A tight-knit community, growing every year.
Two applications, one database family
MUG is the MIS User Group: users of MIS, the "Mark" distribution ERP from Mark Information Systems, which runs on a MultiValue database (typically Rocket D3). SHIMS is the user group for the Supply House Information Management System, an ERP for hard-goods supply houses (plumbing, HVAC, electrical) in the same Pick/MultiValue family.
These are applications, not databases: the business rules live in MIS and SHIMS, while MultiValue provides the database and runtime underneath. Each group keeps its own agenda, but the two combined into a single meeting starting in 2025. The focus is on these platforms, yet the challenges are shared across the whole MultiValue world, so anyone running D3, jBASE, UniVerse, OpenQM or another MV system is welcome. The meeting is intentionally intimate and has grown every year, built around vendor sessions and, above all, the user roundtables attendees value most.
A short history of MultiValue
MultiValue is a family, not a single product: a database, a BASIC-derived language, query tools, and a multiuser runtime, all descended from the Pick system. A field can hold repeating values (and nested subvalues), so a whole order with all its line items lives in one record.
- 1965 Dick Pick and Don Nelson build a portable database for a U.S. Army logistics project at TRW. The Pick data model is born.
- 1973 Microdata ships Reality, the first commercial Pick system: database, multiuser runtime, query, and applications together.
- 1984 As compatible branches multiply, the community adopts “MultiValue” as the vendor-neutral name for the family.
- 1990s-2000s The runtime moves from proprietary minicomputers to UNIX, Windows, and Linux. D3, UniVerse, UniData, and jBASE mature as host-based platforms.
- 2009-2021 Rocket Software consolidates much of the market (U2 in 2009, D3 in 2013, jBASE and OpenQM in 2021). Reality continues separately under NEC.
Growing every year.
What began as a member-hosted gathering has grown into the combined MUG + SHIMS meeting, better organized each year and always built around the people.
The community rallies its own. A member-hosted gathering at Coburn Supply proves how much a focused, in-person meeting delivers.
Momentum builds. Reeves-Wiedeman hosts, and the meeting brings on its first dedicated planner to raise the bar.
Apex Supply opens its doors, pairing the agenda with a real-world facility tour attendees still talk about.
A milestone year. MUG and SHIMS join forces for the first combined meeting, bringing both user communities under one roof.
MUG + SHIMS 2026, back in New Orleans, LA
Three days at The Royal Sonesta New Orleans in the heart of the French Quarter. October 11-13, 2026.