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Aricent

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Aricent
Company typePrivate
IndustryCommunications, Software Engineering
Founded1991 (as HSS)
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, USA
Key people
Ashish (Ash) Bhardwaj, CEO
Duncan Robertson, CFO
Manoranjan Mohapatra, Pres. & COO
Doreen Lorenzo, Pres. & COO, frog design
Sanjay Dhawan, EVP & CSO
ProductsDesign Services, R&D Services, Communications software, Networking software, Data Communications software, Multimedia software, Mobile software, Billing Mediation software
Number of employees
~6,700 (2006)[1]
Websitearicent.com

Aricent is a communications software company, offering a portfolio of software services and products for the communications industry (wireline, wireless, cable and satellite). Aricent designs, develops and maintains software that enable communications equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers to create new products or services.

Aricent, previously the software development and solutions business of Flextronics International Ltd., was launched following the acquisition of 85% of the business on September 4, 2006 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR)[2] and Sequoia Capital[3] . Flextronics retains 15% ownership. The transaction valued the entire business at approximately $900 million.[4]

Aricent is built on its predecessor, Hughes Software Systems, which was established in 1991. The company became Flextronics Software Systems in 2004, when it and other companies were acquired by Flextronics. frog design, a strategic, creative consulting firm, was acquired by Flextronics in 2004 and has been part of the software development and solutions business since the summer of 2005. frog design continues to operate as an independent division of Aricent. For almost four decades, frog design has identified emerging market opportunities and transformed ideas into products and services that billions of people experience every day.

Corporate History

Hughes Software Systems Limited (HSS), now Aricent, was originally incorporated in India on 30th December 1991 with Hughes Network Systems (HNS), a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation (HUGHES), USA as its principal shareholder.

HUGHES, is a digital television entertainment, broadband services, satellite-based private business networks, and video and data broadcasting company.

HNS, a unit of HUGHES, provides broadband satellite network solutions for businesses and consumers, with over 400,000 systems installed in more than 85 countries.

With the opening of the Indian economy in the early nineties, HUGHES was attracted by the long-term potential of outsourcing software development and set up a subsidiary in India to supplement HNS' R&D efforts.

HSS began its operations in New Delhi with a team of about 20 staff and was initially focused on developing software solutions in the areas of VSAT-based networks for voice and data, cellular wireless telephony, packet switching, and multi-protocol routing. Within three years, HSS grew to 240 professionals and in 1995, moved to the campus at Electronic City, Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, India.

In 1998, HSS set up its development center in Bangalore, India to focus on development of software for the Internet and Internet Protocol-based solutions and applications.

In 1999, HSS initiated its Voice over Packet business. HSS went public the same year via a book building issue, the first of its kind in India.

To cater to increasing market demand, HSS expanded operations in the USA by opening several offices in 1999. As a part of its continued expansion, HSS opened marketing offices in U.K and Germany in the year 2000 and in Japan in the year 2001.

In 2003, HSS established a development center in Nuremberg, Germany to meet the demands of the European wireless equipment providers.

Over the time period from 2003 to 2005, Flextronics acquired a number of design and software development companies, including HSS, Azisa, Avnisoft, Brainblue, DeccaNet, Emuzed, frog design and FutureSoft. The companies were consolidated to form Flextronics Software Systems.

Flextronics Software Systems expanded the number of development operations to include Kiev and Vinnytsia in the Ukraine, Randburg, South Africa and to create a new development center in Beijing, China.

In 2006, following the acquisition of the business by KKR and Sequoia Capital, the company was renamed Aricent and the corporate offices were relocated to Palo Alto, California, USA. The transaction represents the largest private equity buy-out in Indian history to date (November 2006).[5]


Origin of the Aricent name

In the summer of 2006 the employees were asked to suggest a name for the new company, in response there were more than 2,000 entries. The winning name was selected because of its international sound and optimistic outlook. Aricent is the combination of two words "arise" and "ascent".

About Aricent

Services

Aricent provides software design, development and maintenance services throughout the full lifecycle of a communications product or service.

Products

Aricent has more than 125 licensable software products which are supplied to equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers. The following indicates the range of products

Quality Assurance

Aricent has been an ISO 9001:2000 company since 1996. In 2002 the company attained BS7799 certification, then in 2003 all development centers and all projects and products were assessed at Software Engineering Institute CMMI Level 5. Aricent is also assessed to the telecom-specific TL9000 standards under three product categories (a) 7.2.2 Contract Software Development Services (b) 8.6.1 Software Components and (c) 7.9 Staff Augmentation.

Clients

Aricent has more than 350 clients worldwide including major telecommunications and data communications equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers. Examples include;

Airtel, Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Hughes Network Systems, Inmarsat, Juniper, Lucent, Motorola, NEC, Newport Networks Limited, Nokia, Polycom, Samsung, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

Standards Organizations

Aricent is a contributing member of the major standards bodies in the communications industry. Examples include;

Board of Directors

Senior Management

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Aricent Fact Sheet" (PDF). Aricent. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
  2. ^ "KKR Current Investments". KKR. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
  3. ^ "Aricent - Sequoia Capital". Sequoia. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
  4. ^ "Aricent Debuts As Communications Software Pure Play". KKR. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
  5. ^ "Buyout deal by KKR is India's largest ever". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
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