Melissa Mulholland on the long tail of AI and Crayon's M&A strategy
"Even though we are proud of the skills and scale we have with Microsoft, we are committed to building and expanding with AWS and Google," Mulholland tells CRN
Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland credits a well-diversified business, strong vendor relationships, including with Microsoft, and a pragmatic approach to the reseller's cash position and investments, as the key drivers behind the Norway-HQ reseller's growth this year.
Fresh off of delivering a 17 per cent profit increase in its Q1 results in May, the business is now focusing on maintaining this trajectory throughout the rest of the year.
"Crayon has always been a growth-focused company. That's been our strength," Mulholland (pictured) tells CRN.
"When we IPO'd back in 2017, it was very much focused on taking this business model that we've had success in the Nordics and being able to take it to other markets," she adds.
A significant driver of this growth is Crayon's relationship with Microsoft, which recently recognised Crayon with its Scale Solutions (LSP) 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award, a distinction for Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft Cloud applications, services, devices, and AI innovation during the past year.
"Microsoft has recognised that we have this global capability. Now we're looking to take it to markets that maybe they're lacking this skill set," Mulholland comments.
"It's such a proud moment for the company because what it represents is the global scale that we've been able to deliver."
Copilot rollout and long-term plan
Microsoft Copilot continues to drive growth for the reseller, particularly when it comes to ancillary services, such as data management and cloud migrations.
Far from a gung ho attitude, however, Mulholland is mindful of the market's evolving understanding of generative AI's potential.
"I think AI in the workforce is here to stay. However, the acceleration and full integration into all work environments will take time.
"This delay is due to the necessary planning required to ensure employees adopt it, and to prepare adequately in terms of data and internal security," she comments.
"Data compliance is becoming an increasingly important topic, and customers frequently seek our support in this area.
"Copilot is a significant topic for us. We were one of the first partners globally to sell Copilot within 24 hours of its CSP and enterprise agreement launches," she adds.
However, Mulholland concludes that widespread adoption will take time due to the necessary planning and data compliance preparations that customers need to make.
Future growth and M&A prospects
Looking ahead, Europe continues to be a primary growth market for Crayon, having delivered a remarkable 40 per cent growth in 2023.
The company is also seeing promising developments in Asia and the US, having this year completed the integration of Australian cloud specialist Rhipe, which it acquired in 2021.
Having significantly bolstered its presence in Asia-Pacific, Mulholland confirms that the company will consider potential future acquisitions. This is particularly true the US, where Crayon is looking to bolster its market position.
"We're certainly always looking for accretive acquisitions, but our growth has predominantly been through organic means," she says.
On the question of what Crayon would consider accretive, Mulholland clarifies: "We are focusing on augmenting skills and capabilities we don't currently have and expanding our market size. I can break this into two core categories.
"First, even though we are proud of the skills and scale we have with Microsoft, we are committed to building and expanding with AWS and Google. This means we are looking for companies with deep technical skills and knowledge in these areas.
"Second, we are targeting market size. For instance, we aim to establish a presence in markets like France or the US, similar to what we did with Rhipe in Australia, which became the largest partner in that region."