Advanced Computer Techniques
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| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: ACTP |
| Industry | |
| Fate | Inactive |
| Founded | New York City (April 1962) |
| Founder | Charles Philip Lecht |
| Defunct | 1994 (effectively) |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States |
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Number of locations
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several including Washington, D.C.; California; Canada; Milan, Italy. |
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Key people
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| Products | Compilers and related language development tools; applications systems for commercial data processing |
| Services | Behavioral health services, others |
| Revenue | $18 million (1982, equivalent to $45 million today) |
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Number of employees
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over 300 (1981) |
| Divisions | Applications; Systems; Consulting; Federal; Publishing; BASE; Informa-Tab |
| Subsidiaries |
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Advanced Computer Techniques (ACT) was a computer software company most active from the early 1960s through the early 1990s that made software products, especially language compilers and related tools. It also engaged in information technology consulting, hosted service bureaus, and provided applications and services for behavioral health providers. ACT had two subsidiaries of note, InterACT and Creative Socio-Medics.
Both writer Katharine Davis Fishman, in her 1981 book The Computer Establishment, and computer science historian Martin Campbell-Kelly, in his 2003 volume From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry, have considered ACT an exemplar of the independent, middle-sized software development firms of its era, and the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota has also viewed the company's history as important.
Advanced Computer Techniques was founded in New York City in April 1962 by Charles P. Lecht. It had an initial capitalization of $800, one contract, and one employee. Lecht, in his late twenties at the time, was a mathematician and entrepreneur whose involvement with the computer industry dated back to the early 1950s.
The new firm's first job was fixing a language compiler on the UNIVAC LARC computer, which was being used by the United States Navy. UNIVAC awarded a $100,000 contract for the work; Lecht hired some programmers and the company's first office was in former servant quarters atop the Plaza Hotel. The firm was one of 40–50 software companies started in the early 1960s, many of which would go on to be forgotten.
Creating compilers became a key part of the company's early efforts; its first compiler, for the FORTRAN language, was developed in the mid-1960s. This was followed by a COBOL compiler later in that decade, then a FORTRAN 77 compiler and a Pascal compiler both in the late 1970s. As the 1960s went on, ACT built a customer list of established companies and developed a reputation for delivering quality work on schedule. The company moved to regular office space, the first of several locations it would have during its lifetime, all of which were within greater Midtown Manhattan on or near Madison Avenue. In addition to UNIVAC, early customers for the firm's compiler work included IBM and Honeywell.
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