[1][2][3][full citation needed] The company was established in 1984 by August-Wilhelm Scheer who also served as supervisory board chairman and Chief Technology Advisor, as a spin-off from the Institute for Information Systems.

[7] IDS Scheer had a dominant BPM market-share in Europe and was considered well-positioned in the US market based on its partnerships with Microsoft, SAP, HP, Oracle, IBM and TIBCO as well as consistent financial success and numerous favorable reports from Gartner, Forrester, and AMR Research.

The Y-Model helped users identify and classify processes and was originally the foundation of IDS Scheer's products.

By the end of its first year as a public company, IDS Scheer had 87.1 million euro in annual revenue and had developed and sold the ARIS architecture it's known for today.

The company continues to fuel an aggressive expansion today, including the opening of offices in Australia, Croatia, and Shanghai from 2004–2007.