inTEC is to enter the school rebuild sector after selling a chunk of its commercial-focused business, its CEO has revealed.
The acquisitive, Manchester-based MSP today announced it has completed the sale of its commercial businesses in Cambridge, Manchester and Newcastle to Tela.
Based on four acquisitions – namely Titan Network Solutions (2019), Miller Waite (2021), Opal (2022) and Frog (2023) – the disposed activities boast revenues of around £5.5m.
The disposal will leave inTEC – which ranked 211th in Oxygen 250 2026 – with a £16m-revenue business focused largely on education and telecoms.
Talking exclusively to IT Channel Oxygen, inTEC CEO Melissa Rambridge, said the 15 acquisitions inTEC made over the last decade had handed it “wide-reaching” capabilities spanning commercial, education and telecoms.
“This gives us the opportunity to really sharpen our focus, in particular on the education and telecoms sector,” she said.
New-build ambitions
inTEC will now launch a new-build division as it looks to grab a piece of the Department for Education’s Schools Rebuilding Programme, Rambridge revealed.
“That’s £6.8bn of spend across 424 new schools that are due to be built, and we’ll be partnering to help deliver that programme,” she said.
Some 27 employees, including inTEC CTO Mick Satiar, will move across to Tela as part of the deal.
“This will give an amazing opportunity for those businesses to really hone their focus on their customers. Tela are really strong on customer service,” she said.
The deal does not include inTec’s commercial-focused MSP businesses in Dublin, Sussex and Reigate, Rambridge stressed.
“That’s quite an existential question”
Rambridge was made CEO of InTEC in November 2024 after the firm acquired her own MSP – education-focused Sweethaven – in 2023.
Her tenure initially focused on creating a “single pane of glass” to understand where inTEC’s potential lies.
“Once that was complete, [it was about], ‘okay, now what’s the best way to make sure we’re maximising inTEC’s potential in the areas where we’re really strong,” she said.
inTEC’s projected revenues are expected to rise to £25m “and beyond” “within the next 12 months”, Rambridge said, even as she acknowledged the threat AI poses to the traditional managed services model.
“What is managed service provision these days – that’s quite an existential question?,” she said.
“Your pure, pick-up-the-phone-type helpdesk support is becoming a) a race to the bottom and b) a lesser requirement for the end user [considering] what they can do with AI for self help and automation.
“If we’re going to stay ahead of the curve as a managed service provider, does that look like your traditional helpdesk, or does the MSP move more towards a strategic overlay that essentially acts as your virtual chief technology officer and consultancy, and then potentially outsources to a lower-cost model for some of the more granular support requirements?”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
