About Us

ObjectPublisher Web Services (OPWS) is the leading provider of web services for custom brochure and catalog publishing. Playing a vital role in the supply chain, our services provide our customers and business partners with trustworthy, cost-effective solutions, enabling them to increase market share and revenue.

Catalog-on-Demand®, the flagship service of OPWS, is the world's fastest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to create custom brochures and catalogs that are targeted at specific customers and prospects. Millions of published pages have been produced with the core technology. Catalog-on-Demand supports a range of workflows that include casual visitors to product websites who wish to make their own custom brochures, non-technical sales people who wish to make brochures for their prospects, as well as catalog professionals who are publishing annual or quarterly catalogs. LayoutPaks™ are like game cartridges for Catalog-on-Demand, offering a friendly and powerful way to implement a particular style of custom brochure or catalog.

Product Information Management System (PIMS), has evolved over the past decade to become the industry's most fully-featured and cost-effective solution for management of high-quality product data. A hosted solution, PIMS is used by large and small manufacturers and distributors to manage hundreds of thousands of skus, ranging from tape to laser systems. Most of our customers got started with PIMS for purposes of using Catalog-on-Demand. Now many of them trust and depend on PIMS as their "database of record" to support numerous other business applications.

History

Founded in 1993 as Object Publishing Software (OPS), it is a privately-held company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It developed its core publishing technology in partnership with 3M, one of the largest and most innovative manufacturers in the world. OPS grew quickly through sales of licensed database publishing solutions to dozens of mid- and large-sized companies. Industries include industrial wholesale, office furniture, marine supply, automotive parts, chemical supply, dental supply, appliance parts, scientific equipment, telecommunications, higher education, publishing, and others.

Long before others were even aware of the concept, OPS was preparing for the coming revolution presented by the idea of "software as a service". OPS recognized that most enterprise software solutions of the 1990's were far too expensive and difficult for IT departments to manage. By 2000, OPS began shifting to a business model that centered on Internet-based hosting of sophisticated automated publishing solutions. The company was renamed ObjectPublisher Web Services (OPWS), and its flagship service was named Catalog-on-Demand®. In contrast to its earlier emphasis on mid- to large-sized companies, the new web service model was targeted at businesses of all sizes.

Rather than seeking large up-front license fees, the Catalog-on-Demand model involves modest start-up fees and ongoing usage fees. And in addition to direct sales, OPWS is building partnerships with businesses interested in adding value to OPWS solutions. Today, OPWS remains 100% committed to the idea that businesses should not have to install software in order to use software. Its customers strongly agree, and range from Fortune 100 companies to very small businesses. Regardless of whether the idea is referred to as "software as a service", "hosted solutions", "application service provider", "web services", or something else, OPWS is the clear leader when it comes to providing world-class, Internet-based solutions to automated publishing requirements.

The Management Team

President
Tim Hennings is the founder and president of ObjectPublisher Web Services (OPWS). Tim has been a leader in the field of database publishing for more than 20 years. He started and managed the Third Party Products department for Aldus Corporation (later merged with Adobe), working with Lotus (later merged with IBM) and Ashton-Tate (later merged with Borland) to build intelligent import filters for the popular spreadsheet and database programs of that time. He co-founded PageAhead Software and helped launch their flagship product, InfoPublisher. This product was well received within the software industry as an innovative and original achievement, and received numerous awards. Tim launched the company in order to focus on high-end database publishing solutions. He was responsible for growing the company through its first stage as license-based company, and again for its highly successful transition to a web service-based company offering automated and self-service publishing solutions via the Internet.

Director of Software Engineering
Chris Worsley is the lead architect of the ObjectPublisher suite of solutions. Chris has 30 years of experience developing innovative, leading-edge software systems and commercial software products. At Synaptec Corporation, Chris was the lead researcher and architect of an advanced object-based simulation and authoring environment called Audition. Chris subsequently joined Dimensions Research, where he was part of a team developing commercial 3D and graphical spreadsheets for an international market. He later worked on advanced technology systems for Aldus Corporation, then joined Object Publishing Software in 1994.

Director of Operations
Rob Swan provides daily oversight of process design, resource allocation, and project management. Additionally, Rob is involved in strategic planning and implementation of corporate initiatives. Rob has more than 20 years of technical computing and engineering experience in production software development, computing support, and business and technical process modeling. Prior to joining OPS, Rob was Master Architect and Project Manager at Boeing, managing a development team in the creation and implementation of an interactive Computer Aided Design tool for use in computational fluid dynamics software. Rob took a 1-year sabbatical to sail with his wife on a 40' boat, from Seattle to Mexico to French Polynesia to Hawaii, and back.

Catalogs From Databases