Academies Enterprise Trust chooses Advanced

UK software firm Advanced is celebrating a landmark contract win in the education sector having signed a three-year deal with the UK’s largest multi academy trust, Academies Enterprise Trust (AET). AET is to use Advanced’s SaaS-based Progresso management information system to support its 66 academies.

The terms of the deal have not been made public, but when it was tendered the estimated value was £5m over three years. And there is no doubt that it’s a significant contract for Advanced. Won against incumbent and market leader Capita, AET should become a useful reference site for the Progresso software, which Advanced has been developing since it was acquired with Serco Learning in December 2012 (see ACS acquires Serco Learning).  

As avid UKHotViews readers will recall, Advanced was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in March 2015 (see Vista set to take ACS private) and new CEO Gordon Wilson and his team have spent the last year working to transform the business with the support of its PE backers. According to Wilson, this transformation is now at least 70% complete. The re-brand from Advanced Computer Software Group in April this year was a clear sign of progress and the AET contract is a further welcome indication that Advanced is intent on making waves in the market.

Of course there is still work to do, but other SITS suppliers (not least education market leader Capita) should be keeping a watchful eye on newly invigorated Advanced. Our estimates show Advanced’s revenue from from UK education was c£22m in 2015 putting it comfortably inside the top 10 SITS suppliers to the sector. Today Advanced counts as customers some 650 schools and academies in the UK, plus 420 in Ireland, and views education as an important market that presents some interesting opportunities for the Group.

This article is continued on UKHotViewsExtra. TechMarketView subscription clients can read more in Advanced win in education signals schools' move to cloud.

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Posted by Tola Sargeant at '09:44' - Tagged: contract   education