Next Step Systems acquired Parallel Partners, a provider direct hire staffing of information technology professionals with a headquarters office in Chicago.

“We’ve had a strategic alliance with them for many years,” said Mike Stapinski, president of Next Step, which is also based in the Chicago area and provides IT direct hire staffing. Next Step is making the acquisition as Parallel’s founders, Saven Bellarmino and Frank Bellarmino, retire.

The Parallel name will remain in place, and it will be business as usual for clients, Stapinski said.

Both firms are private, and terms of the transaction were not announced. Both companies were founded in 1995.