Rigby Group aims to be 'national grid of data' with Fluidata and One Point merger
Combined company aims for £50m revenues by 2020 as it looks to be a complete 'communications suite'
SCC's parent, the Rigby Group, is moving deeper into telecoms with the merger of two of its businesses - Fluidata and One Point - into telecoms business FluidOne.
Rigby Group acquired data delivery service Fluidata in March 2015 and added mobility specialist One Point to its portfolio in December 2015.
The plan was originally to keep the two companies as separate businesses, but Piers Daniell, CEO of FluidOne, said that when they looked at combining the two businesses it made more sense to have one engagement with customers rather than multiple engagements.
He said: "The plan has been evolving and we have been looking at how best to deal with the growing businesses. What we realised is if we push the businesses together, there is actually closer synergy between the people. We don't have to reduce any of the management teams or individual roles. They all fit together.
"As a group the plan is to build a telecoms business, so there is a lot of synergy between Fluidata and One Point in terms of products, people and culture. We felt it was a really good time to bring these businesses together to create a new brand, to help the penetration of the businesses in the mid-market and enterprise space. It is easier to have one engagement and one product set to focus on, rather than multiple ones."
Under FluidOne will sit FluidCloud - where all data-centre-as-a-service aspects will now sit - FluidVoice - home to its unified communications, VoIP and mobile services - and Fluidata, which will be very similar to the historic business in terms of product offering, minus the data centre services.
The hope is that the combined companies' Dash portal - which currently allows customers to get quotes for its connectivity solutions - will be a "national grid of data", said Daniell. It aims to include all its mobile and voice services into the portal, to create a "full communications suite".
"The plan is that customers have a full communications suite where they can add and remove lines, and get support online. It is our ambition to be the national grid of data; that concept of not choosing which power line comes into your house but being able to choose which provider you use," he explained.
Daniell said that the combined outfit is on track to hit revenues of £27m in FY17, and the plan is to hit £50m revenues by 2020. He said the target is fuelled by the companies' focus on automation.
"We have got a lot of work around automation," he added. "A big part of our business in the coming years will be geared a lot more towards systems. Our industry is commoditising. A lot of people buy data and connectivity services. With the advent of software defined networks, we are seeing that customers want more control, less lead time for installation and better automation."