How Converge Technology Solutions Is Growing Sales By $1 Billion This Year

“We’re over a $3 billion run rate now, and with the new acquisitions, we will be pushing up closer to $4 billion,” Converge Technology Solutions’ CEO Shaun Maine tells CRN.

Converge Technology Solutions’ goal of growing $1 billion in revenue this year via acquisitions is going exactly as planned as midmarket customer demand for hybrid cloud solutions is soaring.

“We’re over a $3 billion run rate now, and with the new acquisitions, we will be pushing up closer to $4 billion,” said Shaun Maine, CEO of fast-growing Converge Technology Solutions. “Really it’s midmarket education, healthcare, finance, and technology—they all need help getting to the cloud. … The midmarket demand is so high. Quarter one [2022] demand was higher than quarter four [2021]. I’ve never seen that in my career.”

The Canada-based company has acquired a whopping 31 channel partners over the past five years, with a focus on North American and European partners who focus on the midmarket. The goal in 2022 was to increase revenue by $1 billion via acquisitions, a benchmark that Maine said is already nearly achieved at $840 million thus far.

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Last week, Converge Technology Solutions (CTS) unveiled its plans to acquire Technology Integration Group (TIG) who has built a solid education, government and enterprise end-to-end solutions with over 20 offices across North America. TIG was founded 40 years ago as PC Specialists by channel icon Bruce Geier who ran the company until his death at the age of 68 in 2021.

“When you look at TIG with the strength of those 40-year relationships, Bruce built an incredible company with great customer relationships, and that’s what we’re looking for: customer intimacy, [because] this is a people business,” said Maine, whose company made CRN’s 2022 Elite 150 list. “That’s the way VARs have always been. And when you can take that and then introduce new capabilities and services that Converge has, but have the [channel partner] really acting on behalf of their customer—that’s what customers want.”

Converge Technology Solutions Buys Interdynamix Systems; Creative Breakthoughs

With such a thirst for growth via acquisition, CTS also acquired fellow Canada-based Interdynamix Systems earlier this month.

Interdynamix was founded in 1995 with the goal of filling a gap in the technology industry for elite engineering resources. The company is known as a leader in solving business problems with innovative solutions and services, ranging from cloud computing and infrastructure to open-source consulting.

In April, CTS acquired Michigan-based cybersecurity standout Creative Breakthroughs Inc., a comprised of former CISOs, strategists and security experts. CBI’s main focus areas of threat-detection and obstruction help defend and secure networks and endpoints, testing and monitoring areas of operational risk, and protecting data.

All three recent acquisitions play a strategic part in CTS’ bullish M&A strategy.

CTS’ Two-Fold Acquisition Strategy

Maine said his acquisition strategy is two-fold: either buy a channel partner that has a longstanding and strong midmarket customer relationships, or acquire a channel partner that owns the IT expertise and skills capabilities that are hard to come by.

For example, Converge gained around 65 top-notch, veteran security architects via its acquisition of Creative Breakthroughs. Finding and hiring 65 security all-stars internally would be a tough tasks in today’s competitive technology landscape.

Converge Technology Solutions acquisition of TIG was an example of the company buying a channel partner for its strong midmarket customer base.

After acquiring a company, CTS then uses its massive amount of technical, sales and services resources to drive growth within the newly acquired company who might not be getting enough resources from their IT vendors.

“I realized it was a better strategy to buy these smaller [channel partners] in all the NFL cities, because they’re competing on technology and service levels, but they’ve been swimming against the current, because the vendors are backing somebody else,” said Maine. “If you can have that local service level, but then have this big company like Converge with all these capabilities and the backing of the vendors—then they’re swimming with the current. This is where the strategy has been so successful, especially during the COVID pandemic. That local service level really showed itself.”

Europe M&A Next For Converge

Over the next few weeks and months, Converge Technology Solutions is set on buying channel partners based in Europe.

CTS told CRN in February that it planned to acquire between eight and 12 channel partners in North America and Europe in 2022 in order to increase annual revenue by $1 billion this year compared to 2021. With the company already acquiring many partners in North America over the past few months, its now laser-focused on buying solution providers in Europe.

“We’re working on them right now. The European ones take longer to close, especially as a Canadian company being over in Europe. There’s just approvals of things that you need,” said Maine. “We want to extend further in Germany, also go to the UK and Northern Europe. So you’ll see several acquisitions at the end of quarter two.”

In 2022 alone, Converge acquired Creative Breakthroughs; TIG; Wisconsin-based Paragon Development Systems; Germany-based Visucom GmbH; Alberta, Canada-based Interdynamix; and Victoria, British Columbia-based 1CRM.

“Thirty-one acquisitions in five years is a lot,” said Maine. “But we’re excited to keep the momentum going through the rest of the year.”