The first release of PROFS was developed by IBM in Endicott, NY in conjunction with Amoco Research, from a prototype named OFS developed earlier in Poughkeepsie, NY by Paul Gardner and others.
PROFS itself had descended from OFS (Office System) [2]: 321–323 developed also on the same laboratory and first installed in October 1974.
This was a primitive solution for office automation created between 1970 and 1972,[2] which was replacement for an in-house manual system for tracking inter-office communications.
[8] In general an OfficeVision system (which ever the platform) provided e-mail, shared calendars, and shared document storage and management, and it provided the ability to integrate word processing applications such as Displaywrite/370 and/or the Document Composition Facility (DCF/SCRIPT).
It was an integrated office system for the Asian languages, that ran on IBM's mainframe computers under VM, offering such functions as email, calendar, and document processing and storing.
IBM's initial answer was OfficeVision/2,[12] which was released along side its new generation of computers including PS/2, AS/400 and ES/390, which was a server-requestor system designed to be the strategic implementation of IBM's Systems Application Architecture.
IBM also developed OfficeVision/2 LAN for workgroups, which failed to find market acceptance and was withdrawn in 1992.
[13] IBM originally intended to deliver the Workplace Shell as part of the OfficeVision/2 LAN product, but in 1991 announced plans to release it as part of OS/2 2.0 instead: IBM last week said some features originally scheduled to ship in OfficeVision/2 LAN will be bundled into the current release of the product, while others will be either integrated into OS/2 or delayed indefinitely... IBM's Workplace Shell, an enhanced graphical user interface, is being lifted from OfficeVision/2 LAN to be included in OS/2 2.0...
Users of IBM OfficeVision included the New York State Legislature[15] and the European Patent Office.