Advanced Computer Software
Advanced (operating as Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd.) is a Private British company founded by Vin Murria in 2008 with its main headquarters based in Slough, Berkshire. It provides Information Technology services including hosting and cloud based systems to the NHS and many other organisations. Through various acquisitions, in 2016 it became the third largest software provider in the UK market while employing over 2,000 people with a customer base of more than 20,000 organisations. Later in the year it would go on to rebrand itself to "Advanced" while opening a new central headquarters in Birmingham's Mailbox.[1]
Private | |
Industry |
|
Founded | 2008 Slough, Berkshire |
Founders | |
Headquarters | Slough, Berkshire , |
Area served | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Singapore, India, Australia, Canada and United States |
Key people | Gordon Wilson (CEO) |
Revenue | £224 million (2015) |
Owner | Vista Equity Partners (since 2015) |
Number of employees | 2,000 (2019) |
Website | oneadvanced |
History
Vin Murria founded the company in 2008 and would serve as the chief executive officer until 2015, when she sold the company and a new Ceo appointed in sep 2015 Gordon Wilson. Advanced was listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2008 with a cash value of £3 million and was bought by Vista Equity Partners in 2014 for £765 million. From the 18% stake Murria held in Advanced meant she would take £140.2m from the sale making her one of the wealthiest women in the UK.[2] She was awarded an OBE for services to the UK digital economy and advancing women in the software sector in the 2018 New Year Honours.[3]
Locations
Advanced's head office, is located in Slough, Berkshire, with offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Gateshead, Ashford, Knutsford, Castleford and Willerby. In the Us, the headquarters are based in Atlanta, Georgia. A lot of development work is carried out in Bangalore and Baroda in Gujarat, India.
Acquisitions
Serco Learning
A £7.25m deal for Serco's education unit, Serco Learning was agreed in December 2012. This would bring software including Facility CMIS Administration with Facility ePortal and Progresso for primary and secondary schools, timetabling software Scheduler, and CMIS and CMIS Go for the higher education sector.
Computer Software Holdings
In March 2013, Advanced acquired Computer Software Holdings for £110m paid for partly by the recent share placing that helped raise £44m for ACS.[4]
Compass
In February 2014, it extended its reach in the education software market by spending £14.5m for Chester-based CRM specialist Compass Computer Consultants.[5]
Compass was later renamed "ProSuite".
ConsultCRM
In April 2014, it acquired ConsultCRM, a customer relationship management tool.[6]
Science Warehouse
In March 2018, Advanced acquired Science Warehouse, a British developer of Cloud-based SaaS procurement solutions.[8]
Docman
In July 2018 it acquired Docman from PCTI Solutions.[9] Docman maintains one billion records and documents for more than 40,000,000 patients in the UK, including the whole of Scotland.[10] A problem with version 7 of the Docman platform in September 2018 meant letters received through NHSmail, automatically scanned to be added to patient records, were not uploaded. About 6,000 GP practices using the electronic document transfer function were affected.[11]
List of Software
- Cloud School (formerly Progresso)
- Facility CMIS Administration
- Scheduler
- Facility ePortal
- CMIS
- CMIS Go
- FM Easy
- OpenAccounts
- OpenHR
- OpenPeople
- OpenWMS
- Exchequer
- eFinancials
- eBis
- ProMonitor
- ProSolution
- TALENT Ticketing Solutions
- Integra
- Business Cloud Essentials
- Cloud Financials
References
- "Advanced Computer Software Group rebrands as Advanced, implements new marketing strategy". The Drum. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- "Advanced Computer Software agrees to £765m takeover by Vista". Telegraph. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- "Softcat director and TechUK president included on New Year Honours list". Channel web. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- "ACS splashes out £110m for Computer Software Holdings". MicroScope. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- "ACS extends education reach with Compass acquisition". MicroScope. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- "ACS extends portfolio with ConsultCRM acquisition". MicroScope. 3 April 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- "Advanced announces acquisition to accelerate Cloud adoption". Advanced. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "Science Warehouse". Advanced. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "Advanced acquires Docman". Health Tech Newspaper. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- "CLINICAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPER BOUGHT BY ADVANCED". Insider Media. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- "GPs unable to fully access digital patient records after faulty update to IT platform". IT Pro. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.