Channel firms toast Deloitte Fast 50 success

Managed 24/7, Cloud Technology Solutions and SIPHON Networks all make Deloitte's ranking of fastest growing tech firms

Channel firms have featured in Deloitte's 19th Fast 50 league table ranking the UK's fastest growing technology companies.

MSPs Managed 24/7 and Cloud Technology Solutions feature on the list in 40th and 42nd place respectively; while SIPHON Networks, recently acquired by Wick Hill and Zycko parent company Nuvias, was ranked in 24th.

Managed 24/7

John Pepper, CEO at Managed 24/7, explained that the firm has seen strong growth in 2016 as it advances its predictive managed services offering.

Based out of its network operations centre in Milton Keynes, launched at the start of the year, Pepper explained that Managed 24/7 uses data analytics to predict IT failures for its mid-market and enterprise customers.

"You have traditional managed service partners that are break/fix - they'll wait for something to break and then fix it - but we've been working on our own software for the last two years that enables us to spot issues in IT and telecoms before they happen," he said.

The Deloitte Fast 50 reported Managed 24/7 as seeing 453 per cent revenue growth over the last four years, and Pepper (pictured) told CRN that the firm's annual revenue is currently around £10m.

Next year the firm will be making its first foray into the public sector, he added, as it looks to continue the growth that has come 100 per cent organically and seen no outside investment.

The firm also featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 earlier this year.

Cloud Technology Solutions

Two places below Managed 24/7 on the Fast 50 is IT and telecoms MSP Cloud Technology Solutions, which Deloitte reported as seeing 412 per cent revenue growth over the last four years.

Cloud Technology Solutions said its business has seen success this year driven by its Google Apps business in both the public and private sector.

The firm also joined Managed 24/7 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 earlier this year.

In a statement, James Doggart, CEO at Cloud Technology Solutions, said: "The gains we have made are proof of the great effort our staff make to deliver a high-quality service and innovative products to our customers and clients.

"Many of the businesses that have appeared on these league tables have gone on to achieve great success.

"It is encouraging to see we are with such prestigious company and look forward to climbing up the rankings next year."

SIPHON Networks

UC specialist SIPHON - acquired by Nuvias earlier this year - supports service providers and resellers launching cloud telephony systems and has seen revenue growth of 723 per cent over the last four years, according to Deloitte.

In its most recent Companies House accounts, the firm reported a revenue of £9.8m for the six months ending 31 December 2015.

"We recognised the emergence of cloud-based UC and saw that smaller, more agile service providers would be the ones to achieve rapid success in a small and evolving market," said Steve Harris, co-founder and managing director at SIPHON.

"But we also realised that their ambitions could be thwarted by their lack of technical expertise and integration experience."

Ian Kilpatrick, executive vice president at Nuvias (pictured), added: "I think it's some of the key elements that made us [Wick Hill] attractive as well as Zycko - it's that pursuit of excellence," he said.

"The problem with that is you can't define it by one element, it's all the pieces you put together that makes everything.

"If you try and get everything right then that means you're excellent across the board rather than specifically in one piece."