1993 The Olivetti UK newsletter was re-launched after a four year gap.
Professor Heinz Wolff addressed the Network Solutions NET3 (Net cubed) Wireless LAN seminar. As part of his presentation the Professor swallowed an edible transmitter, which was wrapped in a condom, which measured his body temperature as it passed through him. Professor Wolff purchased a quantity of Quadernos that were specially adapted to be used by patients suffering from Motor Neurone Disease. The modifications included a giant keyboard and voice recording/replay capabilities.
Finance and Administration were awarded their ISO 9001 Quality Award
In December Paulo Tosi returned to Ivrea to head the Worldwide Systems Group. Alan Watson replaced him as MD, the only Britain to hold the position.
W H Smith placed a £4M single source three year contract that covered all their branches and a number of Our Price shops. CSG supported a range of EpoS systems including those made by Datachecker and ICL and minicomputers and PCs from DEC and ICL.
Olivetti launched the EO440 Personal Communications Device with built in facsimile and e-mail capabilities. The EO440 used AT&T’s Easylink Worldwide network. The EO440 was designed by EO Inc that had been founded in California in 1991 with AT&T becoming a major shareholder in August 1993.
Logistics, Software Production and Network Solutions achieved ISO 9001 Quality Standard in March. Network Solutions were the first sales division to achieve this standard.
IBM ordered £1.5M of Olicom Token Ring Adaptor boards from Olivetti UK that were used in PCs supplied to Lloyds Bank. Part of the Lloyds specification stated that any PC purchased must include Olicom Cards. (Olicom was a Danish subsidiary company that specialised in Token Ring products.)
Olivetti Software was awarded Wang Distributor of the month for December.
1994 Saw the launch of the LSX5000 server using an Intel 60MHz Pentium Processor and supporting up to 250 users.
Carlo De Benedetti was requested by the EC’s Industry Commissioner to take a leading part in the planning of the European Superhighway.
The May edition contained an article called “Retirement why worry now?”
The 1st “Sharing Knowledge” seminar organised by Network Solutions was held at Cambridge University’s Graduate Centre. Speakers included Paul Trowbridge of Synoptics and Dr (now Professor) Andy Hopper of ORL. ORL was a research centre for Olivetti. The topic was the use of high speed local area networks in the home.
Retail Division secured a substantial contract valued at £7M to supply over 2500 ORS500 PoS terminals to the Victoria Wine Group.
The new Multimedia Kiosk was launched, as well as providing videoconferencing users were able to exchange and share information held on the users PCs.
In June the Wembley Conference Centre was the setting for TEKNE’94 “Olivetti European Product Launch” to show 62 new products to the press and a gathering of customers. Shown were new PCs and systems both using Pentium Processors, the “Jet Line” of office products and PCS DomusLife home computers that could integrate TV and record and process music.
The lead story on the front page of the September edition was the introduction of “turbo diesel” cars, including those members of staff who qualified for a Level 1 car. This meant that they were entitled to a Cavalier instead of an Astra.
500 CSG field engineers were equipped with Cognito hand held devices that provided two way text communications. These devices enabled CSG engineers to receive instructions on the next job and request information to solve particular problems.
The summer saw the launch of the Echos 486 laptop A4 size PC that weighed 2Kg, was 39mm thick and cost £1300. This new laptop was styled by Michele de Lucchi.
By September the whole company had achieved the ISO 9001 Quality Standard!
Olivetti and Philips put on a workshop at Butlers Wharf on how sharing time between work and home will develop plus the concept of landscape offices. The show had toured Europe prior to the London opening.
There was a plea on the back page of the December newsletter from Jim Edward for anyone who has copies of the newsletters between 1965-1969.
1995 Alan Watson MD was presented with the Invest in People Award on behalf of Olivetti UK by the Rt.Hon. Michael Portillo, MP Secretary of State for Employment.
Thomas cook and NatWest both chose Olivetti Multimedia Kiosks to launch their electronic high street shopping mall.
The Echos20 ultra-light B5 size notebook computer was shown to the press in March. The Echos weighing in at 1.8Kg for the colour model was half the weight of competitive products.
Abbey National placed a contract for the upgrading of their branch environment to included WindowsPB software plus 500 PCs, 750SNX servers and 800 managed hubs. The value of the order was in excess of £16M.
It was announced that Olivetti UK’s revenue had risen from £216M in 1993 to £267M in 1995. The after-tax profit rose from £2M in ’93 to £6.9M in ’94.
Olivetti Telemedia who addressed the 4C’s, Computing, Communications, Content and Consumer Electronics had 5 subsidiary companies operating in the UK: UK Online and web based service, Online Media supplying set-top boxes for home use including video on demand, Acorn developers of RISC based multimedia systems, ATLM developing high speed network products (based on concepts from ORL in Cambridge) and HOT- Hughes Olivetti Telemedia providing satellite communications from their base in Milton Keynes.
Live’95 the consumer electronic show held at Earls Court, was the show case for Envision that provided internet access, fax, modem and answering machine all on a single device. The press wrote “Envision a PC made to look like a VCR that can connect directly to a TV- a truly ground breaking product”. Envision was preloaded with Windows 95, its also a CD player for audio, photo and Video CDs. It was supplied with an infrared keyboard and remote control.
The M6 Suprema was shown to the press at L’Escargot in Soho Square. The M6 was seen as a stylish alternative to Compaq’s Deskpro.
1996 Further reorganisations:
· Olivetti UK
· Olivetti Personal Computers
· Olivetti Lexikon.
The newsletter now called Olivetti news only focused on Olivetti UK.
In Italy the Olivetti Group comprised: Lexikon, Personal Computers, Systems and Services Division, Telemedia and Omnitel. The last two companies demonstrated the Olivetti Group’s desire to become involved in telecommunications.
John A C King who had joined the board of Olivetti UK as a non-executive director became non-executive Chairman. John had spent 35 years in the telecommunications industry finally as main board director of BT, he is also non-executive Chairman of Analysys a Cambridge based telecommunications consultancy.
The Telecom and Utilities Group, part of Retail and Public Services Division won a contract to supply four hundred and fifty PAC TC800. BT also purchased 2000 Personal Communications Computers PCC.
The first order for Olibranch, the financial branch delivery system, was placed by Derbyshire Building Society to upgrade their existing Olivetti systems. The ASIS Division in the UK developed Olibranch.
Olivetti UK became a co-sponsor of “Time and Tide” one of the 15 yachts taking part in BT’s Global Challenge Round the World Yacht Race scheduled for 1996/7. Time and Tide was sponsored by the Time and Tide Trust and was crewed entirely by disabled people. James Hatfield MBE skippered the yacht. Olivetti also provided M290 PCs and PCC video links between Southampton and each port of call. The PCC would be used to show the yacht builders any parts of the boat that had been damaged and that might need replacing.
The DTI awarded Olivetti a worldwide supply and support contract for videoconferencing systems, which included Olivetti products as well as those from third party suppliers. The first installation was at 1 Victoria Street for use by Cabinet Ministers and Senior Government officials. In all it was expected that 7000 systems would be installed over a three year period.
W H Smith renewed its maintenance and service contract for a further three years in a multi-million pound contract.
The Financial Division had a number of notable successes including an order to migrate Portman Building Society’s OS/2 to Windows NT. NatWest Card Centre at Southend ordered a Computer Telephony Integration system together with FlowMaster workflow and image software.
Victoria Wine selected Olivetti EPOS for installation at 1500 branches, these were installed at the rate of fifty per week per five man team working in the shops between the hours of 0700 and 1200. This time zone was selected to minimise the disruption to business.
Citibank were the recipients of Bay Networks LAN products sold and installed by Network Solutions. Two installations were completed at the Strand and Lewisham offices in a contract valued at £800K.
GRE appointed Olivetti UK as their sole provider of desktop support services, there were four locations and 5400 users.
In the retail sector Olivetti won a number of contracts including B&Q to develop their website. Somerfield placed a £300K contract for the support of their X25 router network that connects their stores, supply depots and head office. The Somerfield’s network was connected directly to SUPPORTNet control centre at Milton Keynes. Martin Retail Group chose Olivetti to maintain their 1500 Siemens Nixdorf tills.
Working with N&P Building Society Olivetti in a single weekend upgraded their 195 branch offices to Abbey National standards following the takeover of N&P by Abbey National. Halifax Building Society ordered 8000 PR2 Passbook Printers that had been specially modified to meet Halifax’s requirements.
In the autumn the MD announced changes to the way in which Olivetti UK addressed their customers. The Services Division were only responsible for service delivery with no direct sales involvement. The Portfolio Accounts had sales teams responsible for selling the complete offer including service. All marketing was combined within one Division.
By the end of year BT had placed two significant orders with Olivetti UK, the first allowed BT to sell Olivetti kiosk products, the second was for PCC and VC8000 (plug-in board) Desktop videoconferencing systems to provide remote diagnostics and distance learning. The order followed a trial with 10 GPs and a consultant dermatologist in Wales.
1997 A New Year and a new name “olsy uk”, the name was formally changed on April 2. Olivetti was now a holding company with three main operating areas; Telecommunications, Information Systems and Office Products.
Alliance & Leicester selected olsy uk to re-equip all their branches, olsy beat stiff competition from IBM, ICL, Siemens and Unisys. The solution comprised Compaq PCs and servers, flat screens, passbook printers, laser printers and networking equipment. Oliservice were responsible for site surveys, cabling installation and help desk services.
Network Solutions held two seminars, with a sporting flavour, that were oversubscribed. The first was at Stamford Bridge shortly after Chelsea had won the FA Cup anyone who wished was photographed holding the Cup. This seminar was attended by Alan Watson MD and for him it was a special treat as he had supported Chelsea since a schoolboy. The other seminar was at the Williams Conference Centre the home of the Williams FI cars. After the seminar guests were able to tour the Williams car collection that included a Ferrari.
olsy uk announced their initial plans to work with clients during the Millennium changeover to cater for a date ending “00”.
The autumn saw olsy uk announce a £3M contract with Bass Taverns to provide IT support at their 2800 pubs.
Following the success of the PCC software with over 6,000 systems sold, it was decided to develop PCC Turbo, which ran on both Windows 95 and NT to run on the VC8000. Operator controls were graphically displayed and Microsoft’s NetMeeting was included. A new kiosk range kiosk was unveiled, this was jointly developed with Olivetti’s subsidiary Technost Mael and fDp.
Principality Building Society awarded olsy UK a three year maintenance contract to support their 47 branches and the interconnecting wide area network.
In the retail sector successes were chalked up when Star News Shops chose the Olivetti ORS500 EpoS for the retail outlets in the West Midlands and Home Counties in a contract worth £250K. (This kit is still operating in my local shop today.) B&Q continued with their reliance on olsy with a £1.4M order for a new local area network in all 284 stores.
In the last issue I have found to date “winter 97” the highlight is a further retail success with Monsoon placing a three year contract valued at £400K for support of their EPOS from ICL/HP and Kyocera printers in their store in the UK and Gibraltar.
In October olsy presented an evening of music performed by young musicians of the Royal College of Music. The evening programme was introduced by Richard Baker O.B.E. the well known radio presenter of musical programmes.
I997 Was Olivetti’s 50th anniversary of operations in the UK. Valeria Belfer, after 41 years with Olivetti in their various guises, had retired in that year having worked as secretary to the MD, then working for David Maroni, was asked to contribute her own thoughts to the newsletter. Valeria’s first line says it all.
“1957 – a different world – another planet”
1998 Wang Laboratories buy olsy! The beginning of the end.
The combined companies operated under the Wang Global name except in Italy, Japan and Brazil where it operated as Olivetti Wang Global. The combined operation had revenue of more than $3.6 billion with over 20,000 employees.
Through the acquisition, Wang expanded its operations in European and Asian markets and Olivetti become Wang's largest shareholder at 18.6 percent.
Wang also acquired a 19.9 percent stake in Olivetti Ricerca, the Italian consortium supplying R&D services to both the IT and telecom sectors. Olivetti Ricerca was the R&D centre of the new combined companies, supporting solutions development.
1999 Getronics buys Wang Global!
“June 8 Getronics today said it has completed its previously announced purchase of Wang Global. The Amsterdam-based company had obtained stocks and stock warrants representing just over 90 percent of Wang Global's outstanding common shares.
Getronics, whose main business is systems integration and consulting, had sought to buy an international services company for some time. Ironically, it had previously considered buying Olsy SpA - the services arm of the Italian company Olivetti SpA - but Wang Global signed a deal to acquire Olsy last year.
Wang Global will be renamed Getronics throughout Northern and Central Europe, Latin America and in Asia Pacific, the company said, while in North America the company will be known as Getronics Wang. In Italy, the company will be known as Getronics Olivetti, reflecting Wang Global’s acquisition of Olsy.
The new company will have business in more than 40 countries with 33,000 employees and combined sales of £4.3 billion ($6.9 billion), Getronics said.
Wang had already begun to focus recently on building up its business overseas and this year announced outsourcing contracts with Abbey National, a large British bank, and British Airways PLC. (The UK still to the fore!) Wang’s specialty has been converting older, proprietary networks to standards-based networks.
Wang posted a loss of about $58 million on revenue of $790 million for the quarter ended March 31. It attributed the loss to restructuring charges and a $380 million reinvestment in Olsy.”
The End or is it?
2003 Olivetti Tecnost UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Olivetti Group. It was formed in 1996 following the merger of two divisions of the Olivetti UK Group (Triumph Adler and Olivetti Office Products).
In 1998 the company consolidated its operations to its Headquarters at the modern Warren Farm Village, Wolverton Mill, Milton Keynes. At this time the business model was completely restructured and went through a period of substantial change in order to achieve the current strong business vision:
The product range encompasses Olivetti branded photocopiers, printers, fax and multifunction machines, personal digital assistants (Organisers), calculators, shredders, typewriters, time clocks and pencil sharpeners, along with the consumables used by this equipment.
The company distributes its products through a number of UK market channels notably Retail, Mass Merchandising, Dealers, Catalogues, Stationery and Distribution channels and Integrators.