After 20 years, Niche Software Firm Cuadra Associates Continues to Thrive.LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1998--In an industry in which many startup companies fail within a year and in which giants such as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are duking it out in the media and before Congress for market control, a small Los Angeles- based software company with an unusual product has quietly completed its 20th year of operation. Cuadra Associates Inc. is the developer of STAR, a versatile software package used to manage information collections in libraries, records centers, archives, museums, law firms, publishing organizations and other niche markets. What makes STAR unusual is that it can support all of these types of applications, so that organizations with related information management needs can meet them with a single software package. Along the way to its 20-year anniversary, Cuadra has attracted an unusually prestigious group of customers such as the Library of Congress, the National Archives, Exxon and Eveready, and overseas, the BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. , Great Britain's Royal Armouries and the German manufacturing colossus Colossus - (A huge and ancient statue on the Greek island of Rhodes). 1. The company has also attracted a number of awards. In 1996 it received Amdahl Corp.'s "top vendor" award and in 1997 the company's popular Web site (www.cuadra.com), which illustrates the company's software through a Movie-STAR database, was picked as a USA Today Hot Site and was awarded a Times Pick by the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). . The software is unique in maintaining "state" -- remembering exactly what the user has asked the system to do -- for hours, days, or more, as the customer chooses. The company itself is also unusual, with a father-and-son dynamic duo, each with a Ph.D. Cuadra Associates President Carlos A. Cuadra got his in psychology in 1953 at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). (Berkeley), while son Neil G. Cuadra got his in computer science in 1983 from UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX . Both graduated summa cum laude sum·ma cum lau·de adv. & adj. With the greatest honor. Used to express the highest academic distinction: graduated summa cum laude; a summa cum laude graduate. and were elected to Phi Beta Kappa Phi Beta Kappa: see fraternity. Phi Beta Kappa Leading academic honour society in the U.S., which draws its membership from college and university students. The oldest Greek-letter society in the U.S. . Most unusual of all is that the company's flagship software STAR has been Year 2000-compliant from the first version, released in 1982. Thus, users of the software will have nothing to do on Jan. 1, 2000, except enjoy the fact that they are not among the organizations that are collectively spending $600 billion to make their software Year 2000-compliant. CONTACT: Cuadra Associates Inc., Los Angeles Carlos A. Cuadra, 310/478-0066 hq@cuadra.com |
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