[7] F International is an early example: business and industry were short of computer-skilled people,[8] and the nature of much software and systems work was, even at that time, amenable to homeworking.
[10] The early days were difficult; at one point Kit Grindley, a recent acquaintance at Urwick Diebold, wrote Steve a cheque for £500 to cover operating costs and payments to the workforce.
Our purpose was now to provide employment for “people with dependants unable to work in a conventional environment.Despite these issues, the business continued to grow until the 1970s, when it encountered difficulties for at least two reasons: the business reported its first financial loss (of £3,815) and suffered its first significant personnel loss, when Pamela Woodman resigned to form Pamela Woodman Associates, working in direct competition to Freelance Programmers.
[20] Key dates in the 1980s-1990s include:[6][5] As the 1990s opened, the company made several strategic acquisitions, for example AMP Computer Recruitment in 1990 and the Kernel Group in 1991, with the objective of providing clients with staffing and training services.
[5]: loc 3773 In March 2001, now a substantial and international business with over 6,000 employees, a market capitalisation of £1.2bn and projected sales for the coming year of £515m, the company announced that it was going to change its name to Xansa plc.
[5]: loc 3926 Following the 60th anniversary of the company's founding, Tony Bryant has edited (and contributed to) a “First Monday” special issue on “Women and STEM”, that records the "rise and fall" of F international.
[28] The founding idea at F International was to provide meaningful home-based employment for young mothers with software skills, and later (when challenged by the legislation on sex discrimination) for "people with dependents unable to work in a conventional environment".
The F International story attracted extensive public and professional interest, for example in Tomorrow's World (a long-running BBC science and technology programme), and books by Ralf Dahrendorf,[29] Alvin Toffler,[30] Michel Syrett,[31] and Francis Kinsman.
[32] In his book "The Third Wave"[30] Alvin Toffler included a Chapter on "The Electronic Cottage" wherein he quotes from a 1971 report by the Institute for the Future suggesting a range of occupations that could be undertaken from home, and mentioning F International as one example.
One "seed of the future" exists already in Britain, for example, where a company called F. International Ltd. (the "F" stands for Freelance) employs 400 part-time computer programmers, all but a handful of whom work in their own homes.
The company, which organizes teams of programmers for industry, has expanded to Holland and Scandinavia and counts among its clients such giants as British Steel, Shell, and Unilever.
Despite the extensive practice of home working amongst its employees, the company introduced its "workcentre" concept towards the end of the 1980s, necessitated by the acquisition of larger clients and in response to research conducted among its workforce.
By 1989, around 40% of the company's workforce was based in one of the ten centres, these being "deliberately conceived as upmarket" and intended to mitigate feelings of isolation experienced by those working from home.