TSG starts 2013 on a high
VAR sees strong growth for fiscal 2012 as it secures flurry of new deals for coming year
TSG is starting the new year on a positive note after posting strong growth for fiscal 2012 thanks to its renewed focus on subscription-based services.
The Newcastle-based firm saw annual sales grow from £37m to more than £42m, and EBITDA more than doubled from £490,000 in 2011 to £1.2m in 2012.
During the year the firm saw some developments on its CRM and SharePoint teams with two acquisitions, a focus on telecoms, and improvements to project management and quality systems.
David Stonehouse, chief executive of TSG, said: “We have to continue to deliver exceptional levels of support for existing services at the same time as introducing a completely new product and service offering.
“Such a strong financial platform, coupled with the fact that we are privately owned and carry no bank debt, means we are very much on the front foot while others may struggle with the transition to a subscription-based model.”
TSG was recently selected as one of only five UK partners to spearhead Microsoft’s strategy to help more businesses take advantage of its latest offerings.
Steve Cox, CTO at TSG, said the approach was crucial: “There will no doubt be some who take a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ approach, but we are clear about our value proposition and are looking to build long-term relationships that yield significant results for our customers.
“We have developed a number of new products that make sense of the subscription-based approach to consuming business software by tapping into the economies of scale that TSG can offer to make the initial costs of deployment affordable,” he added.
Cox said VARs such as TSG have a vital role in encouraging cloud adoption: “Compatibility, integration and flexibility should become the industry’s new focus. As the boundaries between infrastructure and applications are becoming increasingly blurred, platform choice will become more and more important for our customers.
ha’ve achieved allows us to offer a genuinely unified approach across all areas of the IT mix, bringing together an exceptional team of experts with vast experience of deploying best practice solutions to fit the broadest range of business requirements,” he added.
In separate news, the firm has bagged a major contract to provide IT support to British Cycling in a deal that will see TSG deploy its SystemCare support service to the sporting body’s 50,000 members.
Under the terms of the deal, TSG SystemCare will provide a proactive solution to the health and wellbeing of British Cycling’s IT environment, combining 24/7 network monitoring, automated fixing, live-fix technology and access to TSG’s team of technicians.
TSG’s Stonehouse said he was delighted to be taking on such a responsibility: "British Cycling is renowned for making the tough selection decisions that yield exceptional results. We are proud to be part of the team and are confident that while we take care of its IT systems, it can focus on delivering the programme that will build on the hugely impressive achievements this year,” he said.
British Cycling’s IT manager Alan Mann stressed the importance of having a robust IT system. “Data is critical to British Cycling for many reasons. Our coaches and athletes harvest huge amounts of performance data both in training and competition to inform their strategies and schedules often on a minute-by-minute basis.
“Many members of the team are constantly on the move so connectivity and availability is essential. And with 50,000 members to look after, we need to ensure the highest levels of security,” he said.
The British Cycling deal follows another sporting win with rugby club Northampton Saints, which has signed TSG as its official technology partner for the next four years.