CEO Frank Roebers to leave Synaxon
Roebers is set to leave the business at the end of 2024 and move into managed services
Synaxon CEO Frank Roebers is leaving the business after more than 30 years.
"I'm drawn back to self-employment. I started my journey in the IT market as an entrepreneur and now I'm going back to my roots and starting a new business," he tells CRN DE about his departure.
Throughout his career, Roebers has preached disruption, warning early on that the coming wave of cloud-based and managed-based IT services would sweep solutions providers away if they continued to cling to the hardware business. Now, in another upheaval, Roebers, a former PC specialist retailer, is set to enter the managed services business by founding his own company.
Part of the reason for this move is a burst of entrepreneurial spirit.
"In recent months, the desire to try again as an IT entrepreneur has grown stronger and stronger in me," he says.
At the end of the year, his position as CEO will come to an end, but it will not be the end of Synaxon. So there is plenty of time to hand over the baton and train a successor in case co-board member Mark Schröder does not take over.
"Therefore, there will be no gap that will present the strong management team around Mark Schröder and the 300 employees with unsolvable tasks. That's why now is a good time to start something new," says Roebers.
In his next career step, Roebers will become a franchisee of IT service provider Einsnulleins, opening two branches in the German cities of Detmold and Dortmund.
"It quickly became clear that I wanted to become a Synaxon partner with all the services that the company provides. And if you think this through to the end, as a founder in the field of IT services/managed services, you almost inevitably end up with zero.
"You don't have to do a lot of things yourself, which can be an enormous hurdle for founders. And it should come as no surprise that I share the vision of Einsnulleins 100 per cent," says Roebers.
The market for IT services for small and medium-sized enterprises is "highly attractive," according to Roebers.
This segment is growing and now includes more than 420,000 companies in Germany.
At the same time, the provider structure is changing; since 2018, it has been in a consolidation phase, from which most of our Synaxon partners are already benefiting.
CRN UK contacted the UK branch of the business to ask how the change might impact international operations. The answer was a resounding 'business as usual'.
Mike Barron, UK managing director, states: "While this is big news for SYNAXON AG, for us in the UK it is business as usual. Frank Roebers has given more than three decades of loyal and dedicated service to SYNAXON and has played a pivotal role in its success.
"He will leave the business in excellent condition and will be staying in his present role to ensure a smooth handover at the end of the year. We will continue to deliver excellent support to the channel through our growing Hub business."