Glacier Consulting, an IBM infrastructure and services business, is setting its sights on significant growth following its acquisition by EOH, a leading enterprise applications and IT service provider in South Africa.
EOH bought the company in November last year for R36 million in a strategic move designed to take EOH to new clients and increase its range of technology, outsourcing and consulting services. Glacier Consulting has since been subsumed into EOH's managed services business.
“We, the shareholders and directors of Glacier Consulting, never intended to sell the business, nor was it on the market, but after various engagements and talks with EOH, we decided that the model presented by EOH could and would unlock further opportunities and create the ability and environment for Glacier to continue growing while allowing us to maintain the existing structure. We also viewed it as an opportunity to be part of a larger entity to tap into for guidance and support,” says Keith Lyon, MD of Glacier Consulting.
Glacier Consulting was formed in 2000 by Lyon and three other technical specialists who saw a need in the market for the provisioning of skilled and reliable resources in the Unix/midrange sector. The company broke into the IBM product market in July 2002, and attained IBM's tier one status within a year, before becoming a regular fixture at the annual IBM Partner Awards.
“EOH has about 2 500 customers. If we could tap into one percent of this client base on year, we would show phenomenal growth. There is also strength in numbers where, as part of a larger entity, we could tailor-make solutions to drive into new and existing customer accounts for the EOH group,” adds Lyon.
Glacier Consulting's management structure and current staff composition are unaffected by the acquisition. Integration is taking place in the alignment of back-office functions and processes.
“We have almost completed the financial integration, which has been the biggest milestone so far. We will be concentrating on getting to know the EOH business units better and looking at how to work with them to complement our business as well as theirs,” indicates Lyon.
“Our first priority is to maintain Glacier's current client base and afford them the same consistently high levels of service delivery. These clients have been with the company for a long time and are very important to EOH and Glacier's continued success. We would also like Glacier to expand its client base as well as its product base within the IBM stable. We strive to be the best at what we do and would like to see ourselves as IBM's premier business partner,” comments Rob Godlonton, Executive Director of Strategic Business at EOH.
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