Integrated Memory Systems was founded in 1989 at Bond University on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
A small office in The Research Park, we sold computer chips sourced in brokers in the United States. It was the says of actual computer chips! Our biggest selling item was 256×4 dram chips, sold in a long tube. From that small start, a year later we had offices next to the Hong Kong Jockey Club in the Digital Research Centre. In those days the business park of Bond University was empty lots, just two buildings: The Research Park and Digital Building.
The biggest problem we had in the early 90’s was supply. It was hard to find quality memory modules. The industry was moving away from chips and towards 128kx8, 256kx8 and 1mb x 8 modules in SIMMs and SIPPs format. Without a good supply, we decided to make our own. We bought and shipped to Australia a pick n place robotic system to make our own memory modules. With no room in the Digital building for manufacturing, we rented one whole wing at the bottom of the The Research park, becoming the biggest commercial tenant of Bond University. We create a Just In Time manufacturing process. orders would come in during the day, and our factory would assemble the modules required. It served two purposes, kept inventory low and allowed us to carry a wide range of memory for our customers. The PCB boards were cheap, we could stack those to the ceiling. Although there was a wide range boards we could make, they all used the same chips.
As the business expanded, so did our OEM contracts. We were making memory for NEC, Acer, IBM, Unisys and Silicon Graphics. It was during this time we started our business relation with Micron, and soon become one of their biggest chip customers in the Pacific region.
Other notable achievements in the 90’s was the IMS Quiksale system. It was our whole configurator database on a computer program that dealers could install and use as a catalogue. It was basically a website on a floppy disc! 15 years later we would do it all over again with the Upgradeable website.
We have seen the evolution of an industry over the last 28 years. We started selling chips, and now we sell hard drives made from chips!
We are not biggest distributor in Australia, but we think we are the best. We pioneered the industry’s “Lifetime” warranty on RAM modules in 1990, and 27 years later we are still offering the same warranty.
Our business is based on four things: Selection, Service, Savings and Support.
In 28 years the only thing that has changed are the products and our name. As everyone called us IMS (Integrated Memory Systems) we decided to change it to IMS Memory … so people could find us online! (and no one wanted an email address with integratedmemorysystems.com.au)
If you are looking for a reliable computer distributor, sign up as a reseller, we are probably your competition’s best kept secret.