Master Builder to Sage 100 Contractor; The Journey, 20 Years…

Syscon has been working with this product for 20 years! This all started when Louis, one of our clients who uses Sage 100 Contractor even today, approached Larry and asked about Construction-specific software, and since we did his computers, could we help with this ‘Master Builder’ software.

This started our investigation into the Construction Account/Project Management software options, our relationship with Omware and Dan Smith (the original co-founder), and an interesting road from there. Here are some interesting highlights:

• Larry’s trip to California for training has a story that ended with surgery
• The first Windows release was version 6 in 1995/1996 and we were one of the first partners to upgrade our clients to this new release
• Syscon begins writing custom integration software to take advantage of the data collection, and provide higher-level analytical tools, and more complex reporting.
• The Marconi center in Point Reyes where annual meetings were held was the site of the first Trans-Pacific radio tower; and it’s very cold there in July
• Intuit purchased Master Builder and kicked off with a conference in Hawaii
• Syscon earns a Sales award at the 2002 Annual Conference
• Sage purchases Master Builder and moves the Timberline and Master Builder teams into the same building in Beaverton, Oregon; interesting because these two products were competing for many years.

To hear more about the 20-year history and some interesting facts, watch for the upcoming articles and a personal interview with Larry Wendt! – CMW