Logicalis prepares for acquisition spree
Firm plans to move into convergence space with VAR buys
Networking integrator Logicalis plans to buy its way into the convergence market, as it looks to acquire VARs in the voice, security and IBM enterprise spaces in the very near future.
The move is likely to transform the firm - a sister company to distribution giants Westcon and Comstor - into a rival to Morse, Computacenter and SCC.
According to chief executive Jens Montanana, Logicalis's buys will "have a thread of IBM running through them".
He added: "We have been quite proactive in moving away from networking to become an end-to-end ICT player, and we have gained storage and security skills. We are not looking to create a mirror-image of Morse, but that sort of portfolio is spot-on.
"In enterprise systems, we see greater and greater convergence opportunities as the barriers between the network and the server break down."
On the voice side, Montanana said he will not look to buy firms that "sell big iron", which effectively rules out PBX integrators such as Sterry, Damovo and Bailey Telecom.
"We won't go for plumbing. We're more likely to look for verticals such as call-centre integration, unified messaging and email to PBX companies," he said.
Sarah Faux, chief executive of Datapoint, a large call centre integrator, claimed that the market in which her company plays is consolidating.
"Voice and high-end server companies need to work together, either as a partnership or as part of one company," she said.
"As part of our strategy, we think convergence is key: a good balance between telephony and data, with the right staff, and an applications play - another area of the market we are moving into."