Technology Reseller v27

01732 759725 NEWS : RESELLERS 10 Rob Jones Warrington-based Qbase Data Services has completed a management buyout (MBO), with four directors – CEO Rob Jones, Operations Director Tracey Barker, Director of Technical Solutions Nick Kelly and Director of Consulting Paresh Patel – taking a 77.8% majority stake in the business. Company founders Ian and Anita Johnstone will retain a minority shareholding and keep their seats on the board, acting in an advisory capacity. Established in 1990, Qbase provides data management & migration, data quality & governance, business analysis & insights and marketing automation services to organisations mainly in the retail and charity sectors, including HSBC, Arriva, Trust Ford (Retail), Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, WWF and Everton Football Club. CEO Rob Jones says the new owners plan to maintain the company’s existing trajectory of 20% year-on-year growth, reaching £10 million turnover by 2025, in part by expanding into new markets, notably manufacturing. He said: “The market for data services is growing rapidly as companies around the world realise its potential and value as a business asset. The aim of the management team and all Qbase employees is to continue to grow on our current trajectory by building stronger and broader partnerships with data technology providers to deliver services across broad markets including manufacturing and retail.” Qbase is an Apteco Premier partner, Talend Gold partner and Sisense and Syrenis technology partner. www.qbase.net Qbase Data Services targets £10 million turnover after MBO And the winner is...Commercial Commercial won more plaudits for its CSR activities at last year’s BOSS Awards, winning the Sustainable Leadership Award for the second year in a row. In 2019, the £67 million business services group also won a Global Good Award and successfully retained its Planet Mark accreditation. Amy Hutchinson, Chief Executive of BOSS Awards, said: “The BOSS Sustainable Leadership Award recognises a business that is truly responsive to changes in the environment and society. The judges believed that Commercial had a great overall sustainability message, balancing social and environmental challenges and developing a successful business based on these principles.” www.commercial.co.uk/ Softcat win IT infrastructure provider Softcat has won a place on all four lots of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Technology Products and Associated Services framework (TePAS). The four-year framework, a replacement for Technology Products 2, gives central government departments, local authorities & councils, healthcare, education, police, defence, charities and housing associations the ability to purchase hardware, software and services from Softcat via one simple procurement route. Softcat Public Sector Director Anthony Cowen said: “Winning a place on all four lots on the UK’s largest IT framework is an excellent start to 2020, which allows Softcat to continue to support our public sector customers for the next two to four years.” Softcat has won places on 36 other public sector procurement frameworks and eight other Crown Commercial Service frameworks. www.softcat.com Time to move on Business continuity and IT disaster recovery provider Databarracks marked the end of support for Windows 7 on January 14 by giving the OS a Viking-style funeral. Managing Director Peter Groucutt said: “Five years ago, when Windows Server 2003 was retired, we launched it into space. For Windows 7, we opted for a Viking funeral. It’s a bit of fun, but there’s a serious message we want to highlight: staying up-to-date with operating systems and patching is the simplest and most important security practice to follow.” He added: “Microsoft is offering Extended Security Updates (ESU) to businesses still using Windows 7 through to 2023, charged per device, with the price increasing each year. This helps, but software providers will stop supporting their applications on Windows 7, so our recommendation is to update to Windows 10 as quickly as possible.” www.databarracks.com In control with bluesource Bluesource, a data protection and governance solutions provider and Microsoft Gold Partner, is partnering with Torsion to help customers gain control over unstructured data repositories that typically contain 44 times more information than controlled and structured environments. Integrated with collaboration systems such as Sharepoint, Teams and Office 365, the cloud-first Torsion data monitoring, access and management platform enables users to monitor and control who has access to what files and folders, why and when. www.bluesource.co.uk Seven acquisitions in seven weeks Radius Payment Solutions has strengthened its telecoms division with the acquisition of Macclesfield- based business telecoms provider Reliance Networks, a specialist in the design, installation and support of communications solutions. The deal – the company’s seventh acquisition in as many weeks – will add significant technical expertise in fixed line communications to Radius’s existing portfolio of mobile, hosted telephony and unified communications solutions. Radius was established as a fuel card company in 1990, but since then has diversified its offering to include fleet management, telematics, commercial insurance and business telecoms. With a turnover of £2.5 billion, more than 300,000 customers and 29 office locations in 16 countries, Radius is ranked 19th in the 2019 Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 100 . Radius Chief Executive Bill Holmes said: “The acquisition of Reliance Networks is a really good fit for our growing telecoms business as it has some unique technical capacities that will complement those of the other companies that have recently joined this division. This marks the seventh deal we have completed in the last seven weeks, three of which have been in telecoms.” www.radiuspaymentsolutions.com (l-r) Shaun Sumner, Director, Reliance Networks, with Bill Holmes, Chief Executive of Radius Payment Solutions Photo: Databarracks