'I had unfinished business': Apogee CEO talks MSP return and evolution

Clark lets CRN in on where in the business he plans to “double-down” and what areas are seeing “disproportionate growth in revenue”

James Clark plans to "double-down" on investment in Apogee's managed IT services with his return to the business after two years away.

Clark stepped into the top job as CEO of the managed workplace services provider in February.

He originally joined the MSP from HP Inc where he was head of finance western European markets for over a year and a half.

He would then go on to become CFO of Apogee for three years following HP's acquisition of the business in 2018, until returning to the technology vendor in 2022.

Speaking to CRN about his plans following his comeback, Clark states he had "unfinished business."

"The minute the opportunity came up I really wanted to take it with both hands.

"The reason being is, I was the CFO for three and a half years so my background was that I had been at HP for a few years. They acquired Apogee back in 2018 and asked me to be the finance lead, which I did for a good three and a half years.

"And then, as things often do with one's career, another opportunity arose. It was great professional development for me, and a great opportunity to learn more and see a different side to the business."

He adds that at the same time, he always felt like he still had something to contribute to Apogee.

"So, when the time came, it was an opportunity I really wanted to take because I really buy into Apogee, what it stands for, and I've always had a passion for the organisation.

"I also think there's a really exciting journey that had started as I was leaving and has continued while I've been gone, and I knew I could continue to be a part of that journey of moving from being a print-focused organisation to a managed workplace service provider.

"It felt like the right time and you could argue I had unfinished business that I wanted to come back to."

Brushing up after two years

Since his return in February, Clark has been busy getting back up to speed with Apogee.

"Although two years isn't a long time, I'm now looking at it with a slightly different lens. I've come from being a finance chief, to now looking after the entire organisation as a whole."

From a customer perspective, Clark says he's started to understand what it means to be a customer-first company.

"My priority here is making sure that we continue in Apogee to think customer-first and customer-first to me is this idea of truly understanding their unmet needs.

"And sometimes the customer might not know. They might come to us with a certain problem, but that problem might actually be a symptom. It might not actually be the cause of the issue. And I think what we bring as Apogee is that ability to be very customer-first, seeking to understand.

"The other key priority for me is we have over the last three, four years done a huge amount of work as a company, creating new products and services.

"For me, the next thing from a company standpoint is, as we look at the next ten years, which are those services that we want to double-down and really scale to create the most value?"

Where will Apogee splash the cash?

Bringing it back to the customer, Clark reveals he is seeing the customer base questioning what the work environment looks like post-pandemic.

"The reality is that, in many cases our customers are still themselves a little bit confused about what their workplace will look like this month, next year, and indeed in five to ten years' time."

As a workplace services provider, Clark says Apogee is primed to help these customers.

He adds that while Apogee has a great print business, this isn't one of the areas the MSP will be injecting increased capital into.

"Where we'll be looking to truly invest and grow is going to be around the areas of managed workplaces, managed desktop and managed telephony.

"We have a really good unit that looks at digital services and documents solutions. Documents aren't going anywhere. Documents might change their form over time but actually, all companies live or die on their processes and on their work loads and that's where we can truly double-down.

"So yes we will be very clear about being customer-first and delivering against what they need, and how we are going to help them with their workflow solutions, their documents solutions, how we are going to help them with the way that they're going to manage the hybrid workforce, managing the devices of their employees.

"How are we going to make sure that we make their employees have the most seamless workplace experience?"

His first year in the job

"With as customer-first as we are, we should always start at home in terms of the health of our organisation," Clark explains.

"I would like to say at the end of 2024 that we have the healthiest organisations we've ever had.

"By healthy I mean engagement and this excitement about the future ahead. I want folks to feel like they can have great careers at Apogee, that they're being invested in."

He adds his second goal focuses on the growth of Apogee's services business.

"Number two, we have continued to see disproportionate growth in revenue in our new services business lines because those are the ones that I believe are going to create the most value for our customers and indeed in the longer run for Apogee.

"So, continued growth in our managed IT services and solutions. Continued growth in digital services and document solutions. And I want to see those disproportionately growing versus what I call our core business, our core base business of print management."

Partner consolidation

The channel partner landscape has so far seen a healthy amount of M&A activity in 2024.

On whether Apogee will join in on the shopping spree, Clark suggests that the firm is keeping its options open.

"The first rule of M&A is you don't talk about M&A.

"We have bought two companies in the last 12-18 months with Argon in the Isle of Man, and scanning company Datatron.

"Apogee will always be open to M&A in areas where we're focusing. The reasons for doing it will be to add to our current capability or to enable us to scale."

Challenges? Slow growth

A lot of uncertainty remains in the macro environment which is affecting customers, says Clark.

"There is still slow growth. We've got cost of living and inflation.

"But I think on top of that, and a bit different from the past, is there's a lot of companies still working out what the new way of working looks like.

"And I think what that's doing is delaying decisions. I think there is an expectation over the course of the back half of this year that some of those decisions are going to start being made.

"I think what we're going to see is decision makers in companies saying now's the time to double down on the way we're going to work as a company now and this is what hybrid or flexible working looks like for my company.

"And as we see that I see an opportunity is to continue to work with our customers to understand how can we enable that. We're experts in print and document management. We're experts across managed IT, how can we enable that to come across."