ALEX TUPMAN INTERVIEW
Workflow management Document solutions is another evolving area for Espria. “We do workflow management solutions for clients who have multiple documents that they regularly need to scan, and those documents then end up in various parts of the business through automated workflow,” he says. “For instance, in the legal sector, if you need to redact particular words or sentences you can put that into the device and it will scan the document and redact particular words. There is so much more to document management than printing. While traditional printing is declining, scanning is growing quickly, as is the security for them – those documents end up in SharePoint in a specific folder that has been identified through workflow and is securely stored.” Future Currently there is no slowdown in demand for the services Espria provides, despite the current economic conditions. “In terms of digital transformation, there are still lots of companies that have elements of, if not all of their technology on premises and they are looking at how they can digitally transform, and we can take them on the journey seamlessly across all areas, so it is fully joined up. “We have an eye on the potential recession and are mindful of that so targeting of new business will be around the sectors that have managed to weather the storm in the past – financial services, professional services and education have served us well,” says Alex. “Now we are on public sector frameworks too, which will help. “That said, we are still seeing strong demand, but we will see what happens in the market. With a bit of luck, the recession will be shallow and quick. “Our priority is to show that we can organically grow, particularly through cross-selling. We are looking for double-digit organic growth in the next year.” He adds that Espria is also on the lookout for a small tuck-in acquisition of a business that adds similar capabilities and where synergies can be achieved or strengthens parts of the company’s services in the next 12 months. This would be ahead of preparing for the exit of Connection Capital in the next 12-18 months, with the aim to bring in a larger private equity player that can take the company onto the next level. “This would be more of the same in the UK in terms of organic and acquisitive growth and probably abroad as well so we can build scale,” he says. “We may look to build into other capabilities too in the next phase of growth.” With this confidence, Espria is set to become a well-known name in the sector not just in the UK but around the world in the years to come.
are companies that offer elements of what we do, often it is because they have built that capability themselves, rather than acquiring a business with a history and maturity in the space, and with long-standing relationships with suppliers – we have deep understanding of IT, comms and document solutions through the history of those organisations.”
Vendor independence Another key part of Espria’s offering is its
independence from any one vendor, which means the company can take a consultative approach with customers. “Each of the previous organisations were vendor independent. In the document solutions world we worked with partners including Ricoh, Xerox, Kyocera, Docuware and Papercut. With IT we work with Microsoft, Sophos, Apple, Mimecast and in comms we work with the likes of Five9, Pragma, Gamma and BT. “Being completely vendor agnostic, our team can go in and properly consult and find a solution or range of solutions that meet with that customer’s requirements without having to reference product or vendor. We don’t have to try to fit a square peg into a round hole.” This is especially important as, in the SME space Espria generally works in, their customers are not necessarily IT experts. “Often with our customers, you are not dealing with an IT director, it could be a partner in a law firm or an accountancy practice who looks after the IT along with their other work so the more help we can give them the better,” says Alex. “This can include migrating a business’ technology from a local area network onto the cloud to help enable hybrid working and helping them to understand the security aspects of consuming a service from the cloud and that they know it is far more secure than having a server sitting on your network in a cabinet that has to be backed up every night.”
We have an eye on the “
potential recession and are mindful of that so targeting of new business will be around the sectors that have managed to weather the storm in the past
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