Softwright Ltd, the Langley, Berkshire-based company that Systems Software Associates Inc has just bought (CI No 2,764), was, until 1991, 50% owned by Micro Focus Plc. In that year, the management staged a venture capitalist-backed buy out (CI No 1,661) and since then it has been 60% owned by the management and staff, the difference being held by the venture capitalists. The company has specialised in building object-oriented applications for client-server environments, for a variety of customers, including financial institutions and utilities; as each new wave of technology has arrived, the company has introduced that into its packages and is currently offering multimedia capabilities in its business packages. This expertise in open systems, and Unix chiefly, is of considerable interest to System Software, which, among the broking fraternity at least, has the image of lagging behind in the general move to Unix. System Software will immediately incorporate Softwright’s object technology into its BPCS product line for Unix. Softwright will become SSA Softwright but will stay at its current location and there are plans for a research and development laboratory. System Software has, with this purchase, also gained 50% of Newbury, Berkhire-based Integrated Objects Ltd, a firm Softwright established with IBM Corp in 1993 with the purpose of developing New World Infrastructure, a framework that enables business objects to co-operate and work together across a mixture of interfaces, communications protocols and so on. System Software now has access to the company’s technology.
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