Activant provided tailored proprietary software, professional services, content, supply chain connectivity, and analytics to the automotive, hardlines and lumber, and wholesale distribution industries.

The company employed more than 1,700 people in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

The founders of Activant created a computer, the Series 10, that used new, cost-effective disk drives to store the inventory information for the automotive parts distributors.

[7] In 1980, Francisco Ramiro Diaz, Activant's founder, observed that the hardlines market had similar inventory management and accounts receivable requirements as jobbers and warehouse distributors.

[11] In 1989, the company began to develop the Triad Prism system as a future replacement for the Series 12 for the automotive aftermarket.

[13] One year later, the owners of the company, Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst brought in a new CEO, Mike Aviles, to replace Staats.

Over the next five years, the company's customer base continued to expand and entered into partnerships with TrueValue, ACE, and Do It Best hardware stores.

In 2003, the company changed its name from CCITRIAD to Activant Solutions Inc.[14] In 2004, the board of directors brought in Larry Jones as CEO to drive an aggressive growth strategy.