ShoreTel and Mitel VARs tie the knot

Incom and CNS join forces for financial and commercial stability

A 100-strong ShoreTel and Mitel reseller has been formed through the merger of Incom Business Systems and Complete Network Services (CNS).

The directors of CNS have retained control in their Mitel partner despite selling a portion of their shareholding to fellow Manchester-based comms VAR Incom, which specialises in ShoreTel.

Talking to CRN, CNS managing director Paul Ingham said the merger was a "gap-filling exercise" for both firms.

"This gives us more commercial and financial stability, especially for CNS," he said.

"We are predominantly a Mitel solution provider, concentrating more on blue chip customers. Incom are a Shoretel Champion partner and additionally specialise in network and connectivity."

With offices in Manchester, Swindon, London and Bradford, Incom has a headcount of about 55, Ingham said, while CNS has about 45 staff spread across its head office in Manchester and its network operations centre in Burnley.

Following the merger, the enlarged firm's Manchester presence will be consolidated at Incom's Clarendon House office.

Ingham, who founded CNS in 2005 alongside Aiden Crawford and Damian Lawlor, will take on the new role of director of client support and services as a result of the merger.

"The CNS management have retained control of the day-to-day operations of CNS; there's just a slight change in my job title which allows me to utilise my engineering excellence CNS has always offered," Ingham said.

Founded in 1989, Incom claims it was ShoreTel's fastest-growing northern reseller last year.

Incom managing director David Hughes, added in a statement: "Incom has a strong history of delivering mission-critical, high value solutions to its customers. By joining forces with CNS, we can build on our success with enhanced professional expertise, proven best practices and an extremely strong leadership team that will help us to continue to deliver operational and service excellence. We are poised for significant and rapid growth and this milestone signals yet another exciting chapter in our history."