Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company

Altran Capgemini Engineering (previously known as ''Altran Technologies, SA'') is a global innovation and engineering consulting firm founded in 1982 in France by Alexis Kniazeff and Hubert Martigny. Altran Technologies operated primarily in high tec ...

. Altran Praxis was a British software house that specialised in

critical system A critical system is a system which must be highly reliable and retain this reliability as it evolves without incurring prohibitive costs. There are four types of critical systems: safety critical, mission critical, business critical and sec ...

s. This role is continued under the banner of high-tech engineering consultancy services provided by the rest of the Altran group. The division formerly known as Praxis (the critical systems specialists) is based in SouthGate,

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, close to

Bath Spa railway station Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. It is the busies ...

, and also has offices in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Sophia Antipolis Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare technology park in southeast France, and as of 2021 home to 2,500 companies, valued today at more than 5.6 billion euros and employing more than 38,000 people counting more than 80 nationalities. The park is ...

, and

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. Altran UK as a whole has offices in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

and

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

History

The company Praxis Systems Limited was founded by

Martyn Thomas Martyn Thomas (born 1948) is a British independent consultant and software engineer. Biography Martyn Thomas founded the software engineering company Praxis in 1983, based in Bath, southern England. He has a special interest in safety-critical ...

and David Bean in 1983: it was incorporated on 1 June 1983 and commenced business on 1 July 1983. On 28 June 1985 it became a

Public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

Praxis Systems plc. Until 1988, Praxis was owned almost entirely by its staff. In 1988 Praxis obtained venture capital finance in order to provide funds for future acquisitions and working capital for continued growth. On 27 November 1992 Praxis was acquired by

Deloitte Consulting Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wit ...

(then known as Touche Ross), an international firm of accountants and management consultants. The critical systems part of the company was acquired by the Altran Group in 1997. In 2004, Praxis Critical Systems and HIS Consulting merged to form Praxis High Integrity Systems. In January 2010, the company was merged with SC2 by Altran to form Altran Praxis. The company has since been rebranded to Altran along with Altran Xype and Altran Technologies. In December 2012, AdaCore along with Altran Praxis released SPARK Pro 11. In 2013, Altran acquired Sentaca, a specialty telecoms consultancy. A distinguishing feature of the former Praxis office's is its extensive use of

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematics, mathematically rigorous techniques for the formal specification, specification, development, Program analysis, analysis, and formal verification, verification of software and computer hardware, ...

such as the

Z notation The Z notation is a formal specification language used for describing and modelling computing systems. It is targeted at the clear specification of computer programs and computer-based systems in general. History In 1974, Jean-Raymond Abria ...

and the SPARK toolset (acquired through the takeover of the developers

Program Validation Limited Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company Altran. Altran Praxis was a British software house that specialised in ...

in 1994) in its approach to improving the reliability of

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

. A major project using Z has been an enhancement for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

National Air Traffic Services NATS Holdings, formally National Air Traffic Services and commonly referred to as NATS, provides en-route air traffic control services to flights within the UK flight information regions and the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area. It also provide ...

(NATS).Antony Savvas
NATS claims the biggest air traffic control innovation since radar
''

Computer Weekly ''Computer Weekly'' is a digital magazine and website for IT professionals in the United Kingdom owned by Informa TechTarget. It was formerly published as a weekly print magazine by Reed Business Information for over 50 years. Topics covered wit ...

'', 7 March 2007.

References

External links

Company website
Companies established in 1983 1983 establishments in England Companies based in Bath, Somerset Software companies of the United Kingdom Formal methods organizations {{UK-company-stub

History

See also

References

External links