RMS IT Security eyes up big league

Recently launched VAR, previously part of the Redstone group, is keen to steal a march on its larger rivals

Ambitious VAR RMS IT Secu­rity is eyeing up Integralis and Vis­torm’s [now HP Information Security] hunting ground as it looks to rapid growth.

The Stoke-based firm, which was spun out of Redstone Managed Solutions (RMS) last year in a £1m management buyout (MBO), is keen to become the security space’s equivalent of Azzurri or Chess in terms of acquisition strategy.

Both Azzurri and Chess have embarked on an aggressive buy- and-build strategy over recent years, notching up more than 60 acquisitions between them in the telecoms and networking space in the past six years.

Led by managing director Robert Cavan, the new security VAR officially launched last month as RMS Managed IT Security with a total of 58 employees transferring to the business under TUPE rules.

Speaking to CRN, Cavan (pictured) said that because the security market was now mature it was “ripe for con­so­li­dation” with a surprisingly small amount of M&A activity compared to other sectors.

“There is not a big consolidator in the security space at the moment – like there is an Azzurri or Chess in the telecoms space. We want to take advantage of that dynamic and become the Azzurri/Chess of the security channel,” he said.

For the year to 31 March 2010, the security wing of Redstone Managed Solutions banked EBITDA of £600,000 on sales of £9.2m, and top vendor partnerships include McAfee, CA, Sophos, IBM, Websense and Microsoft.

The MBO formed part of Redstone's wider strategy of divesting non-core assets to improve its profitability. The integrator’s Irish operations were recently spun out, as was its PBX services business.

“The new business is up and running now, and we are working on the branding and logos,” said Cavan. “Security is high on the boardroom agenda now, and it was one of the reasons that we wanted to build on the strong reputation we have and our expertise in security. We want to help drive security further onto the boardroom agenda.”

He explained that RMS IT Security had maintained a close working relationship with Redstone, its former parent company.

“We have a tra­d­ing ag­ree­ment with Red­stone – we will supp­ly security to all Redstone’s customers, and, in return, Redstone’s connectivity services will be supplied to our custom­ers,” he said. “It has been a friendly transaction with Redstone, which has been very supportive [of the MBO]. I think that re­lationship is very important and we want to build on and grow that.”

Looking forward, Cavan said RMS IT Security is adopting a four-pronged approach to growth. Firstly, it is building its own managed services platform, which it is planning to officially launch at Info­sec next month. “This will be the first time we will be exhibiting our platform and it is designed to move us further up the value chain,” he said.

Secondly, Cavan explained, the company is now working closely with its existing vendor partners to continue offering independent solutions to customers.

Thirdly, he said, RMS IT Security is working on developing a funded head model – in particular, it is working closely with CA and FireMon to get the ball rolling.

“The funded head model is an ef­ficient business and allows us to de­velop closer relationships with certain partners,” Cavan added.

Fourth, and finally, he said that his firm sees a future in developing stra­tegic partnerships with system integrators such as Fujitsu, eventually moving onto larger players such as Atos Origin and Capgemini.

However, the company’s largest target, outside its four main growth objectives, is to move up the value chain, according to Cavan.

“We want to be involved in larger projects. As we move up the value chain, we will be competing with the likes of Vistorm and Integralis. We see them absolutely as our competitors going forwards,” he claimed.

“Where we think we score is on our customer service, and flexibility in developing a se­curity proposition around the needs of the customers. The customer leads – rather than [the deal] being sales- and marketing driven. We think there is a big fu­ture in that app­roach,” said Cavan.

In terms of staff growth, RMS IT Se­curity fully intends to recruit additional employees, he said.

“After the first few months of de­veloping the new business, we do intend to grow staff numbers to sup­port our customers,” he ex­plained.

“We are proud of the quality of our ex­isting employees, and we want them to have a good car­eer with growth prospects, but we are also very keen to increase staff numbers in the future.”

Cavan stressed once more that growth was very much on the agenda for the VAR.

“We do intend to grow RMS IT Security very rapidly, based on the solid business performance that we have at the moment,” he said. “We believe that security is going to be an exciting growth market for the future.”