Capita Group Plc has created Academy Information Systems for local government software. It combines recent acquisitions West Wiltshire Software – August 1993, and Dataflow Information Systems – October 1994, with distribution rights to Sherwood Computer Group Plc’s Threshold and Household products – agreed in April 1994. It is independent and financially autonomous from Capita, employing 50 people initially, rising to 75 next year and turnover this year of UKP4m, expected to rise to UKP5m next. It is already the second largest player in the local government market behind ICL Plc, boasting 22 products in the housing and building, revenues and electoral administration areas. These are mainly available under ICL’s VME mainframe environment, but Academy is currently moving applications over to Unix, as local authorities move to open systems. For example in the revenues market, covering Council Tax, Housing Benefits and Payments, Unix versions of Academy’s Benefits and Council Tax, both currently VME, with a Windows user interface will be ready by September. In building control and town planning, products are in beta test and will be out next quarter, and a Windows-based electoral administration product shipping in April, complementing Academy’s current VME, MS-DOS and Unix versions. Academy will also target government agencies as they go out to competitive tender.
