Advania

Advania ehf is a Nordic information technology service corporation headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland.^[1] The company is the largest in its field in Iceland and the 9th largest in the Nordic countries.

History

Advania is the result of numerous mergers and acquisitions of mainly Icelandic companies, but also of some European companies. Its roots go as far back as 1939, when EJS was founded and 1952, when Skýrr was founded.

EJS

EJS was founded in 1939 by Einar J. Skúlason and operated under his name. The company initially ran a workshop for office equipment repairs. Later it opened a retail store in addition to importing and servicing office equipment and soon added tills for sale in its store. During World War II the company also repaired guns and lighters. In the early 1980s the company's focus shifted to personal computers and the proprietor, Einar J. Skúlason, sold the company to its employees who had more experience with such technology. The company went public and in 1996 it became the main partner and reseller of Dell products in Iceland.

At the start of the 21st century, the company's name was changed to EJS as a reference to the founder and previous owner, Einar J. Skúlason. Between the years 2004–2006, EJS strengthened its operations by acquiring various Icelandic companies such as the software houses Eskill, ISOFT, Símkerfi,^[2] Símland and UTnet. EJS sold 58% of its shares to the holding company DZ. Those shares were later sold to Skýrr which at the time was owned by Kögun, a firm specialising in military defence software.^[3] A 320-employee IT company was formed 18 November 2009 as Eskill, Landsteinar Strengur and Kögun merged into Skýrr.^[4] EJS subsequently merged with Skýrr on 19 November 2010, adding 160 employees to the newly formed company.

Skýrr

Skýrr (Skýrsluvélar ríkisins og Reykjavíkurbæjar) (English: Record Machines of the State and Reykjavík Town) was founded 28 August 1952 by the Icelandic government and the then-Town of Reykjavík. It took over some IBM unit record equipment which Rafmagnsveita Reykjavíkur (Reykjavík Electric Power Company) had imported in order to maintain and share their usage with a number of Icelandic government agencies and institutions, such as Statistics Iceland, Landssími Íslands (now Síminn), Directorate of Customs, amongst others. On 13 April 1962 a new agreement was reached between the owners of the company and Skýrr was renamed Skýrsluvélar ríkisins og Reykjavíkurborgar (English: Record Machines of the State and Reykjavík City). According to the new agreement ownership of the company was split between the Icelandic state (50%), Reykjavík Municipal Treasury (25%) and Rafmagnsveita Reykjavíkur (25%). In everyday language the company was referred to as Skýrsluvélar or SKÝRR and it wasn't until 1995 that the company was privatised and renamed Skýrr hf.

In 1961, Skýrr ordered its first electronic computer, the IBM 1401, but delivery was delayed and it wasn't until 1964 that the computer finally arrived. In the autumn of 1968 Skýrr bought an IBM 360/30 which marked the end of the company's use of punched cards. In 1973 Skýrr imported an IBM 370/135 and hence the company was able to perform parallel computer data processing. The need for more computing power quickly grew and so an IBM 370/145 was purchased in 1976.^[5]

References

External links

• Official website (English)
• Official website (Icelandic)