Logica

Logica
Subsidiary
Industry IT services, IT consulting
Fate Acquired by CGI Group
Founded 1969
Defunct 2012
Headquarters Reading, United Kingdom
Key people
 Serge Godin (Executive Chairman)
George D Schindler (President and CEO)
Services IT, business consulting and outsourcing services
Revenue £3,921 million (2011)[1]
£54.5 million (2011)[1]
£27.2 million (2011)[1]
Parent CGI Group
Website www.cgi.com

Logica was a multinational IT and management consultancy company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. Founded in 1969, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of CGI Group in 2012.[2]

The company had offices in London and a number of major cities across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as in other countries around the world.[3]

History

20th century

Logica was founded by Len Taylor, Philip Hughes, Pat Coen,[3] Steve Feldman[4] and John McNeil as a systems integration business in 1969.[5] Early projects included the control system for the United Kingdom's natural gas grid in 1971 and the design of the SWIFT network for international money transfers in 1973.[3]

In 1974, Logica, together with the French company SESA, set up a joint venture, Sesa-Logica, to undertake the European Informatics Network development. This project, with the support of partners throughout Europe and the assistance of Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, brought the core datagram technology of the Arpanet, now the Internet, to Europe for the first time, and established a network linking research centres in a number of European countries, including CERN, the French research centre INRIA and the UK’s National Physical Laboratory.[6]

In 1975, Logica developed the first electronic typing pool – Unicom – for Unilever.[7] This development allowed the functions of a typing pool to be automated into a single system supporting about 50 workstations. With the support of the UK's National Enterprise Board, the company established a new subsidiary to exploit this technology, Logica VTS.[7] A range of standalone word processors, the VTS 100 and the VTS 2200, were developed and were manufactured at a purpose built factory in Swindon. These machines were sold internationally by BT and by International Computers Ltd, and were amongst the first word processors to achieve mass sales. The advent of the personal computer, and software such as Microsoft Word, led to the decline of this business and its ultimate closure.[8]

Logica featured in the 1978 BBC Horizon documentary Now the Chips are Down.[9][10]

Around this time, Logica set up operating subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, the United States and elsewhere as well as joint ventures in Hong Kong with Jardine Matheson, in Italy with Finsiel and in the UK with British Airways. The company floated on the London Stock Exchange on 26 October 1983.[3]

In 1984 the company developed the automated clearing system for the UK banks (CHAPS)[11] as well as the customer service system for British Telecom.[11]

Logica pioneered the automated ticketing system for London Underground in 1987[11] and a new version of the system which randomly generates Premium Bond numbers (ERNIE) in 1988.[11]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the company was led by David Mann.[12] Dr Martin Read was recruited from GEC Marconi and appointed CEO in August 1993.[3] Most of the executive directors left the company during the two years following his appointment – David Mann, Colin Rowland, Andrew Karney, Ian Macleod and Cliff Preddy.[13] In 2001 the company secured an outsourcing contract to create and operate a new case management system for the Crown Prosecution Service.[14] At this time the level of Dr Read's remuneration received attention when it was revealed that he enjoyed a £28 million pay packet.[15][16]

21st century

In 2000, Logica acquired the German computing services business PDV for £370 million, increasing the size of the German workforce by 1,200 in the process.[17]

The merger of Logica (60%) with British company CMG (40%) to form LogicaCMG on 30 December 2002 united an established technology firm (Logica) with an established consulting firm (CMG).[18]

In December 2003, LogicaCMG’s software controlled the Beagle 2 probe after separation from the Mars Express orbiter.[19]

In 2005, LogicaCMG purchased 60% of the Portuguese company Edinfor,[11] and in March 2008 purchased the remaining 40%. In 2006, LogicaCMG purchased the French company Unilog and the Swedish company WM-data.[11]

The company suffered some embarrassment in 2006 when laptops containing police payroll data were stolen from LogicaCMG[20] and an outsourcing contract with Transport for London for IT services was terminated early after disputes over payments and service level agreements.[21]

On 20 February 2007, LogicaCMG Telecom Products was sold for £265m (US $525m) to private investors Atlantic Bridge Ventures and Access Industries, and became known as Acision.[22]

Following a profit warning in 2007,[23] Andy Green was recruited as the new CEO and took office from 1 January 2008.[24] On 27 February 2008, the company changed its name back to Logica.[11] In April 2008 Green announced a major restructuring programme for the company, leading to 1,300 job losses.[25] In May 2008 the company announced that it would offshore more of its activities including SAP support and HR and payroll administration to Makati City in the Philippines,[26] and saw a subsequent increase in its outsourced HR and payroll services business to more than 850 customer organisations.[27]

In December 2011, Logica announced it would cut 1,300 jobs or around 3 percent of the workforce spread across Benelux, the United Kingdom and Sweden, to save 50 to 60 million pounds a year from the second half of 2012.[28]

On 31 May 2012, Canada's CGI Group agreed to buy Logica in a £1.7 billion cash deal.[2] The acquisition was completed on 20 August 2012.[29]

Operations

Logica was a management consultancy, outsourcing and IT services and solutions company.[30] Its activities included:

  • Supporting the missions of over 150 orbiting satellites.[31]
  • Processing more than $100 billion of salaries globally each year.[32]
  • Supporting 300 telecoms operators in 130 countries.[33]

LogiBods

During the 1980s and 1990s Logica ran an extensive graduate recruitment programme that resulted in the company having a relatively young workforce. Naturally, strong social bonds formed between the graduate employees, many of whom were living away from home for the first time. The company subsidised an active sports and social club to further encourage staff cohesion. Logica staff affectionately refer to themselves as "LogiBod". Ties between former employees often persist longterm up to and including the present. There is an independently operated alumni society, run by former employees, to cater for nostalgic needs of LogiBods and help them keep in touch.[34]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Preliminary Results 2011". Logica. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  2. 1 2 "CGI Group beds Logica in £1.7bn cash deal". Channelregister.co.uk. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Logica Corporate Profile The Independent
  4. ↑ People: Mann's long stint at Logica comes to an end Archived 2013-08-17 at Archive.is Financial Times, 25 February 1994
  5. ↑ John McNeil Pioneer of the UK computer software industry Herald Scotland, 19 November 2004
  6. ↑ "Origins, development and future of the Euronet". Emeraldinsight.com. 1977-12-31. doi:10.1108/eb046759. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  7. 1 2 Peter Hall (Spring 1998). "The Unicom Project". Resurrection. Computer Conservation Society (19). ISSN 0958-7403. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  8. ↑ "Computer resurrection: the Unicom project". Cs.man.ac.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  9. ↑ "Now the Chips are Down". Horizon. Now the Chips are Down. 31 March 1978. BBC. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  10. ↑ "Now the Chips are Down". IMDb. Amazon. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Logica History". Logica.com. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  12. ↑ "Directors and Managers". Charteris. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  13. ↑ James Bethell (1995-06-06). "More directors leave Logica". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  14. ↑ Logica: Global Outsourcing from a Welsh Hub Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Little man with a beard and a £28m pay packet
  16. ↑ John Cassy (2001-11-05). "Local zeros?". Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  17. ↑ "Logica launches cash call for £463m". The Telegraph. 6 October 2000. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  18. ↑ Richard Wray (2002-10-09). "Jobs cull logical in Logica / CMG deal". Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  19. ↑ Briggs, Helen (2003-12-17). "Beagle probe enters crucial phase". BBC News. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  20. ↑ "Met police payroll details stolen". BBC News. 2006-11-22. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  21. ↑ "TfL signs temporary outsourcing agreement". Computing.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  22. ↑ Payroll Processing
  23. ↑ "Logica profit warning hits shares". BBC News. 2007-05-22. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  24. ↑ "Logica appoints BT's Green as new CEO". Computerweekly.com. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  25. ↑ "Logica UK sales stall". Computing.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  26. ↑ "UK's Logica to outsource more work to RP". Newsinfo.inquirer.net. Archived from the original on 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  27. ↑ "Logica press release - includes figures on scale of HR BPO operations". Logica.com. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  28. ↑ "Logica to cut 1,300 jobs on eurozone woes". December 14, 2011.
  29. ↑ "CGI Group closes $2.67B deal for UK-based Logica". Bloomberg Businessweek. 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  30. ↑ "Business Review". Logica. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  31. ↑ "Logica Group Overview". Logica.com. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  32. ↑ "40 years of innovation and enterprise". Logica. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  33. ↑ "Telecoms and media". Logica. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  34. ↑ "Logibods". Retrieved 9 September 2017.
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