About ThinSoft for YMCA

Who Is Unique Systems, Inc.?

"Unique Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aktion Associates. Aktion is a 39-year-old technology company with 150 employees and $30 million in annual sales revenue, celebrating 38 quarters of back to back profitability. My name is Scott Irwin, and I am the president of both companies. I began my career at Aktion in 1985 as an intern, and became the president in 2003.  I care what you think about us and am easily accessible — I return my phone calls the same day I receive them. I think you will find us professional and responsive.

Our initial attraction to Unique Systems was in its IBM technical and deep Linux operating system skills. Aktion acquired Unique, a well-established IT firm, in 2004. Unique was already well into the ThinSoft for YMCA application development project with the YMCA of Greater Toledo.

Over the last fifteen years, we have implemented the ThinSoft product into 40 more YMCAs. We have made significant investments to transform our custom written code base into a package application software product. For the record, this investment to produce a "packaged code base" should not be taken lightly. This was a critical component in positioning our product brand ahead of the competitors."

What is Unique Systems' Mission?

"We plan to be the industry leader in providing application software to individual YMCA organizations from Urban and Metros, to medium sized, multi-branches or a single location branch.

Treat people how we would want to be treated. Deliver the most comprehensive product solution with the lowest cost of ownership. Lower the on-going rental, maintenance and support fees that the typical software suppliers establish as entitlements.

Provide our customers application software source code. Offer our product on an IBM industrial strength database technology, providing reliability and growth. Provide application software that will operate every facet of a YMCA organization, and do it without forcing our customers to integrate to expensive 3rd party modules. Simplify the hardware technology deployment, focusing on people, operating procedures, and best practices. Deliver software with an intuitive user interface which is rich in feature-function while not over doing the complexity of the software offering."

What are some of Unique Systems' Accomplishments?

We offer two distinct advantages to delivering application software to the YMCA organizations: the skill set of our software engineers and technical application development environment. We are producing software functionality more cost-effectively than any competitor.

We don't believe in a one size fits all approach. Our solution is flexible with multiple switch settings that change the functionality of the product without changing the source code. Our solution is customizable for the YMCAs that require unique abilities and our source code ships with our product. Lastly, we are being told that the user interface to our product is the most intuitive available. YMCA personnel are achieving great product utilization and real returns from their education and training investments."