Compsoft

Compsoft plc

Industry	Computer Software
Founded	Godalming, Surrey, England, UK (1979)
Headquarters	Alton, Hampshire, England, UK
Key people	Stephen Holmes, Chairman Phil Lenton, Managing Director
Products	Delta Equinox Obelisk
Employees	25
Website	www.compsoft.co.uk

Compsoft plc is a software development house located in the market town of Alton, Hampshire.
It formed subsequent to founder Nick Horgan writing a database system in BASIC while at university, which in 1985 was released commercially^[1]. Horgan married Heather Kearsay with Kearsay taking control of marketing the Database product with considerable success.^[2]

Compsoft grew rapidly floating its shares on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). This resulted in a takeover bid from investor Bill Eastwood, who wanted to merge the flourishing Compsoft with software houses Format Ltd and Sagesoft Plc. This action saw Compsoft shares being suspended.^[3]

The flagship product of this era was Delta, an MS-DOS relational database development tool that was sold in to the 1990s. Version 4.3 was released in 1988^[4]. To compete with the technology changes introduced by Microsoft and its Windows operating system, Compsoft developed Equinox; a Windows compatible rapid application development tool.

Equinox, as a rapid application development tool used by in-house teams and development specialists alike, saw significant take up. According to a historic Compsoft webpage viewed via the Internet Archive, users of Equinox included many well known organisations within the Service, Technology, Public, Financial and Retail sectors^[5].

The investment in to research and development of Equinox brought about a new project, named Mirago, that trialed indexing technologies. This project extended in to indexing and storing data across the internet, culminating in the creation of the UK focused search engine in the year 2000. Mirago plc has become a leading provider of internet advertising technologies; its success recognised with the company being listed in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 for two consecutive years (2005^[6] and 2006^[7]).

The current shareholders of Compsoft Plc include founders of Cellular Communications Corporation Plc, a mobile communications company that went on to become Peoples Phone under the guidance of Charles Wigoder. After changing hands again, Peoples Phone was bought by Vodafone in 1996 in a £77M deal^[8].

While supporting and continuing its investment in Equinox, Compsoft has expanded its technology focus to include Microsoft.NET, Sun Microsystems Java and other mobile development platforms. Its expertise in custom development has been recognised with accreditation as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner^[9].

References

1. ^ http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/archives/030127ar.htm
2. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-389662/Battle-multi-million-pound-divorce.html
3. ^ http://www.cbronline.com/news/compsoft_reverse_takeover_is_delayed_up_by_tardy_results_from_sagesoft
4. ^ http://www.cbronline.com/news/compsoft_shows_off_its_relational_delta_5
5. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/19961101055437/www.compsoft.co.uk/english/compsoft/customer.htm
6. ^ http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/leagues/dbDetails.asp?siteID=3&compID=1505&yr=2005
7. ^ http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/leagues/dbDetails.asp?siteID=3&compID=1505&yr=2006
8. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/vodafone-buys-peoples-phone-in-pounds-77m-deal-1353326.html
9. ^ https://solutionfinder.microsoft.com/Partners/PartnerDetailsView.aspx?partnerid=ae2a4d57a6284c9f8a0d16619efdf3bd

External links

• Compsoft website
• Mirago web site