Continuum Prepares to Climb More Mountains
Continuum Managed Services will grow 20 to 30 percent in 2013. Faster growth is expected in 2014. How will CEO Michael George and the Continuum team drive that growth? MSPmentor gets answers.
At Continuum Managed Services‘ headquarters in Boston, conference rooms are named after mountains — Really Big Mountains. Apparently, CEO Michael George likes to ascend some of the world’s tallest challenges. That’s fitting, considering the past, present and future opportunities facing Continuum and its MSP partners.
Continuum, which has roughly 700 employees, expects to grow about 20 percent to 30 percent this year. The growth is all organic, though Continuum is poking around the market for potential acquisitions. Looking ahead to 2014, George expects the company to grow about 40 percent while helping to empower “the most profitble, the most successful MSPs in the business.”
Re-Birth of a Business
Continuum is backed by Summit Partners, a private equity firm that acquired the company in September 2011. Since that time, Continuum has overhauled its core platforms — including RMM (remote monitoring and management), NOC (network operations center), help desk services and more. The company has also invested heavily in enterprise-class talent to service and support MSPs.
During most of 2012, Continuum was busy stabilizing its platforms, listening to partners and striving to achive predictable upgrade cycles. This year has been more about growth — both for Continuum and its MSP base.
“Overall we’ve had good growth in a quiet way,” George told MSPmentor in September. “We’re still on the convergence path” which involves VARs, office equipment pros and telecom experts moving into the MSP space. He points to Konica Minolta’s buyout of All Covered in 2011 as a key deal that paved the way for recent industry convergence.
M&A Showdowns
Now, the convergence has spread into the MSP software market itself. A few examples:
ConnectWise continues to build closer links with its key investment partners (LabTech Software and Quosal).
Insight Venture Partners has acquired Kaseya, which has since rolled Zyrion and Rover Apps into the company.