Decision Data Computer Corporation was founded in Horsham, Pennsylvania in 1969 by Loren A. Schultz (1927–2018),[2] who had worked as a sales representative and as a manager for the UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand.

[3] The company's first offerings between 1969 and the mid-1970s were keypunch machines,[4] including the 9650 Multifunction Card Unit, compatible with IBM's identically titled MFCUs for their midrange System/3 and mainframe System/360 computers and said to be comparable in performance.

[7][8] Decision Data greatly expanded its breadth of products between 1974 and 1976, including a clone of IBM's 5496 Data Recorder for the System/3;[9] a standalone device that converts paper tape to 80-column punched card (this task previously required a mini- or mainframe to accomplish);[10] add-on MOSFET RAM boards for the System/3 Model 10;[11] standalone keypunch keyboards available in various programming language dialects;[12] and line printers for IBM's System/3 Models 8, 10, 12, and 15.

[16] In 1977, the company announced a clone of IBM's 2780 remote job entry workstation, named the CS 780,[17] as well as the Model 3240 teleprinter.

[27] Decision Data's revenue reached a new height in 1978,[28] although the company had to ease back development of the System 4, as its market penetration grew at a rate slower than expected.

[30] In May 1986, Decision Industries acquired Panatec, Inc., an application and operating system developer based in Garden Grove, California.