‘I've learnt from the battle scars’: Thinc MD on worldwide expansion and mid-market opportunity

Dominic Ball reflects on the company’s journey from the UK to North America, working with fast-growing organisations, and promoting from within

Thinc is an MSP which, at its core, believes that technology should empower people within an organisation, MD Dominic Ball tells CRN.

Headquartered in Manchester with additional offices in Bedford and Newcastle, the organisation also counts operations in Toronto and hopes to expand further into the US soon.

The MD also has plans for a new location in London.

The firm, which is privately owned by Ball and Richard Stathers and has delivered double-digit organic growth over the past four years, is aiming to continue on that trend, according to Ball.

He also teases strategic acquisitions to deepen its capabilities and global reach.

“We're looking to really lean into the global aspect of managed IT services,” he explains.

International activities

Canada, which the MSP entered last year, contributes to less than ten per cent of the business, as the market is “still fresh,” says the MD.

“We’re getting some good traction and a lot of support from Sage as we try to move into that market while also leveraging into North America.

“We're currently in quite detailed conversations with a number of businesses that are based on the East Coast (New York, Manhattan), and hopefully, over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, we can really expand into those areas.”

Alongside Sage, Thinc works with vendors such as SAP and Microsoft.

In terms of international expansion, the company’s number two priority after North America is South Africa, where “there is great technical talent,” which the company wants to leverage and use as a central delivery hub to outreach into the globe, and from there go into Australasia.

On the other hand, the firm does not have much activity in mainland Europe.

“Only through our customers do we sometimes have to work in continental Europe, but we’re seeing a lot of activity Middle East, in Qatar and Dubai in particular,” he highlights.

This approach differs from many UK companies’ approach, as it is common for the channel to first expand across EMEA before launching into another continent.

It is through thorough research that Ball discovered that managed IT services within North America, from a maturity perspective, are about two to three years behind the UK, particularly from a cost position, he tells CRN.

“The reason why we chose Canada first is we felt that the buying culture, the business culture, is very aligned to Europe,” explains Ball.

“We’re a Sage reseller, one of the biggest products that we resell is Sage Intact, which has great penetration in the US, as Intact was a US product Sage acquired back in 2016.”

While the business has an international footprint, it has been particularly impacted by macro conditions in the UK, as Ball claims that there is a lot of nervousness within the mid-market due to inflation.

Organic and inorganic development

While the organisation is currently sub £10m in turnover, it is aiming for £75m by 2030, which it intends to reach through both organic and inorganic development.

Even though it has not been acquisitive in the past and has yet to start buyouts trials, Ball’s goal is to deepen Thinc’s capabilities and increase its global reach.

“I'd be looking to see whether we can do an acquisition in the US to give us foothold in that space,” he tells CRN.

Ball is confident about his organic targets, as he worked a lot on transformational changes within organisations prior to becoming MD of Thinc, including during the financial crisis, when firms had to divest a lot of the non-core assets and do a lot of restructuring.

He has also worked with organisations on their acquisition trails.

“I've learnt from the battle scars of that as to what's the right way of doing acquisitions,” he explains.

Mid-market target

The MSP, which targets the mid-market, has its bread and butter in the ERP solutions.

With Sage Intact, it finds penetration in the non-for-profit market, especially in North America, as well as in professional services organisations within the finance sector, or generalist service organisations.

“We target the mid-market because we offer the full stack.

“For a mid-size organisation, which may not have deep technical expertise in-house within their organisation, they rely upon one supplier like ourselves, rather than going to multiple suppliers.

“Cybersecurity, cloud, business applications; we can provide the full stack.

“When you go into the enterprise level, they usually have in-house it expertise, and then they're looking for more niche expertise to bolt onto their in-house capabilities, and that's not an area that we play.”

While many MSPs focus on the mid-market, such as Six Degrees, Techsol, or Ekco, Ball says that Thinc’s offer stands out, as SMEs are looking for a partner who can align their IT strategy with their business goals and business objectives.

“When we engage with a client, we get to know them intimately, understand what their business challenges are, what their business objectives are, and then map out an IT strategy that will support them.”

The MD claims to have a track record of working with fast growing organisations, such as Bulldog Skincare until its acquisition by Edgewell Personal Care in 2016, Made.com until its IPO in 2021, and Biotiful, which has this year been acquired by Müller.

“We’ve got a premium track record of working with fast growth, scale-up organisations and really align our proactive IT strategy with their business objectives and business goals.”

The company currently counts roughly 400 customers.

To keep up with the evolving needs of its customers, as well as emerging technologies, the MSP is “continually scanning the market” as it strives to have the best-in-class products.

Ball cites the example of Russia-based cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky, which it historically partnered with for endpoint protection, but was banned from the US and closed its UK offices following accusations linking the company to the Russian government.

After these events, Thinc quickly moved to CrowdStrike.

“We’re constantly assessing our portfolio of products to make sure that they're suitable for our customers.

“We want to support that customer for life, we want to support them, and if we advise them on purchasing or working on a particular solution that's not fit for them, it will come out in the wash 12 months’ time, and we'll have issues with that.”

Hiring and promoting

To support these operations, the company hires 55 people.

It is currently planning on hiring in the tech space and is collaborating with colleges such as the Manchester Business School and Manchester University.

Once they’ve joined the company, the MD prefers promoting people from within rather than employing outsiders in higher positions.

“We prefer to bring people in at the lower level and then build and grow them with us,” highlights Ball.

“We've developed quite an in-depth learning and development programme within the organisation; every employee has a plan for themselves, whether you're a senior manager or a new starter, and our objective is always to progress people up from the business.

“We'll always promote from within.

“If you understand us as a business and understand how we work with our customers, that's more important than bringing somebody who's got higher technical expertise in certain areas."