Inoapps hopes to bloom with Crocus buy

Oracle partners join forces in pursuit of £50m turnover goal

Inoapps has acquired fellow Oracle reseller Crocus Consulting as it strives to smash the £50m revenue barrier by the end of next year.

Inoapps, an Oracle Platinum partner, which has offices in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Derby, did not disclose the full terms of the takeover but descibed it as a multimillion-pound deal. The merger comes after its takeover of rival Oracle VAR Teamsolve in 2011, also for an undisclosed sum.

Crocus Consulting is an Oracle services and product VAR which specialises in the vendor's PeopleSoft products, and today's agreement will see all 45 of its Leicester-based staff move over to Inoapps.

The newly acquired firm's boss Chris Smith will become vice president of the Applications division at Inoapps, whose own management team will remain unchanged.

Inoapps said Crocus' specialism in PeopleSoft will allow it to set up an Inoapps payroll consultancy practice.

The acquisition comes hot on the heels of Inoapps pocketing £10m investment from the Business Growth Fund, an independent firm aiming to provide growth capital to UK firms.

The cash injection, together with the Crocus merger, will help Inoapps reach £50m turnover in 2015, according to its chief executive Andy Bird, who outlined the firm's growth targets.

"In 2013 we opened offices in Kuala Lumpur and Bahrain and our plans for US expansion are at an advanced stage. We expect our turnover for 2014 to reach £35m and our global headcount has increased to over 200," he said.

"As well as retaining all the existing Crocus employees, we are also looking to recruit more people to join the growing Inoapps team. [The acquisition] will help us to achieve our corporate goal of £50m turnover by 2015."