All Covered: We Can Become IBM Global Services for SMB
All Covered President Todd Croteau will likely spend next week performing due diligence on the company's next acquisition target. The bigger goal: Transforming All Covered (the IT services arm of Konica Minolta) into “really being the IBM Global Services”-type company serving the SMB market. Croteau made that declaration today during a call with MSPmentor. He also described a recent acquisition (InterTech Computer Products), and the continued need for companies to balance their VAR- and MSP-centric capabilities. Here's a recap.
InterTech turned 22 years old in October 2012. The Phoenix-based IT service provider also has a Las Vegas location, and expertise in the VMware market, notes CEO Mike Novotny. By joining with All Covered, “It's gonna position us to grow at a faster clip than before,” said Novotny. “We have great ideas and concepts of where we want to go. But now we'll gain economies of scale to execute on those ideas.”
According to an All Covered spokesman, the company made seven acquisitions in 2013 and the InterTech deal was “the biggest deal yet in terms of revenue.”
Vertical Ambitions
All Covered will continue to make acquisitions — likely the most active buyer in the MSP and VAR market — but it sounds like the pace of M&A may slow a bit in 2013. Among Croteau's top priorities: A continued push into vertical markets like education, law firms and health care. Oh, and he offers this bonus hint: “Finance is on our list as well.”
All Covered's parent, Konica Minolta, remains focused on growing the IT services business. Croteau says the “global side” of the business — the international opportunities — are getting more and more exciting. He calls Konica Minolta a “progressive, thoughtful, disciplined company that takes a long-term view. I'm really bullish about next year.”
All Covered's current fiscal year ends in March 2013, with the New Year kicking off in April.
Long Live VARs
Even as All Covered moves ahead with monthly recurring revenue (MRR) opportunities, Croteau is not losing sight of product sales, IT consulting and value-added reselling. “There are a lot of aspects of that business that are still good,” he said. “I almost feel like the MSP side of this industry has lost some of the [product and vendor] expertise. The pendulum needs to swing back a bit.”
Among his key points: If everyone has the same managed service at the same price point, how do you differentiate? His answer: Continued, deep product expertise.
InterTech, the latest All Covered acquisition, has that product and managed services expertise. We'll be watching to see how the M&A deal plays out.
