Title
ITCHP (Information Technology Corporate Histories Project) report by industry sector : professional servicesCatalog Number
102746514Type
DocumentDescription
The computer software business actually began with the professional services firms. Starting in the mid-1950s, a number of individuals and a few companies offered their services in designing and building custom programs for their clients, initially user companies and then later for the computer manufacturers.The focus of this sector will be on those companies which were formed in the 1950s and 1960s and had a reasonably long run as professional service providers rather as software product producers, since many of the early professional services companies morphed into products companies. We will consider both forms of professional services companies: those which principally provided people to work on specific application projects for user customers (typically on a time and materials basis) and those which accepted full project development responsibility (often on a fixed price or capped price basis with most of these projects being for computer manufacturers developing operating systems and language compilers). Today, there are a significant number of successful professional services companies although there has been a substantial consolidation both on a geographic (national and international) basis and an ongoing expansion of product related professional services activities by consulting companies (emanating from from auditing firms) and by software products and computer manufacturing companies which have found that this area is consistently profitable and often provides more revenue than the products themselves.Related Companies:
Advanced Computer Techniques (ACT)
AGS Computers, Inc.
CACI
CGA
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Task Group
Computer Usage Company
Keane, Inc.
Software Design Associates
