GIRO offers specialized software as part of a business model based on continuous product evolution, and the establishment of long-term collaborations with our customers. We believe this is a key reason for our continued success for more than 30 years in public transit, and over for 20 years in the postal sector.
Key events in our corporate history include:
- GIRO was founded in 1979 to commercialize the HASTUS vehicle and operator scheduling system, originally conceived at the University of Montreal. GIRO's initial customers were Montreal's STM and Québec City's RTC.
- By 1982, HASTUS customers were realizing annual operating cost savings of over 3%, earning the software international recognition.
- Building on HASTUS’ success, in 1983 the GIRO/ACCES paratransit scheduling and management system was developed for Montreal’s STM and Toronto’s TTC.
- Other products introduced in the late 1980s included HASTINFO for transit passenger information and the GeoRoute family of map-based routing products.
- In 1988, GIRO was awarded its first contract in the postal sector to supply route optimization software for Canada Post.
- Also in 1988, the first HASTUS User Group was held in Montréal. Since then, regional groups have been held with users in the Nordic countries, Francophone users in Europe, and customers in Australia.
- A first Windows-based version of HASTUS was launched in 1996. In addition to a completely redesigned user interface and an integrated relational database, this version introduced new development tools, methods, and standards intended to facilitate the evolution of the software, and better cater to the needs of an international market.
- In 1997, GeoRoute became available to our postal customers in a new Windows version, allowing them to manage different types of routes with the same software.
- The HASTUS suite of modules was extended in 1998 to cover daily operations and timekeeping.
- In 1999, GIRO held in Hamburg, Germany, its inaugural meeting of managers responsible for GeoRoute implementations within postal organizations. Regular meetings have since been held at various locations in Europe.
- In 2003, a new Windows®-based version of GIRO/ACCES was deployed at Montreal’s STM. This new version features map-based representations anb a live link to on-board computers (MDTs).
- In 2005, a first Web-based module completely designed by GIRO was implemented at Mississauga Transit for passenger information.
GIRO is now firmly established and internationally recognized in our core software markets. Our objective is to maintain a steady growth and a sound financial situation, in order to ensure the continued evolution of our products to meet our customer's needs. A significant portion of our revenues come from repeat business with our existing customers, a testimony to our close relationship with these companies.
