About Us
Fred IT Group has grown over the past 15 years to be Australia’s largest dedicated provider of business and professional solutions to the pharmacy and retail industries.
Fred has three companies servicing distinct market segments:
Utilizing the strengths of each of our companies - their staff, products and services Fred continually strives to make our customers lives easier by continually enhancing technology and our service.
| 1991 |
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (Victorian Branch) establishes Pharmacy Computers Australia Pty Ltd (PCA) to service the computer needs of its members. |
| 1992 |
Paul Naismith & Rod Unmack establish NU Systems to develop FRED for PCA in November. |
| 1993 |
The Guild’s PCA contract NU Systems Pty Ltd, to develop the FRED (Fast
Reliable Easy Dispensing) dispensary solution. With a staff of 3 including
pharmacist Brian Callaghan the team get working on creating FRED. FRED goes on
to become a break through success with pharmacists loving the new dispensary
solution. Together with its Windows successor, WiniFRED, the product develops
into the market leader with over 50% of all pharmacies deploying the solution in
Australia.
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| 1994 |
The first 131 pharmacies have FRED installed to replace the original Victorian Guilds “Today” dispense system. |
| 1996 |
NU Systems moves out from the Victorian Guild office to separate premises in Argyle Street, Fitzroy. The staff increases to 6 and by November 1996 are looking after 500 Fred sites. |
| 1997 |
NU Systems opens the Ballarat Development Office and the development of the Windows version of Fred “WiniFRED” begins. |
| 1998 |
The first version of the NU Systems Point of Sale - QuickSell Pharmacy is installed. |
| 1999 |
The first WiniFRED is installed. The Dos FRED sites were still being installed at the same time as WiniFRED is enhanced. |
| 2000 |
Fred/WiniFRED site installations hit the 1000 mark. NU Systems releases the first versions of the NUHQ hosted POS backoffice. The introduction of GST in July 2000 sees the POS sales explode. |
| 2001 |
NU Systems releases the Australian Pharmacy Product Catalogue (AppCAT) and in June opens their New South Wales office in Sydney. |
| 2002 |
The Microsoft Store Operations and NUHQ Version of POS are released and in July NU Systems opens their Western Australian office in Balcatta Perth |
| 2004 |
The years begins with the celebration of 2000 dispense customers and in July PCA and NU Systems merged to become PCA NU Systems Pty Ltd. The merger allowed the company to grow rapidly and acquire additional products and services such as point of sale, broadband and national coverage. In November the new company acquires Time-Link - a hardware and consumable business. |
| 2005 |
PCA NU Systems acquires its Queensland agent, Osella, and opens its Queensland office in February. By December the last installed copy of Dos FRED is totally replaced by WiniFRED Dispense. At its peak DOS Fred was installed in 1625 pharmacies. |
| 2006 |
In March PCA NU Systems’ head office moves to a new expanded building at Abbotsford in Victoria. The month also marks the launch of the PharmX Consortium for internet ecommerce in pharmacy. In October the PCA NU Systems support system records its 1 millionth support log call and the month ends with the launch of the nuNET VoIP phone service. |
| 2007 |
The year sees the installation of PBS Online (real time electronic claiming) to over 2200 sites completed in less than 5 months. In August a second support team was established in Western Australia to service the rapid customer growth. |
| 2008 |
The year begins with PCA NU Systems acquiring Vertikls Business Solutions based in Sydney. In March, PCA NU Systems Pty Ltd pharmacy business is renamed Fred Health. The newly acquired retail specialist business, Vertikls Business Solutions becomes a part of the PCA NU Systems group, maintaining its management team and branding. To coincide with the release of its business back office software, Fred Office the entire product range is rebranded to include the heritage of Fred. |
| 2009 |
PCA NU Systems completes the Fred branding by renaming the corporate company Fred IT Group Pty Ltd and the Vertikls Business Solutions business as Fred Retail Pty Ltd. Fred Health wins the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for Health for its eRx Script Exchange electronic prescription solution. |
Today the Fred IT Group has over 3000 business customers under contract. We provide Pharmacy Solutions to over 2500 pharmacies, Retail Solutions to over 1000 retailers and Broadband connections to over 2000 businesses. A team of over 125 dedicated people service these customers from our offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Ballarat and Perth.