Oxygen Fast-Growth 50 firm OryxAlign has almost doubled headcount in the last four years as it pushes beyond its SMB IT support stronghold and into projects for large commercial buildings and datacentres.
CEO Carl Henriksen reveals what lies behind its growth, and what keeps him awake at night.
The last time we spoke, OryxAlign was a small IT support firm. Have you broadened what you do?
Our focus has broadened. We’re still very much an MSP, but we’ve evolved into project delivery and programme management and moved successfully into the midmarket.
We’re forging a different path to usual runof-the mill MSPs. We have quite a sharp sector focus on datacentre world and that market is just going hell for leather at the moment.
We’ve now got a big portfolio of datacentres and big commercial property – I’m talking the likes of the Walkie Talkie building and Bluewater Shopping Centre. These are really big facilities where we are running the networks that run all the services that feed into them.
More traditional MSPs probably wouldn’t deliver that level of project. They’d typically work with their clients on a tech refresh, cloud transformation or managed cyber solutions. We are still very much doing that, but a lot of our growth has come through delivering big projects.
Most MSPs I’m friendly with are running at 65%, 70%, 80% recurring revenue, as they are very focused on support contracts. We’re running at about 53% this year, because the projects we’re delivering are £1m, £2m, £3m tech projects.
What keeps you awake at night?
The risk of having a cyber attack on our clients or us. The thing that scares me most is the risk of any serious disruption to our operations, simply because we’re now so fully plugged into some really big facilities and clients. If we’re letting them down that’s a big problem for us. But so far so good.
I wouldn’t say I have sleepless nights from it. Although I do find myself waking up at 2am thinking about how we grow to that next level and make sure we’re taking all the talent along.
The government is trying to guard against the surge in attacks on MSPs and IT services firms by bringing them under its NIS regulations. But most MSPs are too small to be impacted. What’s your view on this?
I don’t agree with it. I think all MSPs should fall under some form of regulation. They should have to demonstrate they’ve got their vest tucked into their pants when it comes to cyber security, resilience, compliance and certifications. So I think NIS2 is a good thing. Is it an opportunity for us to increase our clients’ security postures? Absolutely. So I see it as a bit of a win-win.
One of the key trends for the next two to three years will be [that you have to] demonstrate cyber resilience in order to do business.
OryxAlign ranked 49th in Oxygen Fast-Growth 50 2024, which was produced in partnership with Giacom. View the report below.
