History

Tessella was founded in 1980 by Kevin Gell as “Tessella Support Services Plc”. Tessella moved to its first permanent office in Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...

 in 1987.

Tessella opened its Warrington

Warrington

Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

 branch in 1998 and its Burton upon Trent

Burton upon Trent

Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....

 branch in 2000.

In 2000 Tessella opened its first branch outside the UK in Den Haag, The Netherlands. In 2003 Tessella started working in the USA as “Tessella Inc” and now has offices in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts and Washington DC.

During 2005 Tessella purchased Analyticon.

In 2009 Tessella changed its name form “Tessella Support Services Plc” to “Tessella Plc” and expanded its services to include consulting.

Areas of work

Tessella works in the R&D function of range of industries including: Science research, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, and archiving.

Digital Archiving

Tessella's software Safety Deposit Box (SDB) is used by many of the worlds archives including Austria, Estonia, UK, Swiss, Malaysian, Dutch National Archives, as well as Rotterdam Regional Archives and the Wellcome Trust library. In the USA, Tessella has provided subject matter expertise on the US National Archives ERA program and the NSF funded DataNet program.

Archiving software developed by Tessella was at the heart of the 2004 and 2007 winners of the Digital Preservation Award

Digital Preservation Award

The Digital Preservation Award is an international award sponsored by the Digital Preservation Coalition. The award 'recognises the many new initiatives being undertaken in the challenging field of digital preservation'. It was inaugurated in 2004 and is presented as part of the Conservation...

 as well as shortlisted entries in 2005.

Pharmaceuticals

Tessella specialises in the development of Adaptive Clinical Trials systems, used to shorten the time and patients needed to test new drugs. Much of this is based around Bayesian methods . Tessella wrote the user interface for Wyeth’s Adaptive Design Explorer (ADE) software.

Science Research

Tessella has worked at both JET

Joint European Torus

JET, the Joint European Torus, is the largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment worldwide currently in operation. Its main purpose is to open the way to future nuclear fusion experimental tokamak reactors such as ITER and :DEMO....

 and ITER

ITER

ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in the south of France...

 fusion research sites.

Oil and Gas

Tessella is a ‘Tier Three’ IT provider to Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 and have worked with them to build risk management software.

Other Projects

Tessella wrote the DORIS (DOsimetry and Records Information System) program for the Health Protection Agency

Health Protection Agency

The Health Protection Agency, or, in Welsh, Yr Asiantaeth Diogelu Iechyd is a statutory corporation. It is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards...

. The DORIS software manages and keeps records for dosemeter readings.

The TAPAS (the “Train Automatic Performance Analysis System”) program was written by Tessella for Southern Rail

Southern (train operating company)

Southern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...

to monitor their systems and highlight any behaviour that could indicate potential problems.