CRN Hot Seat 2013 - Scott Haddow

The chief executive of Trustmarque is optimistic about his growth plans and is not ruling out any acquisitions

What are your plans for 2013?

For us it’s more of the same. We embarked on a journey in 2010 and have seen double-digit growth every year in both services and solutions. We are doing more of the Microsoft contract business and continuing with the execution of our business plan.

I always have an eye on acquisitions and am on the lookout for businesses that might be a good fit. We would be keen to find something at the right price and there are quite a few bits and pieces coming to market. Some of our partners that we support are a good fit for us. I would be interested in tactical stuff, bolt-ons and transformational acquisitions. We would not want to take on anything that is distressed.

We have a solid business with 190 people at the moment and the plan is to bring another four people on board on the services side. I expect we will break the 200-people barrier before long.

We turned over £131m last year and I am aiming for £145m this year.

What technology trends do you see for 2013?

We are seeing massive opportunity and growth in two or three areas of the business – particularly in CRM – our business in that area is absolutely rocketing.

Business intelligence is also coming to the fore. We have a very strong pipeline of potential contracts and agreed contracts. Another area of growth is hosted software asset management (SAM). As vendors are getting more aggressive, customers need to know more about compliancy. The government is also getting nervous about compliancy and SAM.

Windows 8 will drive more business – at the moment it is having an impact similar to Windows 7 and we are seeing a lot of demand already.

How do you see the economy panning out this year?

Good, well-managed businesses are continuing to invest. Public sector spending is pretty flat, but it is still a big market opportunity. There is a deliberate and obvious move from the government which is shifting away from massive procurements, so we are no longer seeing massive deals with global SIs. It is a good time to be a British company and a good time for the SMB space due to this push to move away from mega-contracts and deals that have failed miserably in the past.

Companies are polarised at the moment – those that are seeing growth and are growing are relatively buoyant and upbeat, and then there are those that are floundering and struggling – either because they have not been managed very well or have not adapted to the changing environment.

There is no doubt that customers are cautious over spending; I do not think it will ever return to the days of 2007/8 where, quite frankly, there was more money than sense in many cases.

In our commercial space we have had significant growth and customers are doing a lot of stuff, but that said, they are keen on having a proper business case and want the right value.

I do not see the doom and gloom that the nationals are talking about – retail is definitely an area that is struggling, but luckily for us we do not have a massive retail business. Q1 is looking good for us.

Company profile
Licensing specialist Trustmarque has been in business for more than 24 years. The York-based firm has a mix of public sector and private customers and recently opened offices in Scotland as it continues to expand.
The firm was on a growth path in 2011, with revenue up seven per cent and pre-tax profit rising 36 per cent to £4.6m. It employs about 190 people and specialises in areas such as business performance management, information security, managed licence services, cloud, infrastructure services and software procurement to name just a few.