RM plc

The company was founded in 1973 as Research Machines Limited in Oxford, England, by Mike Fischer and Mike O'Regan, respectively graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Initially it traded under the name Sintel as a mail-order supplier of electronic components, mainly dealing with the hobbyist market.[4]

With the arrival of microprocessors in the mid-1970s, the company expanded into the design and manufacturing of microcomputers. The company shipped its first computer in 1977[5] to a customer in a Local Education Authority and has been involved with educational computing ever since.

In the 1980s RM and its rival Acorn Computers sold thousands of computers to schools in the UK as part of the government's Microelectronics Education Programme. A key model of the time was RM's Z80-based RML 380Z.

The company was invited to tender to supply the BBC micro[6] but declined on grounds that it was not economically feasible to provide so many features at such a low price and to such a tight schedule.[7][8]

The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in November 1994 under the name RM plc.

Mike Fischer was Chief Executive of the Group until 1997. He was succeeded by Richard Girling (1997–2002), Tim Pearson (2002–08), Terry Sweeney (2008[9]–11), Rob Sirs (2011[10]–12[11]), Martyn Ratcliffe (2011–13[12]) and David Brooks (2013[13]–21[14]).

In 2003 the company won the contract to deliver online tests for Key Stage 3 ICT. Despite a pilot phase in 2005 involving 45,500 pupils that was judged a success by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority[15] the government cancelled the contract in 2007, shortly before their scheduled introduction.[16]

Cuts in the budgets of UK educational establishments in 2011 damaged RM's revenues, leading it to shed hundreds of employees and sell less profitable parts of its business.[17][18]

RM ceased production of computers towards the end of 2013.[19][20]

RM classifies its business into three areas:

From the mid-1990s the company expanded overseas, with international revenues rising to 12% of the total group's revenue in 2009.[29] A contraction in customer spending in RM's core UK education market and slow growth in the overseas businesses prompted it to divest several of them from 2010.

RM's first computer was the RML 380Z

RM manufactured desktop and server computers in its Oxfordshire premises from 1978 until 2014.

The first model RM shipped was the RML 380Z, based on the Z80 processor and CP/M operating system.[35] This was followed in 1982 by the Link 480Z,[36] essentially a smaller, diskless 380Z with a simple networking capability, enabling it to use the file storage of a 'parent' 380Z via CP/NET networking software and Zilog Z-Net network hardware.

In 1985 RM released the RM Nimbus PC-186, a desktop computer using the Intel 80186 processor, the forerunner of the 286 processor used in the IBM PC/AT that defined 'PC compatibility' as a dominant standard for personal computers for decades to come. As the 80186 processor lacked its successor's protected mode RM's computer was not truly PC compatible but could run some PC software and Microsoft Windows up to 3.0.

RM introduced its AX model in 1986, using the Intel 80286 processor. A common use for the AX was as a fileserver, connected to PC-186 clients using MS-Net, Microsoft's network operating system of the time and Z-Net hardware (later optionally via Ethernet). Usually the PC-186 clients were diskless, booting via the network. Diskless client computers that loaded their operating system, applications and user data centrally from fileservers were common in UK education for a further decade, partially to avoid the cost of local storage devices such as hard disks, but also to protect system files, as the client Operating Systems MS-DOS and Windows did not offer access control at the file system level until Windows XP introduced support for NTFS.

From the AX model onwards RM computers were PC compatible. The 'X Series' was supplemented by the VX, using the new, 32-bit 80386 processor, marketed as a standalone CAD workstation or network fileserver. RM released M Series computers, primarily used as diskless network clients, using the 80286 and later 80386 processors. These used the Micro Channel architecture that featured in the IBM PS/2, which was faster than the standard ISA architecture, but failed to gain widespread acceptance. RM's fileserver platform became its 'E Series' computers, using the similarly short-lived EISA architecture and using a tower case to allow space for multiple hard disks. These fileservers ran Microsoft LAN Manager (on Microsoft OS/2) preconfigured with client Operating System files (Windows 3.0 and later 3.1) for remote booting and bundled with RM-developed tools for managing network users, client PCs and applications. This was sold as RM Net LM.

The success of PC compatibility as a worldwide standard changed RM's focus from complete in-house design of circuit boards, peripherals and firmware to the assembly and integration of hardware components sourced predominantly from the Far East. The hardware within RM server and desktop PCs was no longer significantly different from mainstream PCs from other vendors.

In the mid-90s RM released the Window Box system which used Windows 95.,[37] as well as RM Connect, for education and successor to RM Net LM. RM Connect comprised Microsoft operating systems at the server (Windows NT and successors) and client (Windows 3.11, Windows 95 and successors), in-house coded tools for managing the network, a predefined software configuration and applications such as Microsoft Office. Diskless network client PCs were discontinued as the client operating system from Windows 95 onwards had become too large to transfer over the LAN to multiple PCs in a timely manner, so local hard disks were required. From version 2.4 RM Connect was renamed RM Community Connect.

In the new millennium RM offered laptops and tablets that bore its name. These were manufactured by Asus and others.[38]

In 2013 RM ceased hardware manufacture to focus on software and services.

The company offered a range of educational software including the Kaleidos Virtual learning environment, MathsAlive, DiscoverAlive, Living Library and SuccessMaker, as well as an e-book library management system, RM Books, developed for the education market. They also package software titles from other companies to allow easy centralized installation on RM networks.[39] In 2005 RM was awarded the contract for Glow (formally known as Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN) National Intranet project). Under the five-year, £37.5 million project, all 32 Local Authorities, over 3,000 schools and over 800,000 education users plus parents had access to Glow.

RM Education's current proprietary software offerings are focused on cloud delivery – including RM Unify (IdP and SSO), RM Integris (School MIS), RM Finance, and RM Easimaths.[40]

• Chief Executive Officer: Mark Cook
• Chief Financial Officer: Simon Goodwin
• Non-Executive Chairman: Helen Stevenson