The President's Message

Hello. My name is Arthur Arkin. I am the founder of Maxim Software Systems.

In 1978, I was operating a retail business and purchased the very first available desktop computer in the city. I had been fascinated for years with the idea of using a computer to do bookkeeping, inventory control, and a host of other things. Imagine my surprise when I found I owned a real, live computer - but no software. I had a computer, but couldn't use it.

Whatever software I was able to purchase was so quirky and poorly done that it was infuriating and exasperating to use. Perhaps the programmer knew that I had to push two undocumented buttons to exit the program, but I didn't. And on, and on, and on.

Fortunately, the computer came with an instruction manual on computer programming, and my brain came with an aptitude for learning how to program. So I started writing my own software. Knowing that it had to be used by my staff, who had no computer experience, I designed it in such a way that they could use it just by looking at it. In short, instructions appeared on the screen wherever needed, at every step.

I found I really loved creating programs. I learned that a properly programmed computer can do wonders - save huge amounts of time, provide the information one needs to manage and plan a business, and even do things that I had never dreamt of. I was hooked.

I saw the computer as a wonder tool, and software as the enabler. So I went into the business of selling computers. And of course, no one would buy a computer without software, so I then got into the business of producing software in order to sell computers.

Because I had been a businessman all my life, my first programs were business and accounting programs - sales orders, inventory control, receivables - that sort of thing. All designed for retail, wholesale, distribution, and manufacturing type companies.

Then life took one of those twists. My then-partner bought the rights to a dental software program that he thought would sell. I showed it to many dentists, and never made one sale. Why? Because it was lousy software. So, I thought, I can make better software. And I did, and now Maxident has been successfully marketed for over 25 years.

And in case you didn't know, someone has worked on Maxident every day of those twenty years to make it better. That's because we love our program and always want it to be the best. Software is a living, breathing thing. That's the beauty of it. It's always changing, always doing more for the user. Software that doesn't move with the times is - well, stale!

Now Maxim Software Systems is on the move again, into worldwide markets, on the Internet with solutions for web hosting, eBusiness, communications - you name it.

Come along with us for the ride! It's going to be exciting.