HISTORY
THE BEGINNING
Guilford Group began its history in 1993. In the early stages, under the name Information
Systems Experts, the company was primarily an AS/400 oriented consultancy that pursued
custom application development work in the manufacturing and transportation industries.
Beginning in 1996, we began to evolve our technical competency to include client
server and web based application development. As a result, Java, Microsoft VB and
C++, Microsoft Access, and web applications become an increasingly more prominent
focus in our practice. In 1997, we began to focus on the home building industry
given its explosive growth and expansion during that time period. The organization
continued along this track through the early 2000’s, continuing to stay current
in these technology and industry verticals to maximize our value in these areas.
We were first recognized by Microsoft as a Certified Partner in 2000 and have continued
to maintain that status each year since.
BROADENING HORIZONS
The release of .Net in 2002 ushered in a new era in the software development industry
and brought with it many opportunities. We quickly added this as a new competency
and invested heavily in our staff to bring this new service delivery to the market
place. We continued to evaluate and integrate new products and development tools
into our practice to keep the value we were able to deliver to our clients at a
very high level. As a result, new markets opened and our technical capability broadened.
We found ourselves capable of delivering high quality service across multiple industries,
most notably transportation and logistics.
In 2005, we formulated our own proprietary project management methodology to combine
the best elements of several methodologies we had utilized historically. We focused
on increasing the number of technical and industry certifications and ultimately
added over 40 of these in multiple competencies including application development,
quality assurance, network/infrastructure management, and project management. In
2007 we were recognized by Microsoft as a Gold Certified Partner and continue to
enjoy that status today.
TODAY
In recent years, our growth as an organization has been noteworthy. In 2008 and
2009 The Indianapolis Business Journal recognized us as one of the fastest growing
companies in Central Indiana. In the same publication, we’ve been recognized annually
since 2007 as one of the largest Indianapolis Area Software Development, Web Development,
and Computer Consulting companies in the Indianapolis area. In 2009, we were listed
in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America. These honors
were the direct result of our firm’s ability to maintain a staff with significant
longevity and a passion for customer service and high quality delivery.
In 2009, as our growth continued, it became increasingly apparent that our organization
needed to evolve further in its maturity to ensure its continued success and ability
to provide offerings that helped our clients position themselves solidly in a rapidly
changing environment. We engaged in a strategic evaluation of the marketplace and
our practice operation to define a new strategic vision and direction for our company.
Through this process we learned the following:
- That businesses are placing a high value on thought leadership
and an ability to sort out a myriad of business/technology issues.
- That clients are seeking additional value-add services to compliment
our strong technical capability.
- That the need for quick and quantifiable ROI that drives IT investments
is more important than ever.
- That we must understand both the business of business AND
the business of technology.
The result was not only a new and broader strategy for the business, but a completely
new brand…Guilford Group --- the business of possibility.
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