AUSTIN, Texas, April 26, 2010 – Dachis Group announced today the acquisition of Portland, Oregon based XPLANE Corporation, continuing the growth of the international firm with offices servicing clients in the North American, European and Asia/Pacific regions.

As one of the world’s leading information design consultancies, the acquisition of XPLANE strengthens Dachis Group’s position as the world leader in Social Business Design. XPLANE brings critical process design and change communications capabilities to the group.

“This is an exciting step in XPLANE’s evolution,” said Dave Gray, Founder of XPLANE. “Social Business Design is the future of business transformation. Dachis Group is the clear leader in the field and the perfect partner to move forward with.”

“Both Dachis Group and XPLANE are designing the consultancy of the future by leveraging design thinking, social media, and technology to drive breakthrough results for large global clients,” said Aric Wood, Chief Executive Officer of XPLANE. “The opportunity for us to join together creates a world-class firm with global scale and a truly innovative offering.”

The combined company will be able to better serve a global client base with over 100 professionals in seven cities in five countries worldwide.

“I’m eager to add XPLANE’s process design and change management acumen to Dachis Group’s strategy and implementation capabilities,” said Peter Kim, Managing Director of Dachis Group’s North American operations. “Our clients now have access to a full set of Social Business advisory services unmatched by any other business consultancy.”

“The future of global business is in a more connected, network-centric organizational model. With XPLANE, Dachis Group is better able to map our client’s complex processes and information flows and design more effective programs for organizational transformation,” said Jeffrey Dachis, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dachis Group. “We are fortunate to be able to team up with Dave Gray, Aric Wood and their extremely talented group to better service our global client base.”

Jeffrey Dachis will assume the title of Chairman of XPLANE and Aric Wood will maintain the role of Chief Executive Officer of XPLANE reporting to Jeffrey Dachis, Chief Executive Officer of Dachis Group. Dave Gray will serve as Founder and Consulting Leader for XPLANE.

About XPLANE

Founded in 1993 by Dave Gray, XPLANE is an information design consultancy that drives results for many of the world’s leading corporations by clarifying complex business process and communication problems through visual thinking and information design.

Companies have hired XPLANE to drive process innovation, motivate employees, drive sales, and convince decision makers.

At the highest level, XPLANE provides two core services: facilitative consulting to help clients unlock and synthesize critical information into clear strategies using visual thinking methodologies, and multidisciplinary design services that create change communication tools, communicating information with the effectiveness to drive breakthrough results.

XPLANE’S approach accelerates organizational understanding, which drives actions and results. Companies turn to XPLANE to define the current state, envision the desired future state, and develop a roadmap to drive the identified programmatic improvements to overcome organizational hurdles and build momentum for change.

XPLANE serves the world’s leading organizations with over 40 of the FORTUNE 500 and numerous government agencies including Microsoft, Intel, ITT, U.S. Marine Corps, Shell, Royal Mail Group, Bank of England, Hewlett Packard, BP, SunGard and Nokia.

About Dachis Group

Dachis Group has developed a framework for Social Business Design by addressing organizational change across business systems, process, and culture.

Dachis Group provides professional management consulting and advisory services, process design, program management, information design, marketing, change communication, and technical implementation services across three main practice areas: Customer Participation and Engagement, Workforce Collaboration, and Business Partner Optimization.

Dachis Group serves global companies including: Alcatel, AXA, BP, Best Buy, British Airways, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, DeVry University, Intuit, Southern Company and Yum! Brands.

Dachis Group (Dachis Corporation, Inc.) was created to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises. Founded in 2008, by Jeffrey Dachis, Dachis Group services companies all around the globe with offices in seven cities in five countries. Dachis Group is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in Portland, Oregon, St. Louis, Missouri, London, England, Sydney, Australia, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Madrid, Spain. Dachis Group operates as Dachis Group, Headshift, part of the Dachis Group, The 2.0 Adoption Council, part of the Dachis Group and XPLANE, part of the Dachis Group.

The company’s strategy is backed by a commitment from Austin Ventures to build and grow organically and through acquisitions.

If you are interested in finding out how Dachis Group can help your business, contact: inquiries@dachisgroup.com.

For more resources: Stay on top of the most current thinking on Social Business Design in the Dachis Group Collaboratory.

To learn more about Social Business Design, download our Social Business Design white paper free of charge.

Dachis Group is always looking for talented individuals and leaders, contact: opportunities@dachisgroup.com.

For more information contact:
Dachis Group
Jeffrey Dachis
info@dachisgroup.com
Dachis Group
+1 512.275.7825

XPLANE
Aric Wood
info@xplane.com
XPLANE
+ 1 866 750 6467
+ 34 915 535 835 (international)

Our vision for social business encompasses the entire enterprise. While historical perspectives tend to skew towards either a marketing- or IT-based focus, we believe both are important and have cultivated both approaches in our capabilities. By bringing Dion on board, we add a globally-renown thought leader who can bring positive impact to large scale businesses. This happens by focusing on where social business becomes reality: via supply chains, employee engagement, or building customer relationships. In turn, our clients are on the road to becoming more socially calibrated, collaborative, connected organizations.

With the addition of Hinchcliffe & Company to Dachis Group, we now have over 60 people worldwide to deliver Social Business Design.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help your business, contact your nearest Dachis Group office. If you’d like to join us, here’s who we’re looking for.

Today we are announcing the hiring of our new CFO April Downing.

April brings a wealth of experience to our table in both public and private company accounting and finance as well as deep experience in mergers and acquisitions accounting and integration in high growth companies.  She is an accomplished executive and operator that brings dedication, tenacity, and focus to our efforts and has what it takes to be part of a killer team.

The release announcing April is here and the full text is included below.

We are looking forward to working with April as we push ahead into the coming year to help companies realize the potential of a more collaborative, connected, participatory and social mode of doing business in this networked economy.

SOURCE: Dachis Group

Dec 11, 2009 09:00 ET

Dachis Group Names April Downing Chief Financial Officer

Senior Executive Brings Public and Private Company Financial and Operational Leadership to Dachis Group

AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwire – December 11, 2009) – Dachis Group today announced that it has expanded its management team to include April Downing as the firm’s Chief Financial Officer. Downing brings more than 15 years of corporate finance, strategic planning and management experience to Dachis Group having served in high-growth public and private companies.

“April has a proven track record of delivering strategic planning and operational excellence in a dynamic and high-growth environment,” said Jeff Dachis, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dachis Group. “Her experience with integrating acquisitions, raising financial capital, and managing growth in both public and private companies is well suited to the needs of our company. We are thrilled to have April join our team.”

Prior to joining Dachis Group, Downing was providing executive-level financial consulting to several companies launched from Austin Ventures’ Entrepreneur-in-Residence program. Before this, she was Chief Financial Officer for AlterPoint, Inc., a venture-backed network change and configuration management software company through the successful sale of the company to Versata, Inc., a global IT solutions provider.

Prior to AlterPoint, Downing was Chief Accounting Officer and acting Chief Financial Officer of Motive, Inc., a publicly traded provider of broadband management software with over $100 million in revenues. Over her six years at Motive, Downing served in several key financial roles at the company, including leading Investor Relations through the company’s IPO in 2004 which raised $50 million.

“The expansion of the management team to include someone of April’s caliber further solidifies the ability of Dachis Group to aggressively grow both organically and through acquisitions,” said Chris Pacitti, a general partner with Austin Ventures. “Dachis Group is uniquely positioned to be the leader in enabling large global enterprises to capture the value inherent in social technologies that are already becoming prevalent throughout their organizations.”

About April Downing

April is a seasoned financial and operational executive with over 15 years of working with publicly and privately held companies. Most recently, April has been providing executive-level financial consulting to several companies launched from Austin Ventures’ Entrepreneur-in-Residence program. Prior to that, she was the Chief Financial Officer for AlterPoint, Inc., a venture-backed network change and configuration management software company, through the successful sale of the company to Versata, Inc., a global IT solutions provider. Before AlterPoint, April was Chief Accounting Officer and acting CFO of Motive, Inc., a publicly traded provider of broadband management software with over $100 million in revenues. She began her career with Price Waterhouse’s Audit and Business Advisory Services, where she specialized in technology start-ups and early growth companies.

April is an Advisory Board Member for Women’s Sake (an organization focused on Career and Lifestyle Resources for Women) and has been recognized by Austin Business Journal as a ‘Profiles in Power’. Located in Austin, Texas, she was also nominated for Austin’s 2008 Best CFO Award.

April has a master’s degree in accounting from The University of Texas and is a certified public accountant.

About Dachis Group

Founded in 2008, by Jeffrey Dachis, Dachis Group is a professional services firm based in Austin, Texas, with offices in London and Sydney. Dachis Group (Dachis Corporation, Inc.) was created to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises.

Dachis Group believes that the future of business lies in a socially calibrated, dynamic business culture that empowers all of its constituents to exchange value. Through a proprietary framework and methodology, and a network of technology alliance partners, Dachis Group helps businesses innovate to capture value through Social Business Design(SM).

Dachis Group delivers services through three main practice areas: Customer Participation and Engagement, Workforce Collaboration, and Business Partner Optimization.

Dachis Group serves global companies including: AXA, BBC, BP, Philips Healthcare, Coca-Cola, Intuit, Southern Company and Yum! Brands in industry verticals including: consumer products, media and publishing, health care, financial services, information services, software, and semiconductors.

The company’s strategy is backed by a commitment from Austin Ventures to build and grow organically and through acquisitions.

If you are interested in finding out how Dachis Group can help your business, contact: inquiries@dachisgroup.com or download our fact sheet and contact us.

For more resources: Stay on top of the most current thinking on Social Business Design and subscribe to our Collaboratory feed.

To learn more about Social Business Design, download our Social Business Design white paper free of charge.

Dachis Group is always looking for talented individuals and leaders, contact: opportunities@dachisgroup.com