News in the Channel - issue #36

NORTHAMBER ACQUISITION

integrated solutions.” The acquired business will also help Northamber to deliver value-added knowledge systems to customers. “The deal gives us the capabilities to provide technical knowledge, installation services, value-added services and more support systems and integrated systems that help people to make decisions,” says Ian. Inside the deal The deal itself took some time to come about. “Deals always look instant when they are announced, but it took a while to complete,” says Ian. “We had an existing relationship with Nuvias UC, and when it became clear they were moving towards the software side, the deal transpired. Once it started to move, it was a very straightforward deal. We were very happy with how the deal progressed – the teams on both sides know what they are doing.” Post-deal, Ian says that Nuvias UC will continue to trade, as Tempura does, as a standalone business unit. “But obviously, as we have added skills and knowledge into the group, our goal is to make sure we can share that knowledge across the group and share the facilities too. It’s a big jump for us in terms of the capabilities we get, the breadth of customers we get in terms of retailers and in terms of moving us further up the scale into enterprise-type customers alongside the SMB and mid- range area we are traditionally strong in.” As Ian says, the deal helps to bring scale to Northamber’s operation. “We gain quite a number of significant enterprise resellers as part of this,” he says. “That broadens our positioning right across the market. It’s a significant acquisition for us and a big commitment to this market. “This deal will help strengthen relationships with vendors, which will be important going forward given the changes that are taking place in the marketplace currently with the rapid evolution of technology. “We’re providing market knowledge, but

broadening of our positioning across enterprise and public sector. “It’s quite transformational for us. It’s an area where we’ve been pushing much harder in the past couple of years, including the acquisition of Tempura, and this will add to it.” Strong growth As mentioned, research points to strong growth in the UC sector in the coming years. “There’s a consistent view that UC and AV are going to continue to grow annually over the next five to 10 years,” says Ian. “Some of that is going to be fuelled by upcoming equipment refreshes. Back in COVID times, a lot of businesses put a lot of equipment in without necessarily researching what they were looking to do in the future with it – they needed to install things quickly to keep the business going. “We’re now heading towards that point of the refresh cycle where those businesses are looking to upgrade. Strategically, there’s growth as people are moving towards more unified solutions, there is much more integration across an organisation as to what they’re working with in terms of the solution and how it is managed. “For us, acquiring Nuvias UC is a strategic move as it means we’re also getting an increased skill set with capabilities across the group to help provide the solutions and backup for these increasingly unified and

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We gain quite a number of significant enterprise resellers as part of this... ...That broadens our positioning right across the market. It's a significant acquisition for us and a big commitment to this market.

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