Technology Reseller - v22

NEWS : RESELLERS 01732 759725 12 Manchester-based cloud and data science specialist Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS) is targeting turnover of £40 million this year, following a 50% increase in revenue to £27.5m in the year to March 31 2019. Following significant investment from NorthEdge Capital in March 2018, CTS has increased its headcount from 95 to 160; opened a new office in Frankfurt; enjoyed a record year for customer wins; launched new software solutions under its rebranded CloudM product suite; and completed a merger with Netherlands-based machine learning experts Qlouder to create the largest full-stack Google practice in Europe. Revenue growth has been most rapid in CTS’s public cloud transformation practice, which has trebled in size to a team of over 50 cloud architects, data scientists and machine learning specialists. James Doggart, CTS Chief Executive Officer, said: “These strong figures demonstrate that organisations have well and truly embraced cloud transformation. The focus of many of our customers is now moving towards looking at how they can disrupt their markets through the use of data science and machine learning, something we’re specialists in at CTS. The integration of machine learning informed by in-depth data analytics will completely revolutionise many industries and we are helping a number of businesses to capitalise on this paradigm shift.” CTS was selected as Google’s partner of choice for all higher education Google Cloud Platform (GCP) opportunities in Europe and, at Google Next in San Francisco, was named the 2018 Google Cloud Global Enterprise Collaboration Partner of the Year. www.cloudsolutions.co.uk Turn to page 40 for James Doggart’s View from the Channel. CTS targets another year of 50% growth Platinum a ‘perfect fit’ for Altodigital Altodigital, the UK’s largest independent reseller of IT equipment for offices, has acquired the Bedford-based IT support services company Platinum, as it targets growth of 25% over the next three years. Acquisitions are a key element of Altodigital’s growth strategy and, according to Business Manager Stewart Abrahart, the company is already working on others. He said: “The business is focussing on one more acquisition by the end of the year, with a few others in the pipeline to meet that target.” Platinum provides a range of IT services, including managed networks, virtualisation & cloud services, datacentre solutions, telephony and managed print/document solutions, to a number of sectors, with a strong focus on the automative industry. Abrahart says this specialism was a big attraction for Altodigital, as was Platinum’s existing relationship with Lexmark. “Platinum specialises in the automotive industry and has about 10% of the UK market. Within Altodigital, we want to expand and, with our backing, Platinum can increase its market share. Platinum also works with Lexmark, one of our current partners, so I see the business as a perfect fit for Altodigital,” he said. Platinum MD Sean Foster said: “We have been trading for 20 years in IT services and have an excellent relationship with Lexmark, which is one of Altodigital’s smaller brands. Connecting with them is a good fit all round and there is a good opportunity for both businesses to grow.” MPS provider expands offering with cloud services Managed Print Service Provider Xeretec has expanded its product offering to include a broad portfolio of Cloud Services tailored to each customer’s needs. Xeretec Cloud Services help organisations at every stage of their Cloud journey and include full licence assessments to establish whether a customer is getting the best value from its software; an O365 MOT assessment; O365 fine tuning; migration services; end user experience monitoring; Cloud Performance Management; Application Performance Management; Network Performance Management; and Next Generation Networking. Xeretec’s UK helpdesk gives customers one port of call for hardware, software and Cloud support. Jungle IT on the acquisition trail West Yorkshire IT firm Jungle IT has strengthened its managed IT services offering with the acquisition of the client-facing IT services business of Leeds-based accountants Mazars for an undisclosed sum. All three members of the Mazars IT team are transferring to Jungle IT and will continue to provide IT support to Mazars’ clients. Since it was founded by Managing Director Jonathan Asquith in 2004, Horsforth-based Jungle IT has evolved from a hardware/software supplier into a managed computer services provider, with a workforce of 22 and annual revenues of £6 million. Asquith said: “The former Mazars’ IT services operation is a great fit for us and it will very much be ‘business as usual’ for existing clients. The acquisition will enable us to harness the skills of this experienced team to rapidly expand our managed services offering to SMEs throughout the region and support their digital transformation.” He added: “This is the first of a number of acquisitions we plan to make as we build up our services to offer a complete portfolio of managed IT services to Jungle clients.” James Doggart Pictured in front of Marshall Land Rover in Bedford are (l to r) Stewart Abrahart, James Abrahart and Martin Chamberlain from Altodigital and Sean Foster, MD of Platinum. (left to right) David Blythe, CTO of Jungle IT; Hitesh Tailor of Clarion; Jonathan Asquith, Managing Director of Jungle IT; Jackie Wilkinson, Financial Director of Jungle IT Data protection partnership Following a licensing agreement with Keepit A/S, a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) data protection, Continuum Managed Services is to sell the Keepit SaaS Backup Platform under the name Continuum SaaS Backup. The partnership will enable Continuum customers worldwide to protect critical SaaS workloads, such as Office 365, Google G-Suite and Salesforce.