Advanced Computer Software

Last updated
Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd.
Company type Private
Industry
Founded2008;16 years ago (2008)
Slough, Berkshire
Founders
Headquarters
Birmingham
,
United Kingdom
Area served
 United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, India, Australia, Canada and United States
Key people
Simon Walsh (CEO)
Revenue
  • Increase2.svg £322m (2023)
  • £317m (2022)
  • Decrease2.svg -£446m (2023)
  • £107m (2022)
Owner
Number of employees
  • Increase2.svg 2,960 (2023)
  • 2,676 (2022)
Website oneadvanced.com

Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd. (operating as Advanced) is a British private company founded by Vin Murria in 2008 with its headquarters in Birmingham, West Midlands. 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 2,400 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 its central headquarters in Birmingham's Mailbox. [1]

Contents

History

Advanced was founded by Vin Murria in 2008. Originally listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2008 with a cash value of £3 million, it was bought by Vista Equity Partners in 2014 for £765 million. From the 18% stake Murria held in Advanced she took £140.2m from the sale making her one of the wealthiest women in the UK. [2] Murria 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]

At the time of sale, Vista brought in a new leadership team including Chief Executive Officer Gordon Wilson, and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Hicks.

In August 2019, Vista sold a 50% stake in Advanced to BC Partners for £2 billion including debt. [4]

In 2023, Advanced undertook a strategy refresh alongside changes to the executive management team, appointing Simon Walsh as Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Dews as Chief Financial Officer and Andrew Henderson as Chief Technology Officer. The aim of the strategy refresh is stated to prioritise resources into high growth market sectors and product categories. [5]

Health and Care Cyber Incident

In August 2022, Advanced experienced a cybersecurity incident caused by LockBit 3.0 ransomware. [6] Adastra, Caresys, Odyssey, Carenotes, Crosscare, Staffplan and eFinancials products were all affected, with varying downtime and recovery. Perpetrators of the attack were able to extract information relating to 16 Staffplan and Caresys customers. [7]

The cyber attack including resulting remediation and outage credits cost the group £18.2 million in 2023 with a further £2.7 million provisioned for additional expenditure in future years. [5]

Locations

Advanced's head office is located in Mailbox, Birmingham with other office locations in Newcastle, Ashford, Dublin, York and Willerby. The US head office is located in Atlanta, Georgia. Advanced also have offices in Bangalore, Karnataka and Baroda, Gujarat, India which is where the primary development function is located.

Acquisitions

AcquisitionDatePriceNotes
Serco LearningDecember 2012£7.25mA deal for Serco's education unit, bringing 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 HoldingsMarch 2013£110mPaid for partly by the share placing that helped raise £44m for ACS. [8]
CompassFebruary 2014£14.5mAdvanced extended its reach in the education software market by purchasing Chester-based CRM specialist Compass Computer Consultants. [9] Compass was later renamed "ProSuite".
ConsultCRM [10] April 2014
Hudman [11] July 2017A Welsh cloud SaaS solution, Hudman was later renamed "Business Cloud Essentials".
Information BalanceMarch 2018£2.5m
Science WarehouseMarch 2018£17mA British developer of cloud SaaS procurement solutions for £17 million. [12] Science Warehouse was later renamed "Cloud Marketplace"
DocmanJuly 2018£90mAdvanced acquired PCTI Solutions. [13] Their product, Docman, maintains one billion records and documents for more than 40,000,000 patients in the UK, including the whole of Scotland. [14] 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. [15]
OyezMarch 2019£23.2m
KironaApril 2019£55.1mAcquired from Livingbridge and Gresham House.
Modern SystemsJuly 2019$26m
CareworksNovember 2019€21.5m
TikitMarch 2020£46.8mAcquired for significantly less than the original £80 million asking price. [16]
MitrefinchOctober 2020£90.6mAcquired from LDC who completed a management buyout in 2016 for £20 million. [17]
Clear ReviewOctober 2020£26mAcquired from Stuart Hearn (entrepreneur and former Sony Music HR Director) and Mercia Asset Management [18]
CertaintyFebruary 2021£16.3m
bksbMay 2021£19.3mAcquired from West Nottinghamshire College.
Smart ApprenticesMay 2021£28mAcquired from entrepreneur Fiona Hudson-Kelly. [19]
IsosecSeptember 2021£22.3mA previous acquisition attempt from rival firm Imprivata was abandoned in May 2021 after a CMA investigation. [20]
cloudtradeOctober 2021£25.8m
PorttApril 2022£16.05m
Decision TimeApril 2022£22m
PellcompJune 2022£8.1m

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References

  1. ↑ "Advanced Computer Software Group rebrands as Advanced, implements new marketing strategy". The Drum. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  2. ↑ Armstrong, Ashley (25 November 2014). "Advanced Computer Software agrees to £765m takeover by Vista". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  3. ↑ "Softcat director and TechUK president included on New Year Honours list". Channel web. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "BC Partners buys 50% stake in Advanced from Vista Equity". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  5. 1 2 "ASTON MIDCO LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
  6. ↑ "NHS 111 software outage confirmed as cyber-attack". BBC News. 2022-08-05. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  7. ↑ "Client data exfiltrated in Advanced NHS cyber attack". Digital Health. 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  8. ↑ "ACS splashes out £110m for Computer Software Holdings". MicroScope. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  9. ↑ "ACS extends education reach with Compass acquisition". MicroScope. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  10. ↑ "ACS extends portfolio with ConsultCRM acquisition". MicroScope. 3 April 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  11. ↑ "Advanced announces acquisition to accelerate Cloud adoption". Advanced. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  12. ↑ "Science Warehouse". Advanced. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  13. ↑ "Advanced acquires Docman". Health Tech Newspaper. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  14. ↑ "CLINICAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPER BOUGHT BY ADVANCED". Insider Media. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  15. ↑ "GPs unable to fully access digital patient records after faulty update to IT platform". IT Pro. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  16. ↑ "BT offloads £80m legal software arm Tikit as sell-off continues". CityAM. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  17. ↑ "LDC exits Mitrefinch following successful growth journey". LDC. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  18. ↑ "Successful exit of Clear Review delivering a 72% IRR". Mercia. 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  19. ↑ "Fiona Hudson-Kelly". Fiona Hudson-Kelly. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  20. ↑ "Imprivata, Inc. / Isosec Limited merger inquiry". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
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