A pair of deals crossed the transaction wire this week, including an interesting combination of firms dedicated to technology solution providers, coupling a software and services platform (ConnectWise) with a consulting specialist (Service Leadership). The other deal helped pave the way for the genesis of M&S Technology Group, which debuted with its acquisition of The Circle.
ConnectWise, the leading provider of software and expert services purpose-built for technology solution providers (TSPs), today announced it has acquired Service Leadership Inc., the premier, data-driven TSP consulting firm. With today’s acquisition, ConnectWise will pair its best-in-class TSP software and services platform, the IT Nation community and business maturity and leadership coaching program with the industry’s best-in-class value creation, financial performance and operational maturity benchmarking and best practices from Service Leadership.
ConnectWise believes the next frontier for TSPs is leveraging data to drive up their value – and value to their customers – and position themselves for their best exit, whether that is soon or in 20 years. The Service Leadership Index (S-L Index) is the largest scale, longest-running and most accurate benchmark of TSP financial performance, operational maturity and value creation, worldwide. This acquisition will help ConnectWise partners who want to drive accelerated performance and maximize the profit potential of their business by providing an empirical path to higher operational maturity and financial performance.
Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell and his team will join the ConnectWise strategy organization, reporting to Chris Timms, executive vice president of growth. Dippell will continue to lead Service Leadership.
“We prioritized this acquisition as the TSP industry is experiencing significant disruption. At ConnectWise, we’re big believers in the value of data analysis and this disruption is showing that understanding data is critical because it allows TSP’s to make business and strategic decisions based upon empirical data and not speculation,” said Chris Timms, EVP of growth, ConnectWise. “Paul and his team have been massively successful in helping TSPs thrive. Their work has been truly impactful for entrepreneurs and we’re thrilled to welcome Paul, Brian O’Connell and the entire Service Leadership team to ConnectWise to drive success for all our partners.”
The world of business today is fast-paced, quick to change, and tough to predict. Business owners and leaders are looking to stay not just afloat but get ahead in the market, and are looking for the right approach to longer-term value-creation success. The ones that are succeeding in this difficult environment—even growing through market downturns—are doing so because they have advanced their operational maturity to build resilient, differentiated businesses.
Likewise, building a resilient and differentiated service provider business is more important than ever for TSPs. With the acquisition of Service Leadership, ConnectWise will deliver a clear, data-driven path to higher performance, designed and tested by industry-leading experts. The S-L Index is the industry’s gold-standard confidential TSP benchmarking service, and the SLIQ Operational Maturity Level tool enables TSP executives to play to their strengths, discover and drive areas of improvement and validate progress on their path to accelerated value creation.
“We have been very fortunate to have great clients and to build the premier, data-driven TSP consulting firm with the leading TSP financial benchmark and business maturity platform worldwide,” said Paul Dippell, founder and CEO, Service Leadership. “When we made the decision to seek a strategic acquisition, we were pleased to speak with almost a dozen key industry players. We came to recognize that ConnectWise was the right choice. They have the best vision for leveraging the S-L Index and SLIQ platforms together with the partner operational data they have, to produce opt-in analytics that will give their partners clear advantages in the marketplace. Like us, driving partner success is part of ConnectWise’s core DNA. ConnectWise is the best place for our people and our clients – both individual members and the peer group and coaching leaders we serve.”
ConnectWise is committed to data integrity and security. The data collected and analyzed by Service Leadership is a key part of its value for partners. Protecting that data and using it only as intended is of critical importance to ConnectWise. The company intends to continue the high standards of ethics set by the Service Leadership team.
The work to integrate Service Leadership insights into the ConnectWise platform will begin immediately, offering both new and enhanced Business Insights tools and functionality. Existing and new members, and leading TSP industry peer group providers and coaches, will continue to utilize Service Leadership’s current industry-leading offerings as they continue to evolve.
M&S Technology Group Launches with The Circle
Mike Dudek and Rich Wisniewski of Zygoquest Group served as the advisor to The Circle II, Inc., dba The Circle, and its owner Lee Ashby, on the sale of assets to M&S Technology Group. The terms of the transaction are confidential.
The Circle, located in La Verne, California (Los Angeles County), was owned and operated by Lee Ashby as an authorized HP supplies partner and professional reseller. The firm was a printer-centric dealer providing managed print services and document solutions and services to customers located throughout the greater Los Angeles metropolitan market.
M&S Technology Group LLC, owned by Max Razaqui, was formed to acquire The Circle as its launch company into the office equipment and IT managed services market. Razaqui plans to operate the business while expanding products and services as well as acquiring additional businesses that align with his strategic plan.
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About ConnectWise
ConnectWise is an IT software company that empowers technology solution providers to achieve success in their as-a-Service business with intelligent software, expert services, an immersive IT community, and a vast ecosystem of integrations. The unmatched flexibility of the ConnectWise platform fuels profitable, long-term growth for our Partners. With an innovative, integrated, and security-centric platform, ConnectWise enables TSPs to drive business efficiency with business automation, IT documentation, and data management capabilities. And increase revenue using remote monitoring, security, and backup disaster recovery technologies.
About Service Leadership
Service Leadership is dedicated to providing total profit solutions for IT Solution Providers, directly and through industry consultants and global IT vendors. Its team of professionals is uniquely qualified to deliver results to IT solution providers, manufacturers, and distributors of IT solutions and industry consultants worldwide, providing an exclusive array of consulting and research products and services.
About Zygoquest Group and Mike Dudek
Mike Dudek, an attorney and CPA, is the owner of Zygoquest Group “seeking to unite” which provides customized merger & acquisition services to buyers & sellers of companies. Zygoquest is the number one M&A authority in the office products industry. Mike Dudek & Rich Wisniewski are authors of over 500 consummated M&A transactions including many technology services acquisitions during their careers. Prior to founding Zygoquest, Mike Dudek was vice president of acquisitions for IKON Office Solutions, a $5.5 billion NYSE company acquired by Ricoh Corporation. Mike Dudek has evaluated transactions ranging from the smallest transactions to the largest deals in the office products industry – from million-dollar deals to multi-billion-dollar deals. The Zygoquest website contains deals you will recognize.
About Law Office of Mike Dudek
Mike Dudek also owns the Law Office of Mike Dudek, which provides owners and executives with customized and affordable legal services on mergers and acquisitions and other complex business transactions.
