With more than 40 years of strategic experience in the software industry, Arthur L. Allen is a unique kind of entrepreneur who is both a visionary and a pragmatic leader.

Over the last 20 years, Allen has grown his company, Allen Systems Group (ASG), from an early innovator into a global provider of world-class software solutions and professional services for Applications, Content, Enterprise, Identity, Metadata, Operations, and Performance Management. Today, ASG offers one of the most comprehensive IT solutions portfolios in the industry. Remarkably, it all began with one product.

Allen’s career began when the field of modern computer programming was still in its infancy. A native of Dayton, Ohio, USA, Allen graduated from college in 1965 with a degree in data processing. In 1966, Allen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged as a corporal in 1968. From 1968 to 1971, Allen worked as a senior systems analyst at both the Frigidaire and Chevrolet divisions of General Motors Corporation (GM).

In 1972, Allen ventured into software sales with Cutler-Williams, Inc., a solutions-oriented software services firm, and one of the earliest operators in the IT services industry. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA, the company was founded by two executives from IBM. Here, Allen began marketing “The Executor,” a software product designed to increase computer processing power and throughput capacity – greatly improving mainframe efficiency.

The Executor proved to be an effective solution for many clients, and a lucrative product for Cutler-Williams. Some clients, however, required only one component of the solution. Allen’s team focused on expanding that component, leasing it to clients rather than selling it. Allen’s team maintained control of the product while significantly increasing its functionality and revenue generation.

Based on the successful initiatives he implemented with The Executor and two other solutions, Allen founded Allen Services Corporation in 1976. Five years later, in 1981, he sold the company for $18 million to CGA Computer Associates of New Jersey. Allen then retired to Naples, Florida, USA.

This was just another beginning for Allen. As the technology industry entered a new period of intensive growth in the 1980s, Allen again moved to define the industry. He worked with several IT colleagues and began to market a performance monitoring product called “ShopMon.” This monitoring product became the basis of several other groundbreaking mainframe monitoring products, which ultimately inspired Allen to launch ASG in 1986 in Naples, Florida. Allen’s “five-year retirement” was over as soon as ASG began.

Since 1986, ASG has experienced significant annual growth; continuing to leave its mark on the history of business and technology on every continent. To date, ASG has more than 90 offices worldwide, 1,300 employees, and 8,500 clients. Even now, Allen continues to drive global perspectives on business and technology with ASG’s Enterprise Automation Management Suite, an unquestionably visionary, but eminently practical, solution for aligning IT with real business goals.