Veteran regional reseller sold

Maxsum Solutions has announced the acquisition of 35-year-old regional Victorian reseller Bendigo IT for an undisclosed sum. Operations will cutover on 1 May.

"The motivation is retirement," Bendigo IT co-founder and director Dr Ian Gillard told CRN. "I like to say that I started in the industry the year before the internet was invented – in 1968!"

Bendigo IT had as many as 25 staff but in recent years had cut down to 11. Five technical employees will transition into Maxsum.

"We are honoured to have been passed the torch," said Maxsum managing director Joe Ciancio. "With Bendigo IT we can build on the terrific experience of not one business, but two."

Gillard and Marie Denham founded Bendigo IT in 1979 and have remained directors since. In the last couple of years they had been seeking takeover opportunities with retirement in mind.

"We had several candidates but found Maxsum was the best fit," Gillard told CRN. "Last year we had coffee with Joe and they had the most in common with us."

Denham said: "We felt it was important that Bendigo preserves its IT consulting and provisioning capabilities through a local acquisition."

With the Maxsum acquisition Denham will retire from the business, while Gillard will continue during the transition period. Gillard told CRN that he'll spend a couple more years of consulting for a community telecommunications organisation, but looks forward to winding down from running his own business.

Denham and Gillard were working as a lecturer and programmer respectively for Bendigo Institute of Technology (the predecessor of the Bendigo campus of La Trobe University) when they formed a technology company named Scientific Business Software Systems. SBSS was later renamed Bendigo IT.

Maxsum Solutions was established in 2001 and has offices in Bendigo, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.