In 1982, Alexis Kniazeff and Hubert Martigny, ex-consultants of Peat Marwick (today known as KPMG), founded CGS Informatique, which would later become Altran.
Business units operated semi-independently and were given the autonomy to choose their own growth strategy and investment programs while still getting assistance from central management.
[4] The number of the company's employees grew to approximately 1,000 by 1990, as well as its range of expertise, moving into the transportation, telecommunications, and energy sectors, with a strong information technology component.
Yet this approach quickly proved unsatisfactory, and Altran put into place an aggressive acquisition plan in order to establish its own foreign operations.
[citation needed] By the end of the decade, the firm's network in these countries' markets was composed of 12 companies and 1,000 consultants.
When an acquisition took place, Altran kept on existing management and in general the acquired firms retained their names.
By 1995, Altran's sales had topped 155 million euros, and its total number of employees had grown to nearly 2,400 (mostly engineers).
In 1995 the company invested in the United Kingdom and acquired High Integrity Systems, a consulting firm focused on assisting companies that were transitioning into new-generation computer and network systems, and DCE Consultants, which operated from offices in Oxford and Manchester.
In 1997, Altran also acquired Praxis Critical Systems, founded in Bath in 1983 to provide software and safety-engineering services.
In order to supplement the activities of its acquisitions, the company also opened new subsidiary offices, such as Altran Technologies UK, a multi-disciplinary and cross-industry engineering consultancy.
Other European countries joined the Altran network in the late 1990s as well, including Portugal and Luxembourg in 1998 and Austria in 1999.
[4] In 2000, the company's Italian branch expanded to 10 subsidiaries with the opening of offices in Lombardy and Lazio and the acquisition of CEDATI.
The plan aimed for the firm to reach 3 billion euros in revenue in five years and a big increase in profitability.
This transatlantic expansion is one of the principal approaches to development supported by Altran in the Ignition 2020 strategic plan.
The acquisition of IRM enabled Altran to enhance its presence and offers in the domain of cyber security.
[20] The buying of GlobalEdge, an Indian software product engineering firm, aimed at helping Altran to develop its presence in India as well as in the US, where Global Edge has an office in California.
The $2.0 billion transaction enabled the company to become the global leader in engineering and R&D services, completing its "Altran 2020.
Capgemini reached the squeeze-out threshold of 90% of Altran's capital, which was delisted from stock markets on 15 April 2020.
The group is present in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, France, Italy, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Tunisia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Scientific experts, each without their domain of expertise, plan and put in place research and innovation projects in collaboration with Altran Lab, academic partners and industrial actors.
Current research areas include e-health, space & aeronautics, energy, complex systems, transportation and mobility, industry, and the services of the future.
[34] Altran France does pro bono work in areas relating to culture, civic engagement and innovation.