Bishopsgate Computer Services Limited (BCS), a United Kingdom private
company was formed on 6th April 1970 as a computer software development
company dedicated to the Freight Forwarding community. The registered
office was at 53 Grosvenor Street, London W1, which was the office of
one of the shareholders, Bishopstrade Limited (BTL). The shareholders
were (34%) Bishopstrade Limited (owned by Raith Turton & John Young -
representing British Steel), Derek John May (33%) and Alan Whyte A.C.A
(33%).
It was Derek MAY who is the founder, owner and the driving force behind
the software company. He was educated in Germany and the UK primarily
in physics and pure, applied mathematics. A qualified Commercial Pilot
he is also a Founding Fellow of the Institute of Analysts and Programmers
and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He was also the designer of
the Boffin Integrated Freight system, written in Wang Basic-2, starting
in 1974. The system was re-written as Boffin/VS in ANSI074 COBOL from
late 1978 for Wang VS computers.
Late 1970's Bishopsgate became a Wang dealer and moved its offices to
100, Picadilly, London W1.
The 80's started with a major growth thanks
to LEP Transport Ltd.
Raith THURTON, unfortunately, died in a car crash in 1980 and the shareholding
of Bishopstrade Ltd was dissolved whereby the shares of BCS were redistributed
as follows; Derek MAY (40%), Alan WHYTE (40%) and John YOUNG (20%).
In 1984, Alan WHYTE was paid a total of BGP 140,000.00 in absolute, full
and final settlement leaving Derek MAY with 80% and John YOUNG with 20%.
In 1988, after long negotiations and legal discussions Derek MAY paid
John YOUNG the amount of GBP 117,300.00 which provided Derek MAY with the Title and Copyright and
all intellectual Property Rights to the Boffin software including variations
and derivates.
It was on recommendation of Raith THURTON that Derek MAY called the MD
of LEP Transport, Mr. Desmond LEEPER. This was the start of a beautiful
friendship and very constructive development for Bishopsgate whereby Boffin/VS
was installed in 4 regional computer centers in the UK covering the operations
in 54 offices.
When LEP asked Bishopsgate to part from Wang and convert the Boffin software
to IBM AS/400 Bishopsgate could not drop its Wang dealership. LEP decided
to develop its own software while Bishopsgate maintained the LEP Wang
system for another 4 years and everybody made its profit.
In 1988 Bishopsgate was confronted with the fact that the Boffin software
was enjoyed with most freight forwarding companies but the sales were
hampered because a considerable amount of forwarders did not want WANG
computer equipment. ORACLE approached Bishopsgate and made a proposal
that if Bishopsgate invested GBP 55,000.00 to purchase an Oracle development
license and was willing and able to rewrite the Boffin application in
Oracle SQL then Boffin will be 100% compatible with all the platforms
on which Oracle RDMBS is offered, now and in the future. Through that
ingenious investment Bishopsgate became a Worldwide Oracle Partner.
On 1st June 1988 Bishopsgate started re-writing the full Boffin/VS Cobol
based application into Oracle RDBMS 4GL. This gave Bishopsgate the guarantee
that its freight software application will preserve its "hardware independence".
There is only ONE Boffin/Open application today, which comprises more
then 2800 Forms and reports with some J2EE JAVA and runs in different
countries on different computer installations.
Since late 1988, Bishopsgate and Bishopstrade (registered in South Africa
first and later in the UK) have been working with the Kenya Revenue Authority
(KRA) where they wrote the whole of the Customs & Excise application for
a network of Wang VS computers. All of the Bishopstrade owned application
software is written in Wang ANSI'74 COBOL and the Kenyan Government have
a license in perpetuity to use the runtime version of the application
for their own use in Kenya.
The 90's are the start of our Bishopstrade
Project Office in Johannesburg (South Africa).
Bishopstrade Limited further developed the Boffin/Open Freight application,
including a container control package requested by the Stevedoring company,
" Cornelder de Mozambique s.a.r.l.", in Beira (Mozambique).
From 2000 onwards Bishopstrade expanded
gradually
It was for DHL Zimbabwe, who consolidated the operations for Zimbabwe,
Zambia, Malawi and Angola, that we were requested to develop a centralized
financial reporting system in one major foreign currency to be submitted
to the Head Office in Europe.
As from 2006 Bishopstrade Limited was registered in Mauritius to become
the African legal entity/ HQ for all its African operations while the
offices in the UK became dormant as no further developments took place
in Europe.
On 24th October 2007, Mr. Andre-Regis CLAEYS was appointed at the Board
of Bishopstrade Limited companies as the new Chairman and C.E.O.
On 10th November 2007,
the founder of Bishopstrade, Derek John MAY, passed away at the young
age of 62, after an intensive struggle against pancreatic cancer.
Derek May has been fortunate to have held wide-ranging responsibilities
and to have been involved in a very large number of computer projects,
almost entirely in the field of transportation, over a period of more
then 35 years. Since he first founded his own firm in 1970, he has
had specific experience of managing most computer situations, both
in good times and in bad. His extensive knowledge of both computers
and the international transport industry are reinforced by judgment
and maturity. He had an open and friendly personality and has traveled
extensively both for pleasure and in connection with the installations
and development of computer systems for a wide variety of clients.
His professional experience in Africa brought
him to South Africa, Kenya, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and
Mauritius.
The new team (see who is who) is committed to expand
the dream and vision started by Derek John May.
New partnerships have been established in East Africa and a new Regional
Project Office for the East African Community has been set up in Kigali
- Rwanda named Bishopstrade s.a.r.l (Rwanda)
We aim to expand a professional, independent computer software approach,
which is dedicated to the African Freight and Customs specialists.