Listed outsourcing company EOH has bought Microsoft specialist company Belay for an undisclosed amount to add it to its skills set.
Belay is a specialist IT services and solutions provider with 200 employees and is based in Midrand. It is a Microsoft partner with competencies in custom application development, application lifecycle management, server platform, data management and business intelligence solutions.
Belay also provides enterprise content management solutions, which extend from creating and capturing to processing and managing, as well as delivery and archiving.
Brian Gubbins, EOH's group development director, says Belay adds a depth of skills to EOH's existing Microsoft offerings. He explains that the acquisition will aid EOH in becoming Microsoft's top local partner.
EOH aims to be the number one, or at least number two, partner to all its international vendors, which include Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. Gubbins says buying Belay gives EOH access to new clients, and will allow EOH to cross-sell offerings.
Growth targets
EOH aims to grow through a strategy of driving 60% of revenue gains through organic growth, and 40% through acquisitions. The company has set itself the target of achieving R4 billion revenue in the 2014 financial year. For the year to July 2010, revenue was R1.7 billion.
Gubbins says the acquisition bolsters skills within EOH. “We are not chasing skills in areas we don't want to be in.” He says, once the Competition Commission has approved the deal, Belay will be integrated immediately.
“Belay is an excellent fit for EOH,” notes EOH CEO Asher Bohbot. “It will add significant weight to our Microsoft and enterprise content management offerings, adding to our existing products and services, and enabling us to continue to provide end-to-end solutions to our customers.
“The culture and value set of Belay is a great fit to those of EOH and this is the vital ingredient to any successful venture,” he adds.
Belay was awarded the 2010 Microsoft Custom Development Solutions Partner of the Year and was also a 2010 finalist as Microsoft's Data Management Solutions Partner of the Year.
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