Acision

Acision

Type	Private
Industry	mobile communications
Predecessor(s)	Aldiscon, CMG
Founded	2007
Headquarters	Theale, Berkshire, UK
Key people	Lawrence Quinn, Founder / Executive chairman Jorgen Nilsson, CEO
Products	Data Services Data Control Data Charging
Revenue	$0.5 Billion USD
Employees	1,500 (2008)
Website	Acision

Acision is a privately held mobile communications network infrastructure company specialising in messaging and charging systems that enable popular services such as Short message service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), mobile internet browsing, Mobile Broadband and voicemail.

History

Acision's roots lie in two companies:

1. The Wireless Data Services (WDS) division of Anglo-Dutch consultancy and telecommunications company CMG, the first to develop a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) in 1992 which was first deployed in 1993. CMG WDS also developed UCP/EMI, a protocol primarily used to connect to short message service centres (SMSCs).
2. The Irish mobile telecommunications pioneers Aldiscon, the first to commercially deploy an SMSC, Telepath, and its now standardized protocol SMPP in 1993.

Aldiscon's first deployment of its Telepath SMSC was with TeliaSonera in Sweden in 1993,^[1] followed by Fleet Call (now Nextel)^{[citation needed]} in the US, Telenor in Norway^{[citation needed]} and BT Cellnet (now O2 UK)^{[citation needed]} later in 1993.

In 1997, Aldiscon was acquired by UK-based Logica, which merged with CMG in 2002 to form LogicaCMG. Both company's wireless divisions merged into LogicaCMG Wireless Networks. Acision was born on February 20, 2007, when LogicaCMG Wireless Networks was sold for £265m (US $525m) to private investors Atlantic Bridge Ventures and Access Industries and became known as Acision.^[2] The lead investor at Atlantic Bridge (and now executive chairman at Acision), Laurence Quinn, was one of the founders of Aldiscon.^[3]

As of 2008^[update], Acision has over 300 mobile operators^[4][5] as customers. Acision claims to serve over a billion end users, and that over 50 per cent of SMS revenue is generated through its platforms. The company employs approximately 1,500 people in 22 countries.^[6]

Industry recognition

• 2011 - Acision wins two Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards^[7]
• 2010 - Informa recognises Acision as Number One in SMSC^[8]
• 2009 - Global Telecoms Business Awards 2009 (Singapore) - Acision and SPH Search awarded 'Best Consumer Innovation' award^[9]
• 2007 - Global Messaging (Monte Carlo) - Acision awarded Best Messaging Application/Service: Consumer^[10]
• 2004 - Futurecom (Florianopolis, Brazil) - LogicaCMG Wins Award In Recognition of SMS and MMS Messaging Excellence In Brazil^[11]
• 2003 - SyBase Alliance event (London) - LogicaCMG Wins Innovation Award for Britannia Airways Wireless Solution^[12]
• 1998 - Irish Software Association (Dublin) - Logica Aldiscon awarded Irish company of the year^[13]

References

1. ^ [1] First commercial deployment of Text Messaging (SMS)
2. ^ [2] LogicaCMG sells Telecom Products
3. ^ [3] Mighty Quinn back on top at Logica, Mobile Europe, Feb. 2007
4. ^ [4] Salesforce - Dutch report on Acision becoming a Salesforce.com customer
5. ^ [5] Salesforce - Google translation of report on Acision becoming a Salesforce.com customer
6. ^ [6] Access Industries - Acision
7. ^ [7] Acision wins two Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards
8. ^ [8] Acision recognised as Number One in SMSC
9. ^ [9] Nationwide mobile location-based directory search awarded 'Best Consumer Innovation' award
10. ^ [10] Global Messaging - Acision awarded Best Messaging Application/Service: Consumer
11. ^ [11] LogicaCMG Wins Award In Recognition of SMS and MMS Messaging Excellence In Brazil
12. ^ [12] LogicaCMG Wins Innovation Award for Britannia Airways Wireless Solution
13. ^ [13] Logica Aldiscon awarded Irish company of the year

External links

• Acision official website
• Acision innovation network
• Video interview with Shawn Barber, Director of Voice Messaging - Mobile Industry Review