IT reseller plans to double turnover


27 Jun 2005

An Irish IT solutions provider and reseller that began life in 1984 as a hardware broker is planning to double turnover from €5.5m to more than €10m in the next two years following the signing of a strategic partnership with IBM that will see the company evolve into a managed services provider.

Managing director of Dublin-based Comsys Ben McGahon told siliconrepublic.com the company is also in the process of establishing a beachhead in the UK as well as potentially establishing operations on mainland Europe following successful business wins in France and Germany as well as eastern Europe.

In recent weeks the company was appointed an IBM Global Services Business Partner in Ireland, which gives the company access to more than 200 dedicated engineers nationwide and enables the company to co-ordinate hardware and software support options for its SME and blue-chip client base.

As a result of the IBM alliance, Comsys can provide businesses with multi-platform and multi-vendor maintenance, infrastructure and systems management services, backup and recovery and total continuity management, hosting and managed services as well as networking and e-learning services.

McGahon explained the partnership will drive competitiveness in the marketplace for IT products and services as the original vendor restrictions for maintenance and global sourcing of IT infrastructure are removed and challenges the marketplace to evolve in meeting the demand for an open and accessible approach to IT supply and management.

Comsys was founded in 1984 by McGahon’s father Rod McGahon, who remains involved in the company as chairman. The company resells technologies from more than 55 vendors including Cisco, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, Sun, Fujitsu, Dataram, Expand and 3Com,

McGahon explained the company’s strategy. “In the Eighties we were pushing hardware to the business world, by the Nineties we were looking to add value. In this decade the major buying decisions are being influenced by maintenance and support options. We looked at various partners and decided on IBM because it could provide multi-vendor support, which is exactly what the business world wants.

“The more an IT manager has the ability to shop around, the more satisfactory it is for them. IT environments are becoming increasingly multi-platform. In recent months you are seeing trends in the marketplace, such as HP’s decision to buy Synstar. However, going forward, if you want to excel in managed services, you need to be able to maintain more than one vendor’s product,” McGahon explained.

McGahon said much of the drive towards multi-platform IT infrastructure is being driven by the need by businesses to keep their costs low and have room to manoeuvre in their buying choices. “Businesses are striving to stretch their IT budgets. €100k being spent today is going a lot further than before the technology bubble burst in 2001.”

By John Kennedy