Unify initially focused on providing databases and 4th-generation programming language (4GL) development tools for the Unix platform, but with Windows taking over the desktop computer Unify released VISION, a 4GL cross-platform development tool that supports Windows, Linux and Unix.

[citation needed] Unify was co-founded in 1980 by Nico Nierenberg, William "Bill" Osberg, and David Edwards.

Also in 2003 the company laid off about half of the development staff to focus on sales and marketing, and in 2005 it acquired Acuitrek and formed the Insurance Risk Management (IRM) division.

2009 saw the acquisition of CipherSoft, an Oracle application modernization company,[6] and AXS-One, a content archive provider.

[10] In 2013, the company sold the domain name unify.com to Siemens Enterprise Communications for their Unify re-branding.