Specialist Computer Centres (SCC) is an information technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 services firm, mainly catering for very large companies and public sector

Public sector

The public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...

 bodies. Headquartered in Tyseley

Tyseley

Tyseley is a district in the southern half of the city of Birmingham, England, near the Coventry Road and the districts of Small Heath and Yardley...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, UK, it is Europe's largest privately owned technology company in terms of revenue and is Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

's largest European partner. Its main competitors are Computacenter

Computacenter

Computacenter plc is the parent company of a group of European companies which provide computer services to public and private sector customers. Despite the spelling of the word "center", it is a UK company based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its competitors include Fujitsu, Getronics, Capgemini and...

 and Morse Group.

Company structure

SCC sits under the umbrella of Specialist Computer Holdings (SCH), entirely owned by Sir Peter Rigby (founder, chairman and CEO). SCC has a number of sister companies within SCH, including Specialist Computer Recruitment (SCR) and three distribution

Distribution (business)

Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...

 companies: Enhanced Technologies Corporation (ETC), Interchange and ISI. A fourth, GlobalDis, was closed in March 2006. SCC operations are split between the UK and Europe.

Company history

In 1975, Sir Peter Rigby, founded Specialist Computer Recruitment (SCR). An outsourcing operation, Specialist Computer Services (SCS) opened in 1980, followed by the creation of SCC in 1982. Throughout the 1980s, SCC offices were opened in numerous UK cities, including London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. The 1990s saw the beginning of a new strategy - expansion by acquisition

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

 not growth. SCC has staged regular takeover

Takeover

In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another . In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.- Friendly takeovers :Before a bidder makes an offer for another...

s since 1995 (see below for full list), the most recent being the acquisition of Citrix reseller IQ Sys Limited.

In 2002, Peter Rigby was knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed for his contribution to IT and business in the Midlands.

SCC published figures of £2.041 billion turnover for 2008, making SCC the largest privately-owned business in the West Midlands

West Midlands (region)

The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...

 and 15th largest in the UK overall.

Acquisitions

• 1986 Byte Shop Group.
• 1990
  • Asystel.
  • PC and training arm of Applied Micros acquired.
• 1995 Scotbyte Computers and Supplies purchased.
• 1997 Maintenance arm of Network SI acquired.
• 1998 Qudis purchased from HP.
• 1999 Lantec and Elcom UK acquired.
• 2000 Info'Products/Allium.
• 2001 Compelsource.
• 2002
  • EBC Informatique.
  • Metrologie France.
  • Metrologie Systems.
  • Unix
    Unix
    Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
    
     infrastructure wing of Acuma purchased.
• 2003
  • GE Capital IT Solutions
    GE Capital IT Solutions
    GE Capital Information Technology Solutions or GE ITS was the information technology services subsidiary of the General Electric corporation. It was initially formed to provide information technology services to GE subsidiaries. However, it also solicited and provided services to other companies....
    
     Spain.
  • Pluz BV, the payroll business of Hays Group UK
    Hays plc
    Hays plc is a British company providing recruitment and human resources services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
    
     purchased.
• 2004
  • IT services arm of ATR
    ATR
    ATR is an Italian-French aircraft manufacturer headquartered on the grounds of Toulouse Blagnac International Airport in Blagnac, France surburb of Toulouse. It was formed in 1981 by Aérospatiale of France and Aeritalia of Italy...
    
    Group acquired.
  • Pluz.
  • Triaton purchased from HP Germany.
• 2005 TBI-Proxis.
• 2006 MVS Srl purchased from IBM Italia.
• 2007 IT247
• 2008
  • Interface Solutions International Limited
  • System Loans Services Limited
• 2009
  • SCC Italia and MVS sold to Bartolini s.p.a.
  • IQ Sys Limited

External links

• SCC web site
• SCR web site