Daisy Partner Services doubles revenue goal to £200m

Boss of combined Daisy-Phoenix channel services business tells CRN the strategy is 'very much one of growth'

Daisy Group has scrapped the £100m revenue goal it set for its channel services business last year, doubling it to £200m, following its acquisition of Phoenix IT Group.

Daisy Partner Services was transformed from a £35m into a £130m business last week when Daisy closed its acquisition of Phoenix, making it by far the largest provider of support and professional services to the UK channel.

Phoenix Partner Services, which generated £96m of Phoenix's £212m revenues last year, specialises in the provision of service desk and desktop support services, adding to Daisy Partner Services' existing skills around voice and data networking. The addition of its 1,400 staff will more than quadruple Daisy Partner Services' headcount to 1,850.

Talking to CRN, Ian Roberts, who joined Daisy this month from eBay to lead the combined Partner Services operation, said the division has its sights set firmly on growth.

"Our aspiration is to get to £200m in the next three to five years," he said.

"We think the combined organisation and the scale benefits it will bring will give improved operational and commercial benefits to our partners and we expect to be more competitive as a result."

Roberts (pictured) said the union presents potent cross-sell opportunities, not least for Phoenix's business continuity services, which he said had a low penetration among Phoenix's outsourcing and reseller partners.

Improving automation for partners will also unlock growth for the business, Roberts added.

"We will put more of a focus on making it easier for partners to buy and consume the services," Roberts added.

This will include adopting self-service technology that partners of Daisy Wholesale already use, Roberts explained.

Integration of the two businesses will occur over the next 90 days, after which it is likely the Phoenix brand will be gradually retired, said Roberts, who in the past has run the support businesses of Computacenter and Getronics.

He indicated there are likely to be some areas of duplication where cost savings will be identified.

"We are going through a period of integrating the businesses over the next three months but are doing it in a transparent manner, with representation from a combination of leaders from Phoenix and Daisy," he said. "It is very important we minimise disruption to partners and we don't expect there to be any.

"The strategy is very much one of growth."

Roberts tackled potential concerns over conflict between Daisy's direct and indirect activities.

Through Daisy Partner Services, Daisy operates an exclusively indirect model in the large enterprise space (2,000 seats and more), he explained.

Where partners bump into Daisy in the mid-market (500 to 2,000 seats), Daisy strives to limit the potential for conflict by creating "Chinese walls" between the two businesses in terms of sales, solution design and services, Roberts added.