Merv Richter, President Eloquent Systems Inc. Serving the needs of knowledge management professionals for over 30 years.

Eloquent Systems Inc. is a privately owned company incorporated in the Province of British Columbia and operating over the Internet from an office in North Vancouver. The business is based on the Eloquent WebSuite™, which consists of four applications – Eloquent Records™, Eloquent Librarian™, Eloquent Archives™, and Eloquent Museum™. The applications are built and maintained with the WebGENCAT Toolkit, a multi-dimensional database product.

The company was founded by Merv Richter in 1975 under the name Easy Data Inc. after an 8-year career with IBM Canada. The business developed, sold, and supported several software packages for the emerging minicomputer market. They included applications for hotel management, oilrig cost accounting, general accounting and library management. The products quickly gained international recognition when the integrated library system became the product of choice for the large research libraries of Exxon, Chevron, Tenneco and other multinational corporations.

Easy Data was sold to the publicly traded Sydney Development Corporation in 1982 and Mr. Richter remained president of the subsidiary and became a director of Sydney. Two years later he re-activated his other private company, Eloquent Systems Inc., and pioneered the development of PC and LAN based systems for library and other knowledge management applications, all based on the company's multi-dimensional database, GENCAT (for generic catalog).

Two independent consulting firms partnered with Eloquent Systems for the sales and installation of the software. One specialized in records management and library accounts in Ontario while the others focused on the archives market across North America and the Caribbean. The DOS product line grew to over 1000 customers, many with licenses for large LAN configurations. Hotline support came from the Eloquent head office, while 3rd party consultants provided most of the on-site services for customers ranging from Hong Kong to the Middle East. Many of these original customers now enjoy the latest Web-based technology.

Some effort was made to upgrade the product line to the Windows platform, but with the emergence of Web technology Mr. Richter decided to change directions. In 2000 the new WebGENCAT product line was announced as a replacement for GENCAT and by 2003 the Windows and DOS products were no longer supported. Many customers were upgraded to the new technology, but unfortunately neither of the sales partners chose to embrace the new technology. They used the opportunity to move many of their customers to various Windows applications where they enjoyed more consulting revenue.

Eloquent System has evolved into a very efficient operation, taking full advantage of Internet and Web-based technology, supplying software and services that enable customers to do the same.