[London Online Local Authorities (LOLA)]
It all began in 1968 when the London Borough of Haringey
They needed a system where data was consistent and authoritative. One that was citizen and property centric. Where data was held once and shared among many applications and users. They wanted a system that was paperless, available here and now, and responded in seconds!
Let's recall some of the technology at this time.
Intel was just being founded. IBM had recently launched its 3rd generation of
mainframe computers with the first modular encapsulated integrated circuits.
At the other end of the scale, Douglas Engelbart presented his invention, the computer mouse
along with a graphical user interface with window.
It was only in 1969 that the first electronic communications are sent through the ARPANET.
Only then had the foundations of the internet been created.
It would take another 20 years before Tim Berners-Lee created the first web browser to usher in the world wide web.
But people were thinking big. Technology would usher in a new era
of leisure and abundance - if only!
In 1970 the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney agreed to share the journey.
A little later Hillingdon also joined. The partnership was called
London On-line Local Authorities (LOLA)
At its heart was two key databases: people and properties. All other databases
would link to these. As more applications were developed, so a richer picture
would be created and accurate data could be shared across the council's departments and staff,
providing they had valid security clearance.
(Mouse over to see a map of Greater London with the 4 councils).
LOLA's implementation was so sophisticated that it caused consternation with the developers in San Jose, California. So they gave LOLA a direct "hot line"! Despite major issues with database corruption and performance, plus power outages caused by the miners' strikes, the system went live as planned in April 1972.
In the 1980's LOLA pinoneered yet again when the PC Group was formed, with Pensions being the first PC application plus users undertaking data analysis using so called 3rd Generation Lanuages (3GL).
In 1993 LOLA was outsourced to CFM. CFM later became CFM London North until taken over by ICL in 1998. ICL in turn became part of Fujitsu in 2002.
Tower Hamlets preferred the LOLA based systems and in 2002 retained ITNET to manage the former LOLA applications. Later Tower Hamlets decided to implement the Northgate iWorld Rents and Benefits system and the data was migration from the LOLA Benefits system in 2004. By 2006 Tower Hamlets had migrated all their systems away from the LOLA ones.
Packages, mini-computers and PCs have bought the benefits of choice and lower costs for councils and many commerical organisations. But now in the 21st century they are having to grapple with the problems of duplicate and inconsistent data and the difficulties of data analysis to support strategic planning. Just like the problems Haringey had set out to solve in the late 60s!
Haringey’s vision for a management information system, encompassing all its properties, people and services, operated in real-time, and designed for operational, tactical and strategic use, was ambitious and revolutionary.
LOLA was one of the first customers in the world for IBM’s new Information Management System (IMS). It was one of the first, if not the first, in the world to develop an on-line real-time database information system for local government. It would be many decades before other UK councils developed similar systems.
In using the new IMS software and pushing its functionality beyond what the developers had expected, LOLA experienced considerable technology problems. Nevertheless, the Rates system went live on-time as planned.
Operationally, clerks in the Rates department moved from overnight and weekly batch processing, producing reams of paper, to a near paperless and instant access and update system using screens. Remember this was 1972!
Strategically the first Rates application, with its Property and Names databases, provided the foundation to build a system that would eventually provide a 360 degree view of each citizen’s interactions with their council.
The 4 London Boroughs who made LOLA, as well as all the LOLA employees, can be rightly proud of their ground-breaking achievements.
We believe LOLA deserves a place in computing history. If you can provide documents or memories then do contact us please (contact details are at the end of this page). We can scan and OCR the material and add it to this web site before passing on to The Centre for Computing History. All contributions will be creditted.
To preserve the LOLA artefacts and memories, we have been in contact with The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge to take the material for their archives. See the CfC page.
Incidently, The Centre for Computing History has become the official repository of material collected by the LEO Computer Society and are adding to the material, for instance by interviewing former employees.
A Borough is a local government administrative body governing an area within a very large city with some functions being undertaken by a separate city wide body. In the case of London in 1970 this higher tier was the Greater London Council (GLC). See the footnote for more information.
There were 32 London boroughs plus the City of London (the financial district). The GLC had replaced the former London City Council in 1965. The GLC was abolish in 1986 with functions devolved to the boroughts. In 2000 the Greater London Authority was created again taking back strategic functions such as transport, policing, economic development, and fire and emergency planning. The terms Council and Local Authority are a generic names for these local governing bodies.
Report on the Initial Study, Long Term Computer Project for the London Borough of Haringey [The Yellow Report], H. J. Dive, Director, London Borough's Management Services Unit, January 1969, ISBN 0902603000. View Repro here [⇗]
The name LOLA was also the name of a British racing car manufacturer, founded in 1958, called LOLA Cars. They objected to London On-line Local Authorities using the name LOLA but the matter was resolved via legal discussions. Note that "on-line" is hypenated. This was missed by the sign writer on the company name board outside the offices. He painted "London On Line Authorities"!
IMS is still used in major companies processing billions of their transactions per day. It is currently on release 15 and now suports Java and is internet enabled with APIs. View here [⇗] at IBM.