Dell acquires UK services specialist ACS

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Dell has bought UK-based IT services company ACS to bolster its custom application and consulting capabilities.

The company hasn't disclosed the financial terms of the deal, beyond assuring shareholders that the purchase won't impact its results.

Nor has it provided any indication as to when the acquisition will be finalised, although it has confirmed that ACS staff will transfer to the employ of Dell once the deal is done and dusted.

ACS uses an application packaging technique that writes installation routines based on specific customer requirements.

Once the acquisition has gone through, Dell plans to add this methodology to its managed services portfolio.

"ACS is a highly respected specialist in providing application management and deployment services, and infrastructure consulting," said Stephen Murdoch, vice president of solutions and services for Dell in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

"...With the expertise we acquire with ACS, Dell extends its existing capabilities to support the full lifecycle of our customers' application deployments. By engaging earlier in the planning phases, we can help ensure critical changes such as Microsoft Vista migrations are well planned, designed and executed," Murdoch said.

The acquisition of ACS will boost Dell's business in the UK as the former boasts a number of high profile clients, particularly in the financial services arena, according to Eamonn Kennedy, research director at analyst Ovum.

"Although not the first, an acquisition by Dell is nonetheless a rare event, having consistently relied on organic growth generated by its 'Dell effect' over the years," he said.

"Making the exception in this instance will have been done with one eye on the upcoming adoption of new Microsoft technologies by enterprise clients (i.e. Vista, Office 12 and Longhorn) and another eye on the need for Dell to engage earlier with clients on infrastructure-related decisions. On both of these points, acquiring ACS gets Dell into a client-facing position it could not realistically have achieved organically."

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