Stuart Fenton on Ingentive rebrand, sales transformation and US plans
Eight months post acquisition, Fenton and CEO Andrea Bright have laid the foundations for UK and international expansion
Channel veteran Stuart Fenton is setting his sights on UK expansion and a US market entry in the next 18 months, after announcing the rebrand of MSP firm Akari to Ingentive this week.
"The main focus right now is on scale - increasing the pipeline of opportunities and also closing more opportunities, increasing the number of active customers that we have, and providing more services into those customers, Fenton tells CRN.
The rebrand is a culmination of eight months of reskilling and expanding the MSP's staff, after Fenton acquired the firm in February this year.
The former QUANTIQ founder, CEO and chair has also spent large large portions of his career in leadership roles at CDW and Insight.
Now, after acquiring Ingentive earlier this year, he has taken a somewhat less active role as chair, with longtime business partner Andrea Bright - formerly the COO of QUANTIQ - taking over the reins as CEO and allowing Fenton to reflect on the progress the business has made thus far.
Diversifying the lead pipeline
Over the last eight months, Fenton and Bright have also focused on diversifying the lead pipeline beyond leads generated by Ingentive's Microsoft partnership, he explains.
"When we bought the business, definitely around 90 per cent of the leads came from Microsoft, that's now probably around 20 per cent, he says.
"So we've had a we've had a significant turnaround and change, we did a handful of things. So we firstly, we built a sales team that was more proactive. That was the first step.
"The second step was we increased our direct marketing, and social media marketing, we've done a pretty good job of reaching out to new people through social media, building the brand awareness, and then following up with some sales engagements. And that's been very effective.
"And then the third area has been different partnerships. So we've identified a range of different partners who have, they're in the technology industry, typically adjacent technology to say, the power platform or some of the other where we can collaborate on client projects or opportunities."
This has been months-long process for the London-HQ company, and it positions the company for the next stage in its evolution - international expansion.
Landing in the US
According to Fenton, international expansion is on the cards for Ingentive, with the timeline being somewhat flexible.
"The next stage will be more international footprint more international coverage. I'm not going to put an exact date on it. But at some point in the next 18 months, we'd like to also have a capability in the USA. But that's the next stage, right now we're focusing on building out the UK," he says.
When it comes to expanding in the US, positioning itself closer to Microsoft is a lever towards expansion for Ingentive, Fenton explains.
"Obviously, that market is ten times the size of the UK. And they aren't fast adopters. And also, it's Microsoft's hometown," he notes.
"So partners tend to get lots of support when they're there. And when they're international, Microsoft are often very fond of internet international partners."
For the time being, however, the key priorities for Ingentive are landing the rebrand, gaining international scale, and certain tweaks to operations, such as shifting the business's financial year to close in December, rather than March as it has until now.
"Currently we're focused on really landing the rebrand, which we think will take six, eight weeks. Akari has had over 350 clients, with whom we have traded under the Akari name, so obviously, we need all of those clients to sort of naturally adopt Ingentive as the company name."
"So we're really focusing on the brand. The other focus is on getting some more wins in and we're seeing that a significant lead flow into the business through our various routes to market, which is fantastic."