10 December 2012 - Advanced Computer Software Group plc (Advanced), a leading provider of healthcare and business management software and services, today announces that it has acquired Serco Learning for a total cash consideration of £7.25m payable £6.25m to Serco Group and £1m to iGate for the novation of a material services contract. Completion is expected on 31 December 2012.

Serco Learning will be incorporated into the Advanced Business Solutions (Public Sector & Enterprise) division headed up by Managing Director, Dean Dickinson. This acquisition perfectly complements Advanced’s portfolio of IT solutions for the public sector, where it has almost 50 higher education customers and over 80 local government customers.  This provides the company with a strong foothold in the education software sector and enables cross-selling opportunities into Advanced’s education and local government customer base.  This will also generate significant opportunity within the growing ICT education market.

Serco Learning is a trading division of Serco Group plc and is the number two supplier of management information systems to the UK education market, providing training and support to over 2,000 academies, independent schools and higher and further education providers.  In the year ended 31 December 2011, Serco Learning had sales of £13.5m.

Vin Murria, Chief Executive of Advanced Computer Software Group plc, says, “The acquisition of Serco Learning provides the Group with a significant presence within the education software sector across the UK and Ireland.”

“Serco Learning has an impressive range of software solutions which are critical in helping a wide range of education facilities to intelligently manage their information.  We are excited about strengthening our presence in the education market and the up-selling and cross-selling opportunities this acquisition provides.”

Notes to editors

About Advanced Computer Software Group plc www.advancedcomputersoftware.com
Advanced Computer Software Group plc (Advanced) is a leading supplier of software and IT services to both public and private sectors which assist organisations to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The Group operates as three divisions:

• Advanced Health & Care sells a range of products to the NHS and private healthcare sector including patient workflow management for urgent and unplanned care providers; patient case management for social care providers; mobile applications for care in the community providers and rostering applications for social care settings.
• Advanced Business Solutions provides accounting, payroll, HR and document management solutions to local authorities, healthcare organisations and private sector businesses including banks, manufacturers, retailers, charities and travel companies.
• Advanced 365 delivers managed services to support Group products and to a wide range of customers including banks and financial institutions, membership bodies and healthcare organisations. Services can be delivered either on-premise or as cloud-based models depending on customers' requirements.

Contacts:
Liz Ebbrell
Advanced Computer Software Group
pr@advancedcomputersoftware.com
+44 (0)7917 634 705 or 01625 856505

Further information (external website)