Our History
On June 1, 1988, Ross Perot—son of cotton broker Gabriel Ross Perot, U.S. Naval Academy graduate and veteran, one-time top IBM salesman, widely acknowledged as the founder of the IT services industry—met with eight associates at the breakfast table of the Perot home to take the first step in what many would later describe as a great adventure: the founding of Dell Perot Systems Corporation.
The founders brought diverse industry, technical, and management expertise to the table—but even more so, they brought a common desire to build a company dedicated to delivering results for customers, based on the core values of personal and professional integrity.
First Steps
Later that same day, the associates flew to Washington, D.C., where they had established operations at the L’Enfant Hotel, eager to begin work on a proposed long-term contract to improve efficiencies at the U.S. Postal Service. However, when the USPS withdrew from the proposal under competitive and political pressures, the founders set their sights on other potential customers, using their extensive industry contacts to solicit business.
In those start-up days, small task orders and business process engagements helped pay expenses and meet payroll. One early customer was McGraw-Hill, Inc., which contracted digital printing and letter handling to the fledgling corporation. Shortly afterward, MCI signed on as Dell Perot Systems’ first major long-term commercial customer.
Within the first year, Dell Perot Systems established headquarters in Dallas, and the founders not only continued to recruit new customers, but also aggressively recruited individuals with exemplary technical skills and customer-service talent to join the team. Soon the new venture grew to more than 100 associates.
In 1989, a breakthrough contract created Dell Perot Systems’ first outsourcing agreement. The deal with insurance holding company ICH presented daunting challenges, as the contract specified that a data center be operational within 90 days. Working long hours, the Dell Perot Systems team not only met the deadline but established a site, installed equipment, and had processes up and running in just 56 days—a full 34 days ahead of schedule.
That data center experience proved beneficial a year later, when NationsBank hired Dell Perot Systems to consolidate part of a complex three-bank merger by supervising the migration of separate information systems into a single new data center in Dallas.
In 1991, Dell Perot Systems established a niche in the manufacturing industry through a Detroit-area company that later merged into TRW Automotive. Thus began a continuing relationship with automotive and manufacturing customers.
Global Expansion and Public Offering
In 1992, Dell Perot Systems opened a London office, beginning an expansion into Europe and, eventually, into Asia and the Pacific Rim. The first significant European customer was Europcar, a leading global rental car company. Since then, Dell Perot Systems has transformed the vehicle rental industry in both Europe and the United States with technology that includes curbside check-in and centralized fleet tracking.
In 1995, the Dell Perot Systems Healthcare Group was established when Tenet Healthcare Corporation, formed through the acquisition of Dell Perot Systems customer American Medical International by National Medical Enterprises, contracted Dell Perot Systems to merge the two companies' IT systems and business processes and create an integrated technology environment. And in 1996, an IT outsourcing contract with global securities and investment banking firm UBS brought Dell Perot Systems its first marquee financial services customer, along with substantial growth in both revenue and human resources.
On February 1, 1999, Dell Perot Systems priced its initial public offering of stock at $16 per share, and on February 2, the stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PER.” The company achieved another milestone that year, as revenues exceeded $1 billion.
New Opportunities
In 2000, company co-founder Ross Perot, Jr. was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Perot Systems, and the company consolidated offices and established world headquarters in Plano, Texas. In July 2002, Dell Perot Systems Government Services, Inc. was established with the acquisition of ADI Technology Corporation, a consulting and IT services provider to the federal government. In February 2003, the acquisition of Soza & Company, Ltd., was completed, broadening Government Services’ business base.
In August 2003, Dell Perot Systems infused additional payment-processing capabilities into an already vibrant healthcare business by acquiring Vision Healthsource, India's leading provider of billing and claims solutions to the U.S. healthcare industry. In December, the company strengthened its applications development and management capabilities with the purchase of HCL Technologies’ shares of HPS, a joint venture formed with HCL in 1996, also in India.
In September 2004, several key executive appointments were announced. Ross Perot was named Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors, while Ross Perot, Jr. was named Chairman, and former Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Peter Altabef was named President and Chief Executive Officer.
Our Vision and Values
Today, Dell Perot Systems is a Fortune 1000 corporation with more than 23,000 associates and 2007 revenues of $2.6 billion.
Our vision is to become the most admired technology and business services company in the world. And each day, we build on that vision through our associates’ expertise and a consistent professional integrity that forges lasting relationships with our customers through mutual trust and respect. Our goal is always to deliver real, measurable results for our customers.
Since its beginning, the values that our founders established as guiding principles have been fundamental to Dell Perot Systems’ success. Those values—conducting oneself with personal and professional integrity, valuing and encouraging associates, listening to and serving customers, and always operating in the center of the field of ethical behavior, never on the sidelines—distinguish not only Ross Perot, but the company he founded as well.