BL Systems pioneered many services, including the establishment of Europe's first microwave communications network in the late 1970s and launched Comet (originally a US product) that in 1981 was Britain's first commercial electronic mail service.
The more waggish staff were known to say that the acronym stood for "Information Screwed, Twisted and Eventually Lost" or "I Stand To Earn Less".
Latterly it was documented that in 1997 AT&T quietly dropped the Istel name putting its finance, commerce, travel, and healthcare divisions up for sale.
Customers included Citibank, Delta Air Lines, Barclays, Texaco, British Oxygen, Boots and Post Office Limited.
[5] In April 2001, following BMW's sale of Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium the previous year, Softlab sold a significant part of its UK operations, specifically the automotive facing sections, on to Computer Sciences Corporation.