it
into the FIRST successful Windows-based CAD application on the
market. In 1995, F I T, Inc. purchased the product and the business
to improve its functionality and distribution worldwide, as the
principals in the company saw its great capacity
and user-friendliness.
OPERATING PHILOSOPHY
The essence of F I T's attitude
toward its business is expressed in their motto that the
"Customer is King", and F I T would like their role to be as
an advisor (not a servant). As founder Takashi Furukawa explains,
business success results from good personal relationships with
customers, distributors, dealers, and company staff. Technology deserves
(and gets) critical attention but the fact remains that, without
positive interaction with good people, advanced technology alone will
not assure company success. Thus, human relationships are the
overriding consideration at F I T. Lines of communication
with distributors, dealers and customers are
diligently maintained. Requests for information or product support
are encouraged and, in the spirit of fostering personal
relationships, are treated with respect and prompt attention.
The entire F I T staff is geared to accomplishing these
objectives.
Realistically though, in the high technology arena even the best of
relationships require the foundation of product excellence to
really blossom. Toward that end, F I T maintains comprehensive
development and product improvement programs, such as in vertical
markets that require an integration of graphics design, database
information and report writing.
MISSION
The main mission of F I T is to
provide users with problem solution tools, to help with their
productivity, performance, future growth, etc. It is also an
objective to develop "Custom Tailored Solutions", and provide
support and services to meet and satisfy users continually growing
needs.
Another mission is to contribute to
society. Once a corporation is established, a "social
responsibility" is naturally attached to it, and F I T interprets
a part of those responsibilities as being to their users and to
society. A
few examples of such contributions being: Contributed CADVANCE products
to high schools and universities world wide;
Contributed CADVANCE products to several charitable organizations;
Started a scholarship program in 1997 for high schools and technical
colleges; Made CADVANCE 6.5 (an older version) available free by
download to everyone; Made CADVANCE 7.2 free to users in Yugoslavia by
download.
CORPORATE ACTIVITIES
CADVANCE is basically a distribution
business through US domestic dealers and international
distributors. To provide support and help foster growth, F I T
has organized and conducted dealer and distributor meetings on a yearly
basis, on average. F I T has also organized and conducted, and
participated in dealer and distributor organized Users Group meetings.
Since it's establishment, F I T, Inc. has
participated in many industry exhibit shows, such as A/E/C Systems, AIA
Expo, Networld+Interop, Facility Forum, and
IFMA's WorldWorkplace.
In order to help maintain good
business relations and contacts within the community, F I T Inc. is a
proud member of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Southern
California Software Council, and the World Trade Center Association.
Not only in keeping their business edge, F
I T, Inc. also belongs to key groups in order to keep up with technical
trends. They are members of Microsoft MSDN, which provides them with
the latest Microsoft development tools in several languages (C, C++, VB, as
well Windows updates). Membership with the Open DWG
Alliance facilitates F I T in updating the translator to/from DWG/DXF,
and being members of the IBM developer partner program helps F I T keep
their technical edge.
Future
business directions for F I T include plans to implement a new division
to provide consulting services, custom development, and database
implementation. Other areas of focus will be to offer software
products that compliment the CADVANCE product-line which will help
dealers and distributors to provide their customers with a wider
variety of products.
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