Aussie IBM integrator sells up to NZ's Certus Solutions

The merged company will trade as Certus Solutions and has a combined list of 400 customers and has 100 staff working from offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington.

Annette Henry, managing director at Eos told CRN in an interview that Eos was looking for growth opportunities through a venture capital firm or a local merger with a similar integrator.

"We decided to sell up to Certus because it had similarities with EOS and we had previous dealings with the company," said Henry.

"Certus will maintain all 40 of our local staff and there will be limited disruption to the servicing of our customers."

She said Eos had looked at merging with a local integrator but didn't because the company would be diluted with repercussions for staff.

"Eos would've become just another unit of another company and it would have repercussions on how we operated and the company's brand," she said.

"It would have affected the way we serviced our customers."

The existing Eos management team and personnel will stay with the new organisation and Eos managing director Henry will take over the role of managing director for the new Australian organisation.

"The acquisition makes sense, both in terms of the potential for accelerated growth as well as providing new opportunities for Eos personnel," Henry said.

"The deal includes shares in the new organisation for Eos' existing shareholders and we have a vested interest in growing shareholder value in the combined companies.

"The acquisition will enable us to fast track towards becoming a much more significant player in the IBM software market across Australia and New Zealand."

In addition to Henry becoming managing director of the wholly-owned subsidiary, Certus Solutions Pty Ltd, Sean Kelly and Bradley Rasmussen will take on the roles of Line of Business director and principal consultant, respectively.

Brian Allen, managing director at Certus said it expects to make further acquisitions.

He said the strategy behind the Eos acquisition was to expand the solid IBM services foundation provided by Eos with a broader capability offering.

"IBM is continuing to invest in its software business and now has the largest business software portfolio spanning every category with the exception of ERP," he said.

"This business is growing strongly, currently delivering US$20 billion of IBM's annual revenues and 40 percent of its profit, heading to 50 percent next year.

 "We're forecasting 30 percent growth in revenue and a rapid scaling up of staff numbers over the next 12 months, with Australia being a major contributor to that growth," he said.

Allen said this target is based on its forecasts for organic growth and Certus expects to exceed that through further acquisitions.