Buying CCS Media takes Advania UK a “huge step forward” in its mission of fulfilling its clients’ total technology needs, its CEO has asserted.
Advania UK today closed its acquisition of the Chesterfield-based outfit, making good on a pledge it made last year to add a large reseller capability to its existing Microsoft-centric managed services business.
Its revenue runrate stood at £177m following its June acquisition of a smaller reseller business, Servium, with CCS Media adding a further £280m to its top line.
Part of SEK 19bn (£1.4bn)-revenue, Swedish-headquartered reseller giant Advania, Advania UK now has 10,000 clients, primarily in the midmarket and SME space, CEO Geoff Kneen said.
“We talk about from a strategy point of view internally how we don’t want our clients to have to go anywhere else for their strategic technology needs,” he told IT Channel Oxygen.
“You’re never going to be 100% of the way there, but this takes us a huge step forward in that area.
“Clients still have Cisco, HP or Dell in their estates – they’ve still got on-premise capabilities and networking capabilities. This means we can now offer that deep service pedigree across the entire technology estate for our clients, so that we are that single trusted partner.”
AI acquisition hint
Advania leapt into the UK in December 2021 through its acquisition of MSP Content+Cloud.
But in an effort to mirror its wider business, the Goldman Sachs-backed business last year began the hunt for targets that could hand it complementary resale capabilities.
Does the UK business now have all the components it needs, or are further acquisitions necessary?
“Historically, our acquisition strategy was a lot around complementary Microsoft skills. We’ve now got into those complementary technology sourcing and logistics skills with the acquisitions we’ve done this year,” Kneen said.
“The other news that came out from us this year was our partnership around AI and [Microsoft] Copilot. We are one of a very small number of Microsoft partners globally that are a chartered member of the AI programme.
“We’re always innovating internally around AI and data. But if we saw the right acquisition opportunity in those spaces next year, then we’d look to acquire.”
Advania UK “will always expand into adjacent areas that are complementary to clients”, Kneen said, adding that Advania could also look to replicate the kind of circular IT capabilities it is building through its ‘Dreamhouse’ facility in Sweden in the UK.
“We’ve got some level of circular device capability in the business through bringing CCS and Servium on board. But we will be very close to how that market evolves over the next three to five years,” he said.
“There are a few people leading consolidation; we’re one of them”
With combined revenues topping £450m, Advania UK is one of several ambitious UK reseller-MSP businesses rapidly scaling through acquisition.
Bechtle is now a €290m-revenue business in the UK following its acquisitions of ACS, Tangible Benefit and Qolcom, with Trustmarque and boxxe among the other key consolidators.
What’s driving this consolidation?
SMB and midmarket clients are looking for a “smaller number of capable providers”, Kneen responded.
“Technology is getting ever more capable, but it’s not necessarily becoming simpler to manage for the client,” he added.
“They can’t maintain that expertise in house, so they do need somebody who can bring it all together and be that service integrator across the piece.
“I agree that the market is consolidating in that way. There are a few people leading that, and we’ve become one of those this year.”
“We don’t rush”
While Servium has just half a dozen strategic partnerships with HP, HPE, Dell, Cisco, Microsoft and Lenovo, CCS Media works with 2,000 vendors.
“Servium is smaller with some key, focused relationships, and CCS has the breadth. What they both bring is that it covers us end to end across the complete geographical and vendor landscape. So whilst they’re similar, it’s very complementary,” Kneen explained.
Advania UK will take a “pragmatic” approach to integrating the two businesses, Kneen said.
“We don’t rush,” he concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
