Tectura Adds Concord Business To Its MBS Portfolio

The longtime Microsoft Business Solutions partner has bought Concord Business Systems, an Atlanta solution provider specializing in flexible packaging and manufacturing solutions, Tectura President and CEO Terry Petrzelka said Thursday.

With Concord and its 50 services professionals, Tectura adds to its growing Axapta arsenal. Concord specializes in a vertical implementation for the packaging used in potato chips, candy and other consumer goods. It sells its solutions in the United States, Canada and Europe, Petrzelka said. Axapta is the high-end ERP software Microsoft purchased along with Navision two years ago.

Terms were not disclosed, but Tectura has been on a buying binge. In early May it bought The Morrison Group, a Microsoft certified partner that, like Tectura itself, grew up on its Great Plains know-how. The addition also brings Tempe, Ariz.-based Tectura more geographical coverage with Morrison's Kansas and Wisconsin locations. Tectura now has 15 offices nationwide and 270 employees, Petrzelka said.

In February, Tectura bought Kent, Wash.-based Sensible Solutions, another Great Plains partner. That was Tectura's eighth acquisition over the past two years, Petrzelka said at the time.

Tectura is not alone in what appears to be a land grab for MBS expertise and coverage among partners. Even as Tectura was buying Sensible four months ago, two other MBS partners, EYT and In2Gr8, merged and announced $20 million in funding.

Early last month, Navisite bought its way into the MBS world with its purchase of Surebridge, an MBS managed service provider partner, for about $41.5 million in cash and stock.

MBS Senior Vice President Doug Burgum has been watching the wave of acquisitions with interest and some concern. As long as the buyouts result in more expertise and feet-on-the street for MBS, he is thrilled with them. If they are being done as a pure consolidation tactic, with layoffs and cost cutting coming after the purchase, they will not do MBS much good, he has said.

In the cases where mergers result in "efficient organizations who can serve broader, more complex customers, that's great. One thing that excites me ... is that we're seeing a bunch of capital flowing into these partners ... Tectura and some others have had new rounds and when we see that kind of capital, we know we're on the right track. Venture capitalists are not putting money in unless they see a business opportunity for partners," Burgum told CRN Thursday morning.

Other MBS partners, such as Norcross, Ga.-based IBIS, have focused on growing internally. "I'm the poster boy for organic growth," said IBIS CEO Andy Vabulas earlier this year.

"The market's maturing and so people are looking to scale, either by MandA or organically. We're doing it organically ... When you buy someone, you get a mishmash of cultures and it takes time to gel."