Across the 70 years (so far) of the commercial use of IT in the UK, some companies stand out as pivotal to the development of the industry. Many of our interviewees worked in those businesses and through them shaped the changes in the economy and society that Tech has brought about.
ICL (International Computers Limited)
ICL (International Computers Limited) existed as a commercial entity and brand from 1968 to 2002; perhaps the flagship computer manufacturer of the UK until it was finally and completely absorbed into its eventual, Japanese owner Fujitsu. To read more about the story of ICL click here.
Lyons & Co. was Britain’s largest catering company, and wanted to automate management calculations. In the absence of any commercially available machine to do so they built their own computer modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.
Many of our interviewees worked for LEO or used LEO machines in other companies.
Logica plc was a multinational IT and management consultancy company headquartered in London and later Reading founded in 1969. It was responsible for many telecommunications infrastructure projects, such as the design of the SWIFT network for international money transfers, the Euronet packet-switching network, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco. Following the acquisition of CMG in 2002, the company was known as LogicaCMG from then until 2008, when it changed its name back to Logica. Logica was acquired by Canada-based CGI Group in 2012 and the Logica brand name ceased being used in 2013.
