MSP Transform: 'I would've loved to have done this ten years ago' - CDI president on decision to expand in the UK

Rich Falcone discusses CDI's recent UK expansion at CRN's MSP Transform event

The president of US reseller giant CDI told CRN's latest MSP Transform event that the decision for the business to expand in the UK and internationally has been "long overdue".

CDI set up a new organisation called CDI International earlier this year which involved the creation of two new offices in Slough and Dublin as the company set out to become a £50m-revenue player in the UK within the next three years.

And, in a discussion at CRN's MSP Transform event recently - which you can still sign up to watch on demand - Falcone said the move had been mulled over for a long time.

"Most of our clients have global counterparts overseas. It's not like some of them do, it's almost all of them," he explained.

"This has always made sense for our business and objectively it's long overdue. I would've loved to have done this ten years ago, we would have saved our customers a lot of frustration.

"But you can't look out the rear-view mirror and looking out the front windshield, I'm glad it's here now. It always made sense and it's one of the reasons why we're so excited that it's here today."

CDI's expansion in the UK marks a trend of US resellers building business across the Atlantic in recent years, with the likes of WWT, Insight, SHI, Zones, Paragon Micro and Presidio all embarking on similar plans.

Others have sought to build partnerships in the UK as a means of growing their businesses, something Falcone said CDI had also tried but that it "did not work".

"We considered it, we tried it, we found some great partners and some great people that all had good intentions," he explained.

"But it doesn't scale, it doesn't work, the customer gets frustrated. You're going to hit an issue where it works for four fifths of the project but not all of it.

"It just doesn't scale. One deal here or there, sure, but the customers hate it and nobody really likes that model."

The New York-based hybrid IT solutions provider, which turns over in excess of $650m each year, landed private equity funding from mid-market investor One Equity Partners in 2019.

Falcone added that the increasing move away from hardware and towards software has made it easier to expand because there is less importance on where engineers need to be based, and said that CDI is also considering making acquisitions as a way of growing internationally.

"I'd be very open to acquisition in the UK," he added.

"CDI has been approached numerous times by large and successful EU integration firms that would love to acquire CDI and partner with CDI.

"That's not something we're currently interested in doing but we'd be interested in doing the reverse of that. If we found the right partner overseas, of course that would make sense.

"Organic and inorganic growth is critical."