Thomas M. Nies

"We have always defined our success by the success of our clients." -- Tom Nies

When Tom Nies decided he wanted to sell software, he never thought he'd have to start his own company in order to do so. But with very few software companies in the country and none in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, it was "the only way to have a job in a field I wanted to work in."

What Nies, who had been a leading IBM sales representative, didn't realize at the time, was that he was also founding the then-radical idea of selling computer software as a product -- rather than giving it away with the hardware. In those early days, Cincom was one of the first to promote the concept of a database management system. Today there are thousands of database products, but when Cincom introduced TOTAL, it was a revolutionary event. TOTAL became one of the best-selling mainframe software products ever.

Under Nies' guidance, Cincom organized the first national system software user conference, became the first U.S. software firm to establish international offices, and pioneered a variety of emerging new software technologies.

Since its founding in 1968, Cincom has matured into a multi-million-dollar international company with clients spanning communications, financial services, education, government, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and insurance.

In 1984, Nies was recognized by President Ronald Reagan as "the epitome of the entrepreneurial spirit of American business." In 1995, he was honored to be profiled by the Smithsonian Institution's Division of Information Technology and Society as one of the "pioneers of the software industry," alongside other industry giants such as Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Larry Ellison (Oracle). And in 2004, Nies was inducted into Ernst And; Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame.

Nies holds a bachelor's degree in marketing and a master's degree in finance and has served on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, one of 12 regional reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the Federal Reserve System.

Under Nies' leadership, Cincom has expanded from pioneering database technology into providing complete solutions for data management, marketing, sales and customer service, business process improvement, manufacturing, and outsourcing and hosting. Today, thousands of clients around the world rely on Cincom's nearly four decades of experience to provide innovative solutions to some of their toughest and most complex business problems.