ISBA was founded in Frankfurt at the end of the 1960s. There, due to the first commercially easy-to-use computers, a demand developed for possibilities to process and analyse data electronically. Statistical methods from the first half of the 20th century suddenly became alive and accessible without laborious calculations. Within the framework of readership research, the ag.la reader analysis was developed, the data of which served to make media plans computable. In this context, Heinz Dieter Asimus developed MOSES, one of the first German media optimisation tools, and sold it very successfully. He gave the company the name 'Informatik Service Beratung Asimus'.

In 1978, Heinz Dieter Asimus and Dr. Rainer Eckard jointly founded ISBA in Hamburg as an offshoot of the Frankfurt parent company in order to offer additional services to local publishers based in Hamburg. The then registered GmbH still exists today. At that time, it was relevant to work with customers on site; data was transported on magnetic tapes and these were exchanged among each other, similar to the way containers are used worldwide today. Also, large paper spreadsheets were delivered personally.

Until about 1995, the focus was on adapting market/media studies to the currency-giving studies through optimisation algorithms and on projects on data cleaning and tabulations. In 2006, Jan Otto Buhr became part of the management team. Since then complex projects for data merging and data supplementation have become important, and projects for the construction of currency studies have been added. Today, the focus at ISBA is on combining data auditing with the development of data strategies. This connection allows us to provide clients not only with results, but also with impulses and perspectives on what can be done with data.