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Two meteoroligists with a KDF9 Computer Installation - Close-up of line printer showing output from a numerical forecast program

Retrospective news, views and analysis of the IT world

A collection of industry publications kindly shared by Archives of IT interviewees. They include weekly and monthly periodicals, annual reports, research documents and in-depth analysis dating back to 1972 as well as a personal collection of articles published from 1979-1996.

System House

Richard Holway Limited became the leading authority on the financial performance of the UK software and IT services market and its constituent companies. Richard Holway, interviewed by AIT in 2017,  launched the annual Holway Report in 1988. In 1989 he published the first edition of the monthly newsletter, System House, written largely by Richard and was a 12 page, monthly publication produced for 20 years. This collection tracks the UK IT industry through a tumultuous period with our established companies increasingly succumbing to control and acquisition by international competition. They tell the story of the increasing significance of the internet and the new companies of the .com boom and the bust.

INPUT

Formed in 1974 by Peter Cunningham, INPUT provided planning information, analysis, and recommendations to managers and executives in the information processing industries (aka IT Software and Services Industry). Through market research, technology forecasting, and competitive analysis, INPUT research and advisory services supported client decision making. INPUT became a leading international planning services firm.

Butler Cox Publications

The Butler Cox Foundation operated from 1977 to 1991 advising IT Director subscribers on issues in technology and systems through more than 220 newsletters, reports and conference proceedings, collected here, offer unparalleled insight into IT and communications in this period. Together, the publications track the dramatic advance of information technology in a period when the technology moved out of the closeted world of ‘computing’ or ‘data processing’ into communications, office systems and publishing.  It heralded the world of the PC, e-mail, the mobile phone and the Internet.

Annual Reports

We have a set of annual reports kindly donated by our interviewees. They include: Logica 1972-96; Praxis 1987 and 1991; Psion 1997 and 1999; ACT Group 1993; BIS Group Plc 1992; IBM 1985; Rigby Group Plc 2017 and SCC EMEA Ltd 2017.

Industry Weeklies

Computer Weekly, Computing and Data Week were must read weeklies for any self respecting IT company. Here we have the full editions of Computer Weekly fom 15th August 1968, Data Week from 3rd June 1970, and Computing from 4th January 1996.

David Tebbutt's Archive

As well as his diverse roles in a varied technical and managerial career, David Tebbutt also edited and wrote for a range of influential trade and consumer publications from 1979 to 1996.  His articles reflect key developments in an important period of change, relating especially to the personal computer and developing Internet. The above photo is from the cover of the September 1979 edition of Personal Computer World, the first microcomputer magazine in Britain founded by the Angelo Zgorelec in 1978, and features David’s first editorial for the publication.

Could you help?

We are always on the lookout for similar documents to expand and broaden the scope of our archive. So, if you have material you think would be a useful addition, please contact us using our online form.