Metaphor IT gets its man after nine-month MSP hunt

Buy-and-build VAR makes third acquisition in shape of Surrey-based Tegen

Metaphor IT is closing in on the £5m revenue mark after locking down managed services provider Tegen as its third acquisition in quick succession.

Surrey-based Tegen, which partners with Connectwise and Labtech, providers fully outsourced IT services to around 30 contracted clients, with 14 staff and revenues of about £1m.

The deal, announced to staff this morning, is the culmination of a prolonged hunt for an MSP to complement Metaphor's acquisition of security VAR Intellect last June and Citrix partner Virtual Workspaces in May, Metaphor CEO Richard Callis said.

"For six to nine months we've been looking for an MSP that is mature in the market and can allow the group to be recognised as a great managed services player," he said.

"While Tegen is a mid-size MSP, it is far beyond its years in terms of its systems and processes."

Cross-sell opportunities stemming from the deal should push Metaphor's revenues to the £5m mark for its fiscal year ending 31 March 2017, Callis said.

Tegen managing director Richard Smith, who started the Redhill-based firm in 2002, said it was the right time to join forces with a larger player.

"We have invested quite heavily in all our back-end systems. A number of years ago we invested in Connectwise and Labtech for RMM and managed to streamline our processes from nine to three, which made it easy for us to then put ISO 20000 in place," said Smith.

"It has been quite a long journey taking the firm to where it is now. We broke the £1m mark last year and we had growth strategies and initiatives to take it forward - however the acquisition accelerates that path a lot faster for Tegen."

Tegen's core verticals include retail, legal and manufacturing. It counts the UK's second-largest pet product retailer among its clients.

Callis claimed there are potent cross-sell opportunities to target.

"We've landed some massive contracts with retailers and the Connectwise side [of what Tegen does] enables us to offer [them] an enterprise level of service," he said.

"Now as a group we're about £4m to £4.5m turnover and we're confident we can hit £5m before the end of this financial year. We'll keep our eye out for acquisitions if they are the right fit, but for now the focus is on consolidating the group and organic growth."