Europe's top storage VAR Proact takes crack at US market

Pan-European NetApp partner launches Chicago office

The firm that bills itself as Europe's top independent storage integrator is ready to do battle on the other side of the pond as it launches a greenfield operation in Chicago.

Stockholm-based Proact boasts 660 staff, sales last year of SEK2.3bn ($290m) and operations across the Nordics, the UK, Benelux, Germany, Spain and parts of eastern Europe.

Opening today, Proact's Chicago office will not only service the international needs of its existing clients but also target new business, chief executive Martin Ödman said.

"I am very pleased that we now have created the structure best suited for a business establishment in the US," Ödman said.

"The initial reason for the establishment is to satisfy our international customers' need to grow their business with us as a partner also in the US. Going forward, I also see opportunities to establish cooperation with new potential customers in the US market."

NetApp partner Proact, which bills itself as "Europe's leading independent integrator in the fields of data storage and cloud solutions", said it has already closed its first US order, which was with a "major international customer".

The US expansion comes just three months after Proact, which is striving to achieve a five per cent pre-tax profit margin, launched into Germany with offices in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt. It hasn't always favoured greenfield expansion, however, having acquired its way into the UK in 2011 via the purchase of B2Net for £12m.

Proact now operates in 15 countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US.