What happened to FabTrol? FabTrol was founded in 1985 by Douglas Cochrane, the result of several years of attempting to "[teach] himself how to program computers and write software to help steel fabricators more closely estimate the cost of projects" (
TMCnet). Shortly after founding the company, Cochrane hired saleswoman and welding shop owner Gerry Dennis.
Together, Cochrane and Dennis would build FabTrol into a leading software solution that helped fabricators estimate costs and seamlessly control every aspect of production–including project management, drawing management, and materials management. The software was quickly recognized as a way to save time, accurately estimate project costs, effectively manage products, and virtually eliminate the risk of costly errors due to manual data entry.
By September of 2008, FabTrol Systems had earned 1,050 customers across 22 different countries–and was rapidly growing. At that time, FabTrol courted several offers to purchase the company, and they ultimately chose to sell the company to Dowco Group of Companies, a privately held Canadian firm with plans to expand FabTrol internationally through authorized sellers.
By 2015, FabTrol had continued to expand its market to more than 1,400 global customers, and operations in both North America and the United Kingdom. In June of 2015, FabTrol was acquired by AVEVA, who purchased FabTrol from Dowco for $6.5 million USD. AVEVA continued to offer the solution under the name AVEVA FabTrol until mid-2022.