Computacenter plc is a British multinational that provides information technology services to public- and private-sector customers. It is a UK company based in Hatfield,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. The company is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Computacenter was founded in the UK in 1981 by Philip Hulme and Peter Ogden. In 1990, it opened

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's largest PC outlet; in 1991, it was listed by

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

newspaper as one of the fastest growing independent companies in the UK and, by 1994, it had grown to become the largest privately owned IT company in the UK. Computacenter was floated on the

in May 1998. In 2006 the company extended its service facilities to include a new International Service Centre in Barcelona, Spain, and a customer help desk and remote management facility in Cape Town, South Africa. The services in Spain and Cape Town were enhanced when the company acquired Digica, which provides outsourcing and managed IT services to the corporate mid-market and the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

, in January 2007, and Allnet, which specialises in network integration and structured cabling services, in April 2007. The company bought the UK-based consulting firm TeamUltra in April 2017, and Misco Solutions in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, with a population of 95,996 as of 202 ...

in September 2018. It expanded in North America with the acquisition of the California-based business Fusion Storm in October 2018, and went to buy RD Trading (RDC), which specialises in IT disposal, in August 2019, and the Canadian business Pivot Technology Solutions in September 2020. In March 2021, in a highly unusual procurement process, the company won contracts worth £241.5 million to supply laptops to disadvantaged children without an open tender. The satirical magazine ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised ...

'' noted that Hulme, who remained a significant shareholder in the company, was also a major donor to the Conservative Party. A "significant security breach" took place in March 2023 when a Computacenter employee allowed his girlfriend, who was a Chinese citizen, into a server room at

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

's headquarters in New York. The girlfriend was seen "physically touching" the servers. However, the manager who reported the issue was dismissed by the company in July 2023.

Operations

The company is engaged in the

supply Supply or supplies may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as ...

implementation Implementation is the realization of an application, execution of a plan, idea, scientific modelling, model, design, specification, Standardization, standard, algorithm, policy, or the Management, administration or management of a process or Goal ...

, support and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

of information technology systems.

Sponsorships

Computacenter was a sponsor of the Renault Sport F1 Team.

Social responsibility

Computacenter has committed itself to the 10 core principles of

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

. Computacenter also helped

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

to meet its WEEE requirements and its 'Plan A' environmental objectives, sending zero IT waste from M&S head office to landfill by 2008.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Computer companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Welwyn Hatfield Computer companies established in 1981 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE 250 Index