When speaking of technology, imagination immediately runs to Silicon Valley, the software unicorns, or the global big tech companies. However, there is an all-Italian story – discreet, concrete, and instrumental – that has been innovating the country with passion and ingenuity for over fifty years. Its name is ISED, and it is much more than a tech company: it is a piece of industrial and family history, born in an anti-missile bunker and grown with the simple and powerful idea of putting technology at the service of people.
1974: a basement, an intuition and a desire to change the world
ISED’s first ‘digital heart’ began beating in 1974, at the height of the Cold War, as the electronics division of the Swiss Oerlikon Buhrle Contraves group. At that time, Microsoft and Apple were still in their early stages of development. Still, ISED, led by electronics engineer Ennio Lucarelli, was already developing automation systems for companies such as Fiorucci and ENI, ahead of its time and pioneering the first intelligent industrial solutions.
In 1977, a turning point came with the creation of the first entirely Italian ERP, a management system designed for the national production sector. It is a key step, marking the beginning of a long-term vision: custom-designed software, in Italian, for Italy. An innovation that not only responds to local needs but also affirms the possibility of a Made in Italy digital development model, capable of competing and driving change even without the international spotlight.
Emergencies, energy, telephony: when technology anticipates needs
Since its early years, ISED has stood out for its ability to anticipate needs. In the 1990s, it designed some of the first mobile phone systems in the West, but its technology became particularly crucial in the field of emergencies.
In 1991, during the arrival of over 20,000 migrants from the ship Vlora, the company was involved in the digital management of reception, demonstrating its flexibility and sense of responsibility. Shortly after, the creation of the single number for medical emergencies, 118, followed. Initially, it operates as a large call centre and is progressively enhanced through the use of the Internet. Thanks to digitisation, interconnection between ambulances and operations centres becomes possible, significantly reducing response times.
This attention to the time factor, crucial in critical situations, becomes an integral part of the corporate culture. Every innovation is aimed at concreteness: from environmental monitoring to energy management, from urban mobility to territorial health systems.
Continuous innovation, with artificial intelligence on board
ISED continues to operate behind the scenes, but with a real, day-to-day impact. The integration of artificial intelligence into emergency medical services, for example, enables the recording and analysis of everything that happens on board ambulances, from conversations between doctors and patients to diagnostic results. Everything is processed in real-time to generate a medical record that is immediately available in the emergency room.
The capacity for timely intervention is not a detail, but a strength that directly affects the quality of care. This is accompanied by a well-established presence in the digital health sector, from managing pandemic emergencies to developing the Electronic Health Record for the Lazio Region, and the recent launch of CareStudio, a software platform designed for general medicine that combines technological precision with attention to the doctor-patient relationship.
A creative workshop between cloud, eCommerce and AI
Within ISED, the Innovation Lab represents the company’s most dynamic core: a multidisciplinary environment where solutions are developed for cloud, domotics, energy management, and community health. More than a department, it is a creative engine that brings technology and research into dialogue with the Italian social and economic fabric. In collaboration with universities, the company promotes the training and placement of young talent in projects with high strategic content.
But innovation also passes through less traditional channels. With its subsidiary B2X – The Omnichallenge Company, ISED explores the more experiential and pop side of digitalisation. From omnichannel strategies to phygital formats, from interactive campaigns to tailor-made eCommerce platforms, B2X combines technology, design and creativity to meet the new needs of digital consumers. A further example of virtuous contamination between digital culture and Italian identity, capable of innovating even the languages of marketing and commerce.
A family history, an industrial vision
ISED is also a family business. Today, the second generation, represented by Guido and Giovanna Lucarelli, carries on the original vision with energy and consistency. Their father Ennio’s pioneering spirit has continued to inspire every stage of growth, transforming ISED into a point of reference for digital systems engineering.
With a workforce distributed among offices in Rome, Florence, and Bari, and a turnover of EUR 5.6 million in 2023, ISED is today a strategic operator for regions such as Lazio, Puglia, and Tuscany, in line with the priorities of the PNRR and the most advanced European directives on digitisation.
Italy that innovates, even when you can’t see it
Talking about ISED means telling a different, yet essential, face of Made in Italy. Not that of the spotlight or aesthetics, but that which works behind the scenes: in the digital systems that make public healthcare function, in the software that coordinates emergency responses, in the invisible processes that simplify people’s lives. A silent but strategic Made in Italy, where excellence lies in precision, reliability and service.
Discover other stories of excellent companies in Lazio.