Maximal Software was founded by Bjarni Kristjansson in 1987. The company initially offered a linear programming package Turbo-Simplex for the IBM PC and Macintosh. By 1988, Maximal began the development of the MPL Modeling System, an algebraic modeling language, that is the core product of Maximal Software. In 1990, Maximal Software opened offices in Arlington, VA in order to provide marketing and sales closer to the key US markets of its software. In order to expand it operations to service the European market Maximal Software opened a London office in 2001.
In the early 90’s major developments were occurring in the computer field, such as the growing popularity of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI’s). In 1993, the MPL Modeling System was the first optimization modeling system that was released for the Microsoft Windows platform. Shortly afterwards, both MPL for Macintosh and MPL for Motif (UNIX) were released. Using graphical user interfaces in a modeling system greatly enhanced the productivity for both model developers and the end-users.
The second major enhancement that Maximal Software was first to introduce to optimization modeling market, was the concept of directly linking the modeling language to relational databases. The database connection allows model developers and consultants to create real world end-user applications by using commercial databases, such as MS Access and Oracle, to handle the user interface and hide the complexities of the model from the end-user.
The most recent major enhancement brought by Maximal Software is the OptiMax Component Library. This object-oriented Component Library (API) can be used to seamlessly call MPL, from both Visual Basic and C/C++, allowing the model developer to create customized end-user applications that solve real-world optimization problems.
Today, Maximal Software, Inc. has customers, both the commercial and academic, in over 40 countries all over the world. Some of the customers in the U.S. include Agilent, AT&T, Fluor Corporation, International Paper, Jacobs Consulting, McHugh Software, SAIC, TRW, US Department of Energy, USSTRATCOM, US Army (Pentagon), Sprint, and Wachovia.
Maximal Software, Inc. is a member of INFORMS, EURO, MPS, APICS, ORS, GOR, AIRO, DORS, and ICORS, and regularly exhibits and gives presentations at their conferences.