NISC’s predecessor organizations were formed by entities whose origins and success today are based on self-reliance.

Centralizing the data processing services for rural electrics and telecommunications companies was the result of a shared vision among industry leaders in the early 1960s. The goal was to help rural electrics and telephone companies operate more efficiently and effectively by developing jointly-owned IT support centers. The original plan was to create six regional centers, all providing the same software to the cooperatives. The regional structure and geographic proximity was to facilitate the most economical communications. This model was based on the premise that it was not economically feasible for each utility to invest a substantial sum of money in a mainframe computer, hire programmers and develop their own software.

History of our Predecessor Organizations…
For Central Area Data Processing (CADP), a 1967 feasibility study was completed advocating the development of a regional data processing company that was centrally located. Cooperatives from the 14 states that surround Missouri encouraged completion of the feasibility study. It was a founding principal that the company would be a not-for-profit cooperative with its services developed to be a “total management information center”.

CADP was incorporated in 1967. Its first 13 Members joined in 1968, 12 of which are Members of NISC today.

North Central Data Cooperative (NCDC) was incorporated in 1966. In 1964, the North Dakota Association of Telephone Cooperatives (NDATC) and North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC) appointed a joint committee to study the feasibility of developing a data processing center. Proving feasible, in 1965, a committee was appointed to develop bylaws for the financing and operations of a statewide data processing center which would be a division of the NDAREC. The center was to serve telephone and electric utilities in North Dakota and cooperatives in Arizona, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming. NCDC was incorporated in 1968, becoming the largest data processing center in the US. NCDC’s initial three Members joined in 1966 and they are still Members of NISC today.

The Consolidation of CADP and NCDC…
NISC is the resulting organization created by the July 1, 2000 consolidation between CADP and NCDC. The March 2000 Membership votes resulted in nearly 100% (386 out of 391 votes) approval of the consolidation.

There were three major reasons for the consolidation of CADP and NCDC: to bring greater economies of scale to the design, development, installation and support of our software applications; to create a national IT cooperative; and to leverage the experience and expertise of over 500 IT professionals working at the two organizations.

NISC | National Information Solutions Cooperative
Copyright 2010 | NISC is a registered trademark of National Information Solutions Cooperative.
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