FinXL acquires 32-year-old SAP consulting specialist Southern Cross Computing

National professional services provider FinXL has acquired 32-year-old SAP specialist Southern Cross Computing (SCC).

Not to be confused with the company formerly known as Southern Cross Computer Systems (now SXiQ), SCC was founded in Canberra in 1986. The company started life as an ICT consultancy and made the decision to focus its efforts on SAP consulting in 1997, becoming an accredited services partner four years later.

SCC mostly services federal government departments and earlier this year opened its second office in Brisbane off the back of new work with its government customers in Queensland.

As part of the acquisition, SCC will retain all of its staff and brand and will function as a new specialist division out of Canberra under FinXL. The deal will also see SCC's 200 consultants join FinXL's existing 1000-plus headcount.

FinXL managing director Tracy Thomson said the acquisition was a great opportunity to buy an SAP specialist with a substantial consultant base among federal government customers.

"SCC both complements and extends FinXL’s existing business and provides a real opportunity for us to expand SCC’s market reach and delivery of SAP services further afield, leveraging our established regional network and sales teams. Looking ahead, this important acquisition provides a strong platform for future growth across Australia and into New Zealand," Thomson said.

SCC managing director Paul McDonald said the company wanted to be part of a larger organisation with a national presence, bigger client base and more complementary services. FinXL has offices in all major Australian capital cities, plus locations in Auckland and Wellington.

“Quality of consultants, flexibility, and SCC’s ability to provide ‘on the spot’ support to SAP's Canberra clients that interstate companies were often unwilling or unable to provide, as its key differentiator," McDonald said.

"SCC is still the only SAP services partner that specialises in supporting federal government clients, and this is reflected in the growing number of sites that SCC supports in Canberra – over half the SAP sites in Canberra use SCC to help support their enterprise systems.”