Probrand eyes further growth

VAR pushes into education market with IT procurement tool and reveals growth is very much on the agenda

Studying hard: Coventry University students will learn all about Probrand's procurement tool

Organic growth at VAR Probrandhas helped the firm smash the £60m revenue mark despite the continuing difficult economy.

Growth is mainly attributed to a rise in demand for its online procurement tool http://www.theitindex.co.uk.

Developed by Probrand’s sister company – software house Mercarto Solutions – the tool helps firms save money on IT procurement by searching more than 500,000 items from more than 2,000 suppliers to help customers get the best price and availability. It has also been certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Revenue has doubled since 2007, which saw the company hit £30m turnover for the year (Channelweb, 6 February 2008)

The Birmingham-based VAR revealed that it is considering reselling a version of the software to other VARs, but said that was "too far down the line" to go into further detail.

Probrand recently partnered with Coventry University, which is launching a final-year enterprise systems development module for undergraduates, using its ITindex tool as a real-world teaching application.

The VAR is hoping to strike up similar partnerships with other universities in the future.

Steve Bushell, marketing director at Probrand, said: “Our tool enables us to empower people to be more efficient. Our managing director Peter Robbins is a very shrewd businessman who spotted a gap in the market years ago and his hard work has paid dividends.”

Bushell said the recent university partnership would also help Probrand in its recruitment activities, allowing it to identify top students using the tool in their final year and potentially offering them employment.

“We have to ensure we offer the VA part of VAR” Bushell added. “Public sector buying is so fragmented at the moment and added to that are other frameworks and buying consortiums that are being given preferential relationships and preferential pricing. It is a competitive market.”