Wick Hill and Zycko owner seizes Siphon
Nuvias picks unified communications specialist Siphon as its fourth acquisition
Pan-EMEA VAD Nuvias has added certifications from Oracle and Polycom through the acquisition of UK-based unified communications (UC) specialist Siphon.
Founded in 2009 as a systems integrator, Cwmbran-based Siphon bought UK distributor VCOMM in 2012. The UC provider is a Gold partner of Oracle and Microsoft and is an authorised distributor for Polycom in the UK and Benelux.
Along with its Welsh headquarters, Siphon has its distribution centre and a sales office in Newbury, as well as a European outpost in the Netherlands.
According to Nuvias CEO Paul Eccleston, the pan-EMEA VAD plans to eventually extend Siphon's UC services across its EMEA operations. He said, however, that the priority for the time being will be integrating the UK business and looking after relationships with Siphon's suppliers.
"The thing to think about here is the absolute focus on protecting the capability and value of the business we have acquired. We must protect Siphon's vendor partners and bring that capability into the capability of Nuvias," he said.
"Siphon has a great relationship with its vendors and, as you can imagine, we have spoken to those key partners as part of the process. They are extremely positive about the service they get and the service the channel gets from Siphon, and they are part of the discussion about how we announce and expand that across EMEA."
Siphon managing director Steven Harris will continue leading the firm's UK operations from its current UK offices. There will be no management team changes and no staff changes, according to Harris.
"We need to protect what we have got in the UK with our existing supplier partners and then look at our ability to enhance what we do as a wider group with the backing of Nuvias," he said.
"I think we have been pretty successful with our finite resources. I am trying to take what we do and replicate that across EMEA, and we think we can replicate that and be very, very successful.
"The priority is to make sure that we protect the business in the UK. I think we have to work closely with our existing suppliers to work out where we can add value and how to achieve a consistent services capability across EMEA. We are only going to enter a territory when we can add to it like we have done in the UK. We are not going to rush to do this."
According to Eccleston, Siphon will quickly become a subsidiary of the Nuvias Group along with existing members security VAD Wick Hill, and communications VAD Zycko, and Middle East-focused distributor SCD.
"We want to grow [the UC business] significantly; it has high growth potential for us. In terms of [its] offering and value proposition, the level of capability in Siphon takes us into a leadership position in the UK. It is very key to our strategy," he said.
"The capability of Siphon is a very strong proposition of which roughly half of the business' revenue [comes from] services and technology. The company has a really deep technology capability; that is something we are looking to consolidate across EMEA."
Harris confirmed that Siphon's business has always primarily focused around technology services.
"We established ourselves in 2009 as a system integrator. Our proposition was always all about technology and engineering services and really helping our customers invest and deliver a complete UC network to our end users," he said.
Eccleston said Nuvias will remain on the acquisition path, claiming that future acquisitions will look to further grow capability and expertise. The CEO previously told Channelnomics Europe that Nuvias is aiming to gain a presence in five more countries in EMEA, making 20 in total, and distribute in 30.