ANS vows to continue its acquisition strategy

Acquisitive reseller Associated Network Solutions (ANS) has pledged to continue with its shopping spree in 2007 by scooping up rivals in the managed services, security or Cisco space.

With the dust still settling on ANS’s acquisition of Cisco specialist Bios (CRN, 3 August), Scott Fletcher, chief executive of ANS, told CRN that the VAR has several other targets “in its sights”.

“There are three areas we are looking at,” he said. “One is managed services – anything that can add to our recurring revenues, which are currently at about £1.2m a year, would be desirable. A second is security: we would like to grow our firewall and ID management business.”

Finally, Fletcher said that ANS may look to bolster its purchase of Bios by picking up a VAR in the Cisco-based security, IP telephony and unified communications sector.

Fletcher also hinted that ANS, which saw turnover increase by 19 per cent to £2.8m in the six months to September, could be gearing up to float Smart ID, the single sign-on healthcare ISV it launched in May.

“Over the next 12 months, we will look at all options for Smart ID, including an IPO [initial public offering,” Fletcher said. “It’s already at break-even point.”

Bob Tarzey, services director at analyst firm Quocirca, said single sign-on is a buoyant sector right now, particularly in healthcare, because it allows users to manage passwords centrally and roll out strong authentication.

However, Tim Pickard, strategic marketing director at RSA Security, said: “It is still a relatively crowded market and there are a lot of big players such as ourselves, CA, Citrix, Novell and IBM.”

ANS targets VoIP arena with BIOS acquisition