Empowered gobbles second channel service rival this year

Channel services firm follows up January purchase of Convergis by acquiring OrderWork

Channel services firm Empowered is not ruling out further acquisitions after making its second purchase of 2014.

Dunstable-based Empowered has grabbed OrderWork - a channel services firm which also plays in the consumer electronics market - as the ink still dries on its January acquisition of Convergis.

OrderWork was set up in 2006 - the same year as Empowered - and provides VARs with server, storage, networking and desktop services from around 30 tech vendors including VMware, Sharp, Dell, EMC, Microsoft and Sophos.

The other half of the Chiswick-based firm is dedicated to the consumer electronics market.

The OrderWork business will continue to run from its London headquarters, Empowered said, although it did not rule out taking some back-office efficiency measures in the future.

Empowered's sales and operations director Darren Liles (pictured below with Anderton) said like Convergis, the OrderWork brand is strong and well recognised in the UK so will not be swallowed up following the takeover, although it will sit under the wider Empowered brand.

Liles added that his firm and OrderWorks were a perfect match.

"There is a lot of synergy between [the duo]," he said. "Both are IT channel services organisations, both are market leading in terms of partner spread and the communities they support and so the businesses are very well matched."

Despite grabbing two rivals in the space of four months, Empowered's managing director James Anderton said the firm would not rule out making other acquisitions.

"If we can [develop our business to support our clients' needs] organically, we will, but if we feel like we need to do that more strategically through a partnership or acquisition, that's when we will go out to the market and try and find the most suitable organisation," he said.