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Accel was started as Accel Automation Private Ltd
in the year 1991. Five engineers with more than 50 years of combined
experience in the IT industry came together with a vision to build
an organization focusing on IT services. The company commenced operations
by providing multi-vendor services for computers systems. Multi-location
operations commenced in 1992 with offices in Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram.
Having identified opportunities in hardware infrastructure solutions
and system integration, the company took over a computer manufacturing
unit from Kothari group of companies in 1993 to provide system integration
and product solutions.
In 1996 Accel forayed into software by setting
up an application development center in Chennai. The company also
expanded its operations to various parts of South India.
In 1997, the company decided to expand its service
network nationally. This resulted in Accel acquiring a Delhi based
company named Athreya Technologies and Industrial Development Private
Ltd – an offshoot of India Telecomp Ltd, which provided a base
for Accel in all major cities of North India.
In 1998, Accel acquired the services business of Network Ltd, an
HCL Group company focusing in office automation products and services.
This provided the company with a national footprint of 16 offices
and 250 trained engineers. The company’s turnover crossed USD
10 million in 1998.
In 1999, the company raised private equity from
one of India’s largest venture capital funds - ICICI Ventures.
During this year Accel acquired the Systems and Engineering Services
business of Fujitsu ICIM Ltd in India, which was at one time the
country’s largest IT Company. The IT business of Accel Ltd
was re-organized in to Accel ICIM Systems & Services Ltd after
this acquisition and Accel Ltd then became the holding company.
The key management team was moved from Accel Ltd. & Fujitsu
ICIM to Accel ICIM Systems & Services Ltd.
In 2000, Accel crossed the USD 25 million turnover
milestone and established itself as a leading enterprise IT services
company operating in the corporate segment with one of the largest
network of offices in India. The company received strategic investment
from Intel Capital.
From 2001 to 2003 the company focused on institutionalizing the
organization and consolidating its position as a leading systems
integration and infrastructure services company. The company reached
a turnover of Rs 150 crores for the year ended 31st March 2003.
It forged alliances with Sun Microsystems, Oracle, JD Edwards, Citrix
etc, to provide Enterprise IT solutions and software services. It
also started operations in Dubai and Singapore to create a market
for its software services.
In the year 2004, the company forged a strategic alliance with Singapore
based Frontline Technologies Corporation Limited (FTC) (www.frontline.com.sg),
and made Accel ICIM a joint venture between Accel Ltd and FTC and
changed the name to Accel ICIM Frontline Ltd. FTC is a leading IT
services company listed on the Singapore Exchange Main Board with
a group turnover of US$ 200 Mn. Frontline has operations in five
countries spread across the Far East and China.
The joint venture would help Accel ICIM financially
as well as for its business expansions. As part of the joint venture
agreement, Frontline invested in the equity of Accel ICIM to improve
its long-term viability and profitability and introduced an array
of new support offerings through the Indian arm.
The name of the company changed to Accel Frontline Limited with
effect from 01.11.2005 to reflect the new direction.
The year 2004-2005 witnessed the emergence of the
Software Division as a major business unit within Accel Frontline
Ltd. The company was assessed at SEI CMMi Level 5 for its Enterprise
Software Solutions practice. Major long-term software contracts
were awarded to the company and the manpower resource of the software
group grew to more than 300 professionals in 2005.
Major steps initiated by the company to improve
process quality and manpower competence resulted in the company
securing ISO-9001 for its IT Services division and SEI CMMi Level
5 for its Software Division.
For the third year in a row Accel Frontline Ltd
was adjudged among the top 10 IT employers in India by Dataquest
in September 2005, in its national Employee Satisfaction Survey
conducted for the Indian IT Industry. |
